Picked up a Wittnauer the other day. What's the connection between the two? And, anyone know about this model?
The companies used the same US importer for decades. The same company also imported Vacheron & Constantin as well as LeCoultre watches. All four companies were and still are separate entities in Switzerland. This was just cooperative marketing as it existed in the 1950's. Take care, gatorcpa
They even had separate sales staffs and kept separate books despite working out of NY. Longines established a relationship with Wittnauer to import their calibers to the NY plant to be installed inside American made cases. Ross, Star, K & E (Keuffel & Esser), L & W (Lisnow & Weiss), and a few others made them in the US. VC and JLC partnered with Longines to use their pipeline to create LeCoultre watches. Usually the US cases were 14ct solid gold, or some type of gold filled layer on top while the Swiss cases were 18ct.
Thanks for the relies. Any idea how to set the day & date? Doesn't seem to have a crown position for making a change.
Ok, for the day try winding past 0200 and then wind back past 2300 and then wind forward again. wash, rinse, repeat. btw - nice watch. Really nice!!
Thanks. We stopped at a garage sale on our way to the beach. They had lots of antique/collector stuff. I picked it up and gave it a shake. It started up. So I gave it 20 turns. It's keeping up with my Omega. I'm guessing it could use a little service so I'm thinking of bringing it to my "guy" to have him take a look.