.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Throughout the history of exploration, precise timekeeping has always played an important, vital role in navigating. On large vessels, deviations in minutes, even seconds could mean the difference between life and death, finding land, or getting lost at sea, highlighting the necessity for highly accurate timekeeping devices. With the turn of the twentieth century, nautical navigation was an innovation of the past and a new form of travel emerged, aviation navigating.
Legendary U.S. Navy Captain Philip Van Horn Weems who also trained the famous aviator Charles A. Lindbergh was well-aware of problems that could occur from unprecise watches, specifically when the seconds hand could not be accurately set. This led him to pioneer a new solution: the Second Setting System. Designed on a wristwatch to help aviators plot their courses more accurately, the system enabled the watch to be precisely set to the second, thanks to an inner rotational disk that could be turned to align with the sweep seconds hand. In other words, this complication performed in the same manner as a stop-seconds or hacking watch without having to stop the movement. It was an ingenious and simple solution that was subsequently patented by Longines in 1935, following their historic Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch.
Further aviation characteristics of the Longines Wittnauer 'Weems' watch is the oversized steel case measuring 47mm. It is a very large watch for easier legibility while flying a plane along with allowing the timepiece to be worn over a heavily insulated jacket since early aircrafts had unpressurized cockpits. Reference 4356 also features an oversized onion crown which allowed the the pilot to rewind the movement while wearing gloves. Powering the timepiece is the trusted, highly accurate, and robust Longines Caliber 37.9 pocket watch movement which was well-suited to perform in the climate of a cockpit with temperature deviations and shocks.
The present timepiece belonged to a prominent Manhattan internist who had a fierce passion for collecting watches and clocks. He acquired this timepiece from a pawn shop in the 1970s and paid one hundred U.S. dollars. He bestowed great care of this historical timepiece and passed it on to his son during his sophomore year of college. The son and the watch were featured on episode 1416 of Antiques Roadshow: San Jose.
Legendary U.S. Navy Captain Philip Van Horn Weems who also trained the famous aviator Charles A. Lindbergh was well-aware of problems that could occur from unprecise watches, specifically when the seconds hand could not be accurately set. This led him to pioneer a new solution: the Second Setting System. Designed on a wristwatch to help aviators plot their courses more accurately, the system enabled the watch to be precisely set to the second, thanks to an inner rotational disk that could be turned to align with the sweep seconds hand. In other words, this complication performed in the same manner as a stop-seconds or hacking watch without having to stop the movement. It was an ingenious and simple solution that was subsequently patented by Longines in 1935, following their historic Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch.
Further aviation characteristics of the Longines Wittnauer 'Weems' watch is the oversized steel case measuring 47mm. It is a very large watch for easier legibility while flying a plane along with allowing the timepiece to be worn over a heavily insulated jacket since early aircrafts had unpressurized cockpits. Reference 4356 also features an oversized onion crown which allowed the the pilot to rewind the movement while wearing gloves. Powering the timepiece is the trusted, highly accurate, and robust Longines Caliber 37.9 pocket watch movement which was well-suited to perform in the climate of a cockpit with temperature deviations and shocks.
The present timepiece belonged to a prominent Manhattan internist who had a fierce passion for collecting watches and clocks. He acquired this timepiece from a pawn shop in the 1970s and paid one hundred U.S. dollars. He bestowed great care of this historical timepiece and passed it on to his son during his sophomore year of college. The son and the watch were featured on episode 1416 of Antiques Roadshow: San Jose.