Much of the precision is arguably a human story, and I say unashamedly that my favorite part of this brand has been hearing the full story of these people, as others here have told them. I will do my best to tell one below the article, a rarer feminine story.
Dateline 6/19/1919. Case making—all solid gold, here—and engraving, repairing, plus the Gruen watchmaker’s school. This opens up some new faces among storied ones at the new factory. Ernst Assmann looms large at the repair shop (wonder where that watch went??); J A Blanchet—still unknown to me—heading the school. And a cadre of young ladies at the finishing desks, because of their superior dexterity.
Let me introduce to you then-19yr-old Miss Florence Marie Woeber. Born June 3, 1900 in Norwood, the Cincinnati suburb where much later Gruen would open its US movement factory. On June 15, 1921, she became Mrs. William Godfrey Schwemberger. Her marriage license lists her occupation as “Watch Inspector.” William was also born and raised in Norwood, employed as an ice dealer and (later) in commercial real estate. Almost certainly, as a Catholic, the wedding must have been at her parish church, St. Elizabeth, just a few blocks from her Mills Ave house; beautiful then, the church has now been long decommissioned. William & Florence had four children, the last in 1936: Florence Marie (Riley), who served in the Navy around WW2; Ruth (Heist); William F.; and Paul. After many years in Norwood, they moved around the area before settling finally over the river in Lawrenceburg, IN. Our Florence died on Sept 21, 1979, nine years after William.
