Frey Caliber 1, Gruen Caliber: Unknown

In some instances we know the movement manufacturer and their movement caliber designation but not the Gruen designated calibre number.

"Watch Specialties Co, Swiss, 17 Jwls, 2? Adts" Case engraved 1918.

This is Frey no.1 circa 1913.

(Thank you Barney for this doc)

Ad I found in Davoine:

So what Gruen calibre could it be? May be small but still a mystery....has a passing similarity to Frey made Gruen Cal 794.

Yes, they are the same base, different bridges. All other variable features (click, etc) I’ve seen on both.

I think we’ve called this 794(a) in the past… but are you ready for a mind melt?

Yours is truly the Gruen caliber 794/795. The new design (seen stamped “Factory F”) is Gruen caliber pair 796/797. Like calibers 99 & 997 (stamped always “98”) and 726/7 (“725”), all were only stamped “794”.

Thanks for your answer. Interesting. I was aware of the existence of an "a" designation in the 794 block, but never once heard this one called 794a or even seen this layout discussed for that matter. Looking back on old discussion of 794 entry, not one single mention.


As far as the mind melt....it worked. ah HA! SWEET! Thanks for straightening this out. 794/795 it is.

Happy to for once have a direct answer.

Fwiw, I have never seen a Hunter movement—in Frey or Gruen or PL. Both series had a sweep-seconds model (not seen yet in Gruen) and a subseconds model (one later version seen in Gruen). The later Gruen version also came in 15J & 17J.

Yup, the setting works for a Frey calibre 1 found online perfectly match my set works for one of my dial-less F 796's... Understood, some 796/7's had early set works variant.

Perfect, thanks for the reminder and the finalization of your caliber matching of the 79x movements.

… but never once heard this one called 794a or even seen this layout discussed for that matter. Looking back on old discussion of 794 entry, not one single mention.

Yes, looking back, I have not shared this information publicly before. So perhaps “we” should only be “me” unless I had a mouse in my pocket lol

No one else has even proposed this, either—let alone proven it. Even Mr Cleves only has the numbers. New & more correct info for this forum.