Born in the 1880s, Wittnauer gained a reputation for their high quality complicated watches. Aviators like Amelia Earhart piloted planes with Wittnauer instruments, and Jimmy Mattern wore a Wittnauer AllProof in his attempted trans world 1933 flight. Longines bought Wittnauer in the 1950s, and the brand continued to produce great watches at a more competitive price. They also became the official importer of Longines watches into the United States.

The brand is perhaps best-known to today’s collectors for their sporty and stylish chronographs, such as The Professional collection.

This one is different however.

In the 1970s, Wittnauer advertised the 2000 as a Time Machine. Perpetual calendars were (and are) only found on watches of the highest quality and price. The 2000’s calendar isn’t strictly a perpetual calendar, but it gave the watch an added attraction when competing with all those chronographs et al back in the day….

The design of the 2000 is very similar to, if not exactly the same as Orient Perpetual Calendar Watches. That’s because Orient manufactured these models for Wittnauer by contract. Hence the word JAPAN on the dial at 6 o’clock.

The look of this piece is really unique, with the day wheel at 12 o’clock above a grid layout of dates with the same layout mirrored at 6 o’clock for the months and years.

We have to mention two rumours that go around in the forums about this watch. The first is that it is not actually a perpetual calendar, but rather a manual calendar adjusted by the crown at 4 o’clock. The other rumour, is true in that it would make the Wittnauer 2000 the most self-defeating watch in history, as the year indicator on the calendar actually does not go past the year 2000 (thus the name “2000”). What good would be a calendar watch be if it couldn’t even track the year? Did the designers at Wittnauer think that Y2K really would be the end of it all?!

That said, the calendar itself will always work – there are only seven possible basic calendars (the 1st is a M, T, W, etc.) so all you have to do is set 1st to the correct day of week and it will be right whether or not the year ring on bottom is right.

Sadly, Wittnauer did not survive the quartz onslaught and Longines the brand name in 1996. Whilst the name lives on, albeit in a state of limbo, many Wittnauers are still with us: unusual, elegant and still very wearable.

So a cool watch you won’t see very often. They look great on the wrist because they’re vintage but the size is right for today’s style.