All about Gruen

[Dietrich]

Hi,

Friday I got this Strap 750. It came without band / crown and I found a tiny piece of the stem stuck in the caliber 480SS movement, so I needed to disassmble the movement for the removal. Installed a new stem (luckily had a spare one) crown. When I made the photo I saw that I must have have been uncareful. Parts of the lume had already been missing, but another part is now fallen off...

Anyway, I checked all my advertisements but was not able to find a name for this tiny (28.1mm diameter) watch. According to serial and catalog number it must have been introduced 1952 although the engraving at the back says that it had been dedicated by Westinghouse Electric to its original owner F.B. Colby at August 1st 1956. Anyone here who may have a name for it?

[Mr. Bieser]

Interesting, gold filled huh? Just looked at in in catalog. Way tiny. Who made this case?
It's reminiscent of a version of the Autowind Leader that had 3 rings on face of case bazel, same hands, diff dial but that was Guildite of course and subseconds.
Unfortunately I don't have a newspapers account active right now but I will look into my clippings that I do have and other sources later.

[Dietrich]

Yes, outer case back says 10K. GOLD FILLED. And it says GRUEN. Bezel and Back are both gold filled.
Inside we find the usual CASED & TIMED BY THE GRUEN WATCH CO.
480 / 751 SS (yes, the sweep second SS comes after the style number !)
and third line the serial number C700xxx as it should be for a Gruen made case. If Gruen made all these cases themselves or at least it was their regular supplier.

[Fred]

Can confirm timing. Strap 746 expansion variant appears Sept 12 1952 in an All-Star values ad—which means it’s “new model for 1953” available early. So your Strap 750 should indeed have been in market 2nd half 1952-early 53.

I didn’t have a name or style for either (one style noted!)

[Dietrich]

Thank you both.
I also own Strap 751 (Autowind Executive, Style 780) and Strap 752 (All Star 10, Style 542), both introduced 2nd half 1952. Yes Strap 746 as All Star 12 is second half 1952 which makes Strap 750 a candidate for the same time. As I wrote, the watch carries a 1956 dedication inscription, but I think it sat some years in Westinghouse's stock.
Didn't Gruen at that time have a department for watches which were intended for such purposes? I know that I once read something about this, a special department for dedication watches for special events. Just can't find the article any more. But there must have been regular sales of this watch as well, there is one pictured at gruen.watch without dedication: https://gruen.watch/?product=gruen-prec ... -480ss-751

[Mr. Bieser]

"Didn't Gruen at that time have a department for watches which were intended for such purposes? I know that I once read something about this, a special department for dedication watches for special events".

I'd be interested in that article if you can find it, to see if it contains more info but are you talking about the "Industrial Sales Division"? It was active right around this time, its purpose was to sell Gruens to companies for their achievements/awards. They did engraving as well.

This ad mentions it from December 1951:

[Fred]

I was unaware of this division, but it does appear to have been renamed to "presentation sales division" by 1955 (i'll post in 1950s gruen ad thread)

[Mr. Bieser]

Yes,it was later changed but in 52 I believe it was called ISD, I know the ad you speak of in 55 with Timemaster designed by Henry Covington, sorry didn't mean to get so off topic.

[Dietrich]

Yes, perfect, thank you again guys. ISD or later PSD, I knew I read about it and yes, it was the Timemaster ad where I first heard about the division. Daniel P. Geeding became manager of the newly-organized division in October 1951 after nine years being an employee of Gruen according to the Cincinnati Post of Oct 8 1951.

[Mr. Bieser]

Right, the watch was engraved 56, I had the intro date of 52 stick in my head...