Vintage Watches

Gruen was founded in 1874 in Columbus, Ohio, by Dietrich Gruen, a Swiss, a young watch manufacturer who had learned his trade under one Masters of Freiburg, Germany, among the most renowned horologist of his time. He had founded his business in America with the idea of producing a watch of exceptional merit. For its production his thoughts turned naturally to Switzerland, where from time out of mind the finest watches have been produced. He knew that for accuracy and other attributes of a satisfactory watch, there was no equal to the careful hand-finishing of the skilled Swiss craftsman, with his generations of inherited artistry.

So it was to Switzerland that Dietrich Gruen turned for workmen who could produce a watch of superior value. There he gathered together a group of the finest craftsmen and established his first factory for producing watch movements, importing these and fitting them to their cases in America. The "Very-Thin" caliber, however was made by the company itself.

Gruen started making wristwatches in 1908 using the small, movements made for ladies pocket watches. Gruen's first movement designed specifically for wristwatches was the Cartouche, released in 1921 and used for ladies watches. Gruen's famous range of doctors' watches brought out between 1929 and the mid-1940s are highly collectible (in the early 1930s, one found the same caliber construction ticking in both the Rolex "Prince" and Gruen "Duo-Dial" models.)

In about 1932 they launched the famous Curvex General, which had an extremely curved case to cover the top left half of the wrist. In 1950 the Gruen Curvex watches were Priced $49.75 to $250, with precious diamonds up to $5000. Among the rarest and most collectible of Gruen watches are the Curvex-Ristside models; The Gruen Varsity, from 1933, the "Curvametric", and the "Autowind", both from 1948; also the 1958 "Super G" are highly collectible watches.