View single post by Matt V
 Posted: Thu Jun 14th, 2007 08:48 am
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Matt V

 

Joined: Wed May 30th, 2007
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota USA
Posts: 104
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 "Back in the day", the import duties in the US on fully assembled watches were pretty high (think of watches as precision instruments and high tech in these days, so in order to protect the local "high tech" industry, there were economic sanctions and tariffs that were advantageous to the local industry while putting imports at a disadvantage).

Many watch companies (Breitling, Longines etc.) therefore found a method to circumvent the high import duties: they set up a local company, found local suppliers for cases etc. and only imported the movement to have it cased locally. The savings were substantial and it created sort of a "guerilla marketing" for these watches (Sort of like knowing your VW Touareg is also a Porsche Cayenne).

Wittnauer is the Longines version (actually Longines Wittnauer), Wakman was the Breitling equivalent etc.

"Jubilee" was the "entry level" brand for Longines Wittnauer btw.

I am a huge fan of Longines (and they actually had better recognition at the time) and some of their movement calibers are excellent (especially their high-beat chronometer grade movements) and have a few Longines, Wittnauer and Jubilee in my collection. Absolutely comparable to vintage Omega but luckily still priced less, sort of a secret for collectors.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Matt