All about Gruen

[Dietrich]

It's Philidor Wolff..

Here is a link to my research from 2021:

https://we.tl/t-YUkBoVNUCr

Need to update with new material.

[Mr. Bieser]

Dang mikrolisk always giving me those wonky spellings...so wait Wolf with two f's?!
The ads show one...

[Mr. Bieser]

I guess my other main question still is, (great research btw) bc I'm still really confused about this, do u know is it the same Wolf family as this company here? Bc Europastar seems to think so...

https://www.wolf1834.com/history

[Dietrich]

Dang mikrolisk always giving me those wonky spellings...so wait Wolf with two f's?!
The ads show one...

Sorry, this was now my typo. You are right, it is Wolf with one f.

[Dietrich]

I guess my other main question still is, (great research btw) bc I'm still really confused about this, do u know is it the same Wolf family as this company here? Bc Europastar seems to think so...

https://www.wolf1834.com/history

No, different family or at least different branch.

[Mr. Bieser]

Thanks alot for clearing that up. But it leads me to my next question. Besides a few of the sources being German, I couldn't see some big connection to Germany in your research, though I could've missed it.
According to mikrolisk this Ph. Wolf that founded Aureole had a connection to Germany. Is this accurate? Did they just sell watches in Germany? I understand the heritage of the Wolf surname but did this Philidor Wolf family of Aureole have close ties to Germany?
Thanks.

[Dietrich]

No, Philidor Wolf was born in France as his parents were.
This Phillip Wolf entry at Mikrolisk is strange, in all my literature there is no such person or company exisiting, no archive knows anything about this. I think that this entry is not correct.
The "F.A.C." trademark was first protected to "Ph. Wolf, Fabrique Auréole, Chaux-de-Fonds" in Switzerland at June 19, 1905. Transferred to "Fabriques Auréole et Vertex S.A. Succ. de Ph Wolf", the succeeding company after Philidor died, at June 5th 1918, I cannot find anything about the end of use of the trademark.

[Mr. Bieser]

Ok, thank you for the informative answers. I too never could connect him to Germany but was hungup on the misinfo on mikrolisk and europa star.
Wolf is buried at Cimetière Israélite des Eplatures in Chaux de Fonds.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/156 ... lidor-wolf

[Dietrich]

I wrote an email to Andreas who is running the mikrolisk website and asked where his Phillip Wolf information comes from. Let's see what he answers.
Definitely the box company also has nothing to do with Philidor Wolf and Fabrique Aureole. As often there is quite some misinformation circulating in the www. See for example this Bond watch stuff and how many Gruen models are offered as "the" Bond watch although there is not even a proof that Sean Connery really wore a Gruen.

[Dietrich]

Got an answer from Andreas and he does not recall where this entry comes from. So I did some investigation and came up with an entry in a 1912 German horologcial address book listing a Ph. Wolf as maker of pocket watches in Frankfurt. By verifying the address "Oppenheimer Landstrasse 59" in Frankfurt it turned out that at this address a wholesaler of Swiss watches was located named "A. Hornschuh". This guy also importet Aureole watches and simply made an entry for Ph. Wolf in these German address books so that people thought that this was an official subsidary of the "Fabrique Aureole". Someone later anticipated that Ph. Wolf was short for Phillip as the much more common name in Germany.
Andreas said that he will edit the entry now.