WITTNAUER Chronograph cal. Venus 150 / 1940s Two-Register

— The breath of an era, in burnt wheat gold —

A Wittnauer two-register chronograph, born in America in the 1940s.

A snap-back case with square pushers, and blued steel hands standing out against a dial burnt to wheat gold, give it the quiet standing of an antique.

A Wittnauer two-register chronograph conveying the heat of 1940s America. Fitted with the Venus 150, a golden-age calibre also used by Breitling and others. The contrast between a dial grown handsomely to wheat gold and vividly blued steel hands. Professional-tool design drawn in a red "Mileage" and a blue "BASE OUT MILE." Square pushers and generous lugs balancing elegance against practicality.

— The celebrated Venus 150 —

The movement is the Venus 150, widely used in Breitling models.

Precisely designed and dependable, it is one of the calibres that defines the golden age of the chronograph.

— Dress and function in harmony —

The case is stainless steel, in a refined dress-oriented design.

Long lugs draw the form out generously, and functional beauty and elegance are in fine balance.

— The red "Mileage" —

The red MILEAGE on the dial refers to an auxiliary scale for measuring distance travelled.

Combined with the chronograph's stopwatch function, it was designed so that speed or fuel consumption could be worked out from the distance covered in a given time.

— The blue "BASE OUT MILE" —

This means a scale for calculating speed against a base of one mile.

Start the chronograph and stop it after one mile, and the average speed can be read directly off the dial from the elapsed time.

These special scales were functional design, made so that professionals in the field — motor racing, aircraft speed measurement, military chronographs — could calculate instantly.

They are proof of a thoroughly American watch for aviation and motorsport, and they tell you what the technology of the period was for.