Green Watch Company
Gruen Watch Company was a watch manufacturer in the United States .
| Green Watch Company
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | liquidated in 1958 |
| founding | 1874 (1894) |
| Seat | Cincinnati , USA |
| Branch | Watch manufacture |
history
In 1867, the 20-year-old German watchmaker Dietrich Gruen (1847–1911) emigrated from Osthofen in Rhine-Hesse to the USA. There he married Pauline Wittlinger, the daughter of a watchmaker from Delaware / Ohio, and initially worked for his father-in-law for a few years. At the age of 27 he applied for a patent for an improved minute wheel safety drive in clockworks. 1874, the year of this important invention, was later to be marketed as the founding date of the Gruen Watch Company, although it was not officially launched until 20 years later.
Columbus Watch Manufacturing Company
Initially, however, Grün founded the Columbus Watch Manufacturing Company in Columbus / Ohio with a partner in 1876 . This initially very successful company got into economic difficulties as a result of the " panic of 1893 ". That is why Dietrich Gruen left the company in 1894 shortly before it went bankrupt.
D. Gruen & Son
In the same year as he left the Columbus Watch Manufacturing Company, Dietrich Gruen founded the watch and clockwork factory D. Gruen & Son together with his son Frederick (Fritz) Gruen (1872–1945) . Together they developed a completely new movement . The movements were initially to be produced in Germany and then exported to America. Frederick Gruen, who had attended the German watchmaking school in Glashütte from 1892 to 1893 , met Paul Assmann during his studies, whose family ran a respected watch manufacture in Glashütte . Since the USA had just slipped into an economic crisis and the necessary skilled workers were available in Glashütte, the two of them together founded the " Grünsche Uhrenfabrikation Grün und Assmann " in 1894 . The aim was to establish industrial watch production based on the American model in Glashütte. The necessary machines were imported from the USA, and 1,800 watches were produced by the next year. A pocket watch movement specially developed for the American market was manufactured in Glashütte for many years and built into Gruen watches in the USA. In addition to the Assmann movements, Gruen also sold watches with a LeCoultre movement at that time .
D. Gruen & Sons
In 1897 the younger son Georg J. Gruen also joined the Gruensche watch company as a partner. He had previously completed a commercial apprenticeship and worked as an accountant . The company was then renamed “D. Gruen & Sons ”renamed. In 1898 Gruen moved its headquarters from Columbus / Ohio to Cincinnati / Ohio , where the Queen City Watch Case Company was bought in the same year. This was renamed "The Gruen National Watch Case Company". At the turn of the century, Gruen decided to relocate production from Glashütte to Biel in Switzerland , as the Swiss employees, unlike the Germans, were more open to the new American production methods. In 1903 "The Gruen Watch Manufacturing Company" was founded in Biel. Gruen thus became one of the first American manufacturers to assemble Swiss movements in their American-made watches. Even then, some of the best movements came from Aegler SA in Biel. Even before 1910, however, the company began producing its own movements in Switzerland. The production facilities in Biel had to be continuously expanded over the years. After the company's founder, Dietrich Gruen , suffered a sudden cardiac arrest on April 10, 1911 shortly before Italy on a trip to Europe , his eldest son Frederick Gruen took over the management of the company. Frederick Gruen was a supporter of the medieval guilds and craft guilds and from then on marketed his watches under this motto. His idea was to combine advanced technology with craftsmanship, which should be reflected in the working conditions in the factories, the architecture of the buildings and, last but not least, in the quality of the products.
Time Hill
With increasing economic success, Gruen had to leave the traditional production facilities in the center of Cincinnati in 1917 and built a new company headquarters outside the city on a hill. The building complex, which was called “Time Hill”, was modeled on a medieval guild hall and was gradually expanded until the 1930s. In Time Hill the Gruen watches from Swiss watch movements and American watch cases , bracelets, watch glasses etc. were assembled and adjusted. There was also a repair workshop, sales rooms and administration here.
Precision Factory
Since Time Hill was a great success in Cincinnati, Gruen wanted to build a similar building complex in Switzerland. The architect G. C. Burroughs, who had already built Time Hill, struggled with the resistance of the Swiss authorities, for whom the building was too playful. Finally, in 1922, the Precision Factory was opened in Biel, where the best clockworks for Gruen were to be produced from now on. The new building was right across from the Aegler SA watch works, with which the company continued to work closely. Gruen and the watch company Rolex , which at that time had no production of its own, were the largest customers of the Aegler watch factory in the 1920s. Both had also contributed financially to the company. The full name of the company at that time was "Aegler, Société Anonyme, Fabrique des Montres Rolex & Gruen Guild".
