Witnnauer Dual-Register Chronograph

There is perhaps no more versatile complication than the chronograph.  From race cars to rocket ships, boats to battlefields, you are likely to find a chronograph being employed to measure a plethora of tasks and times. From the Greek khrónos (“time) and gráphō (“to write”), a chronograph is a watch that has the ability to record time, generally via the addition of small sub-counters that register minutes and hours.  Though many storied brands produced notable chronographs during the complication’s heyday from the 1930s through the 1970s, numerous other firms fell by the wayside during the Quartz Crisis, folding completely and disappearing or being rolled up into conglomerates that pillaged their stores of parts.  Wittnauer is one such firm. Established by Albert Witnnauer in New York City in 1885, the company became perhaps most famous as the distributor for Longines watches in the United States. However, the firm also produced watches under its own brand name — including numerous compelling chronographs — before finally folding in the 1980s.  This two-register Reference 3256 is one such chronograph. Housed in a 36mm stainless steel case with an acrylic crystal, a smooth bezel, an unsigned crown, and dual pump pushers, it features a handsome silvered dial with an outer tachymeter scale in blue, an inner telemeter scale in red, a printed 1/5th-seconds track, applied 'dart' and 'Arabic' indices with luminous tritium plots, and a dual-register chronograph with 30-minute and running seconds registers.  Powered by the Wittnauer cal. 14Y (Landeron 248) hand-wound movement and paired to a perforated leather rallye strap with a stainless steel pin buckle, this nifty '60s chronograph comes with its inner box, paperwork, and signed stainless steel beads-of-rice bracelet.  If you're a fan of classically styled, under-the-radar tool watches, then this cool and affordable Wittnauer is right up your alley!