Wittnauer 17 Jewels Rolled Gold Plate and Steel Wristwatch with Leather Band, AS IS. Square face with two curved sides displaying only even numbers in cursive font, with the number 6 replaced by a second hand timer. Portion of the band is torn and frayed. 

We cannot guarantee the working condition of any timepiece. 

Size: 1 1/8 x 8 3/4 in. 

Albert Wittnauer was a Swiss immigrant who arrived in New York City in 1872 at the age of 16, and was employed by his brother-in-law, Eugene Robert, an importer of Swiss watches. The first Wittnauer’s watch line was crafted starting from 1880, but the Wittnauer brand was formally established 1888 when Wittnauer took over Robert’s company and renamed it the A. Wittnauer Company. Their movements were first made for them by Swiss firms (Revue Thommen and others), but in later years Wittnauer started using a number of different sources for them. The company remained small, a family affair known mostly among explorers, scientists, and navigators for their exceptional quality and ability to customize them. They expanded once the United States Navy selected their instruments for early tests in the fields of aviation and navigation. In the early 20th Century they acquired a production plant in Puerto Rico, and when the last Wittnauer brother died in 1916 their sister Martha Wittnauer took over the company, becoming the first female CEO of a watchmaking company in the United States. Wittnauer pieces were used by aviators like Amelia Armstrong and favored by astronauts, particularly Neil Armstrong, but after booms during World War I and II the company fell on hard times. They were bought by the Swiss company Longines in 1950, who marketed watches under them and their own name for many years afterwards. In 1995 Swatch took over Longines distribution, and the remnants of Wittnauer were bought by Bulova for over $11 million in 2001. Today they are under the umbrella of the Japanese conglomerate Citizen Watch Co. and continue to produce highly prized watches that sell well in markets around the world, with their headquarters in New Rochelle one of the oldest remaining facilities of its kind in the state of New York.

#5586 .