Albert Wittnauer was a Swiss immigrant who arrived in New York City in
1872 at the age of 16. He began working for his brother in law, Eugene Robert.
A sales outlet had already been established in New York in 1858 by M. P S Broz,
who was succeeded by Audemars & Schaffuss, then by F. Eugène Robert &
Co. Robert was an importer of fine Swiss watches. With the help of his younger
brother, Albert Wittnauer decided there was a need for a watch designed with
all of the durability and function the American public demanded but with local
production to help keep costs down.]
The first Wittnauer's watch line were crafted starting from
1880, but Wittnauer brand was formally established in 1885, when Mr. Robert
gave the title to Albert Wittnauer under the name The "A. Wittnauer
Company". Wittnauer
movements were at the beginning generally made for them by Swiss firms (Revue Thommen and
others), while in later years Wittnauer used a number of different sources for
their movements. The company began as a small family business, catering to the
ever growing world of both scientific and private exploration, which gained
them a reputation for use by those who needed reliability: navigators,
explorers, and astronomers.
The A. Wittnauer Co. became further involved with the Navy for early tests in the
budding fields of aviation and navigation. Of the
Wittnauer Company and products, horologist Marvin E. Whitney wrote: "No
one company has been more involved in the design and production of so many
different types of navigational timepieces and been involved in so many history
making expeditions.”
In following years, Wittnauer Co. steadily grew and moved
to New York center.
During the 20th century it also bought a production plant in Puerto Rico. When
the last Wittnauer brother died in 1916, Martha Wittnauer became the first
woman watchmaker CEO.
During World War I Wittnauer
produced instruments and watches for the early aviation units The most
famous model was probably the Wittnauer AllProof, produced for the first time
in 1918, and one of the first all proof models ever used by daredevill Jimmie Mattern in
his 1933 attempt to fly around the world in his Vega 5B, "Old
Cromwell", and by Neil Armstrong during
the Gemini 8 mission. In
1926, the NBC selected Wittnauer Company to provide the official timing
for its radio broadcasting
On May 20–21, 1932 Amelia Earhart made
the first solo flight across the Atlantic with
her Lockheed Vega-5B
equipped with Wittnauer instruments.] Wittnauer products were
widely used in scientific expeditions and exploration,[2]and was - with Longines movements
- one of three contenders for the first mission on the moon along
with Omega Speedmaster and Rolex Daytona.
In 1950 the Swiss company Longines bought
Wittnauer and marketed some very similar lines of watches under both
brand names, maintaining separate factories. In 1995 Swatch broke
the 125-year collaboration between Longines and Wittnauer and took over the
Longines distribution. The Wittnauer Company retained its reputation for
most of the 20th century. After some budget problems, it was eventually bought
by Bulova for
11.6 million dollars in September 2001
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