Watches From the 1956 Wards Catalog

 

Wittnauer

By Bruce Shawkey

Albert Wittnauer (left) 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. He began working for his brother-in-law, Eugene Robert. Albert Wittnauer felt there was a market in America for a lower priced Swiss made watch.[1]

Importing Swiss watches got expensive due to the heavy taxes placed on them so Wittnauer came up with an idea for reducing the expense without losing the quality. The watches could be produced by a subsidiary of their own in Switzerland or they could assemble the watches domestically.

The first Wittnauer's watch line was crafted starting from 1880, but the Wittnauer brand was formally established 1888 when Wittnauer took over Eugene Robert’s company and renamed it 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 United States Navy for early tests in the budding fields of aviation and navigation. 

In the following years, Wittnauer Co. steadily grew and moved to the New York center. During the 20th century, it also bought a production plant in Puerto Rico. When the last Wittnauer brother died in 1916, their sister 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 daredevil Jimmie Mattern in his 1933 attempt to fly around the world in his Vega 5B, "Old Cromwell." On May 20–21, 1932 Amelia Earhart made the first solo flight by a woman across the Atlantic with her Lockheed Vega-5B equipped with Wittnauer instruments.

In 1950 the Swiss company Longines bought Wittnauer, and marketed some very similar lines of watches under both brand names, maintaining separate factories.

Lecoultre

 By Bruce Shawkey

Antoine LeCoultre (1803–1881), left, founded LeCoultre in Le , Sentier, Switzerland in 1833. LeCoultre started the company by converting his family's barn into a workshop to make high-quality timepieces and clocks. His early innovations, such as inventing a machine to cut watch pinions from steel, the Millionomètre (first device to measure a unit of length of a thousandth of a millimeter or a millionth of a meter) and a keyless watch winding system.

From a 1960 catalog

A 1963 ad:

From a mid-1960s catalog:

Price list for above watches

More Images:

Aristo

By Bruce Shawkey

The German watch manufacturer Aristo was founded in 1907 by watchmaker Julius Epple in Pforzheim, Germany, a city known for its watchmaking and jewelry industry. The company originally produced watches and watch cases under the name Julius Epple KG, but began using the brand name "Aristo" in the mid-1920s and registered it in 1936. By 1992, Aristo had produced millions of wristwatches, but the brand was revived in 1998 by Hansjörg Vollmer. Today, Aristo watches are known for their quality and craftsmanship, and combine German-designed cases and bracelets with Swiss-imported automatic or mechanical movements.

The Perpetual Self-Winding Watch Company

 By Bruce Shawkey

Movement signature indicates made by Frey. Emil Frey registered a self-winding watch movement on November 1 1930 (with American registration following on December 20). It used a pendulum to wind the watch as the wearer moved his wrist and was marketed using the brand name Perpetual, later associated with Rolex.

Racine

 By Bruce Shawkey

Racine is another one of those watch manufacturers with ties back to the 1700s. The Racine family was well known for centuries for their connection and advancement of horology. Formed in 1870, Jules Racine – a cousin of the Gallet brothers – formed the Racine watch company, and he and his cousins often worked together to bring watches to markets other than Switzerland. The brands were all so incestuous that in 1914, members of the Racine family, not being able to use the trademarked Racine name, formed “Enicar” which was just Racine spelled backwards.

Bedford Watch Company

 By Bruce Shawkey

There are multiple Bedford Watch Companies, but the one most prominent was represented by Joseph Bikoff and Co. in New York. Here is an ad for them in July 1928 issue of The Keystone magazine. Bikoff was a jobber, likely representing several low-end watch brands. They were located on Nassau Street, a hub for the watch and jewelry business. Very little is known about them, but they probably weren't in business very long due to the oncoming Great Depression.  

The Bedford family had a long history in the clock and watch industry. They were the London representative of the Waltham Watch Company.

Bedford was a low-end Swiss brand, typically housing 6-jewel movements. I've had several in inventory over the years. One I had looked like the one below, only with a touch of blue enamel in the bezel.