All about Gruen

[Fred]

I was also looking at ads '52-'53, but all seem to focus on older variants that use (IMO) the same case and hands but are not sweeps, like AW Lakehurst.

[Dietrich]

Yes, the AW Lakehurst often caught my eyes when I went through my ads. Very similar looking case, but as you said it has a subsecond dial (and is a Guildite steel watch).

[Mr. Bieser]

Gosh no luck on an id yet, you may already know this but Frederick Bartlett Colby, 1911- 1985, was an electrical engineer and was one of the inventors of this patent assigned to Westinghouse.

[Mr. Bieser]

One thought I did have; perhaps by deduction we can come up with it's name, even without an image, with the help of the 1951 pricelist, which shows 15 mens Autowinds available... possibly they reused the name from 51 for your 1952 model?

[Dietrich]

Gosh no luck on an id yet, you may already know this but Frederick Bartlett Colby, 1911- 1985, was an electrical engineer and was one of the inventors of this patent assigned to Westinghouse.

Yes, brothers in arms, I am also an electrical (OK, electronics) engineer. Fred Colby followed his father who also was an electrical engineer at Westinghouse.
The patent was granted two years after he got the watch, but it was filed for a couple of years (1952) before already. Looks like it had a very long turn time at the patent office. So I thought that may be in 1956 something was initiated which finally speeded up the process and Mr. Colby got a reward?
For what I found he graduated in 1947, so I doubted the 1956 tenth anniversary a little bit. May it have been possible that he started with Westinghouse during his studies?
I did not find out his full name, nor birth and death years, so thanks a lot for this.

[Dietrich]

One thought I did have; perhaps by deduction we can come up with it's name, even without an image, with the help of the 1951 pricelist, which shows 15 mens Autowinds available... possibly they reused the name from 51 for your 1952 model?

Had a similar thought but went through the 1952 list and finally decided that it is no a secure ID. Too many unknown model names and variables. Here are all known to me Autowinds from 1952:

Ace
Campus
Carrollton
Cavalcade
Chevron
Chieftain
Clipper
Comet
Congress
Dartmouth
Derby
Earl
Executive
Heirloom
Helmsman
Huntsman
Illustrious
Lakehurst
Latonia
Leader
Lytle
Mariner
Master
Mayfair
Mayfair Superb
Medallion
Neptune
Pilot
Pilot Flex
Scientist
Showman
Skipper
Specialist
Talisman
TWA Associate
Valor
Valor Flex
Victor
Yachtsman
Yarmark

The ones in red I have 1952 published pictures of, the black ones are names where I do not have a 1952 picture. So these are possible candidates. From comparing Strap 750 with the feature set of others I would assume that the sales price should have been in the $62.50 to $71.50 range. This would just leave one model, the "Showman". Shoud I go for it? I decided not to unless I have a picture...

[Fred]

Man, great process to narrow down. I’d say if there’s only one, go for it!

[Mr. Bieser]

Speaking only for myself, when I have a watch with a person's name engraved on it, I really like to find that persons signature, if possible. Since it wasn't on the patent doc, i sought out this for you.

[Dietrich]

Wow! Perfect, thanks a lot for digging this out. This will be kept with the watch now as I can be sure Frederick Bartlett Colby had been the first owner. Luckily I recognized the Westinghouse logo, which in case of the engraving is just an underlined W.

[Fred]

This is awesome!