Green Watch Company
In the year the Precision Factory opened, the individual companies “D. Gruen, Sons & Company ”,“ The Gruen National Watch Case Company ”(both Cincinnati / USA) and“ The Gruen Watch Manufacturing Company ”in Biel / Switzerland combined to form the“ Gruen Watch Company ”. In the future, Frederick Gruen was President. In the mid-1920s, Gruen was the largest and most successful watch manufacturer in the USA. The US had a thriving watch industry at the time . Companies such as Gruen, Hamilton , Bulova , Elgin , Waltham and Illinois served the upper market segment, and Swiss imports were, with a few exceptions, often located in the low-price segment.
Alpina Gruen Gilde SA
The “Swiss Watchmaker Corporation” was founded as early as 1883 as an association of leading Swiss watch manufacturers and dealers. Soon afterwards, the company began to manufacture and sell its own movements and only marketed the best quality watches under the Alpina name . By the 1920s, Alpina had built up a good reputation and a large dealer network. Since Gruen wanted to gain a foothold in Europe too, the Gruen Watch Company merged with the Alpina Union Horlogère cooperative in 1929 and founded the SA Alpina Gruen Gilde SA. In 1930 the new company had a distribution network of 1,575 retailers, mostly in Europe. However, as the political situation opposed European-American cooperation and Gruen got into economic difficulties as a result of the global economic crisis , the Alpina Gruen Gilde SA was dissolved again in 1939. As early as 1934, Gruen had also sold his shares in Aegler to partner Rolex, who later took over Aegler in full.
Family retreat
In the wake of the global economic crisis , sales of watches in the USA fell from over 5 million pieces a year to around 800,000. Customers also increasingly asked for cheap models, which Gruen was only able to offer to a limited extent at the time. In 1935, Gruen had a debt of $ 1.8 million. Banks and shareholders therefore called for a fresh start. Frederick Gruen then changed in 1935 at the age of 63 as Chairman of the Supervisory Board and made way for the 43-year-old Benjamin Samuel Katz (1892-1969). Katz knew the industry from his work at the watch case manufacturer Katz & Ogush in New York, who made watch cases for many different watch manufacturers. Frederick Gruen retired in 1940 but was still a member of the board of directors until his death in 1945. In 1953, a year after the death of George Gruen, the family sold their shares in the company, which reached its economic peak that same year , with the highest sales in the company's history.
Gruen Industries
After the family left, the company lost its focus and tried to diversify into other branches of business . This was also expressed in the name that was changed to Gruen Industries. Watchmaking was just one of several branches of business. In May 1956, the Canadian subsidiary of Waterman Pen was bought and sold on at a loss in November. Before that, you had to sell your own Canadian sales company for financing. To make matters worse, Gruen lost an 8 million dollar government contract and was additionally covered by violent antitrust lawsuits. In 1958 Gruen Industries was finally dissolved and the parts sold.
The successor companies
Time Hill closed in 1958 and watch production moved to New York, where mechanical watches continued to be produced for 15 years. A revival of the company in 1976 failed due to mismanagement and the triumph of quartz watches , which turned the entire watch industry upside down. In the early 1990s, the company “M. Z. Berger and Company ”, which in the meantime had bought the trademark rights , launched a series of replicas of old Gruen watches with quartz movements . Today you can only find used Gruen watches in stores. In the meantime, as with other watch brands, collectors have taken care of the history of this once highly respected watch brand. The Precision Factory was subsequently sold to Rolex, who now use the building for their administration.
technology
Watch models
The watch brand Gruen was characterized by a seemingly confusing large number of watch models and types. Even connoisseurs and ambitious collectors therefore repeatedly come across new, previously unknown variants. The fact that all company archives and written documents were destroyed or at least lost when the company was dissolved in the 1950s also makes the system of this watch brand more difficult. In recent years, however, through studies and publications, u. a. by Mike Barnett, brought some light into the darkness.
The starting point is the type designation ("style number"), which is stamped on the inside of the watch cover on many but unfortunately not all Gruen watches. It is usually a three-digit number that is separated by a hyphen from another, usually three-digit number, the drive name, which is usually placed in front. The type designation is a serial number that was probably started in the late 1920s and was used until the company was liquidated in the late 1950s. On average, more than 50 different models were brought onto the market each year, so the highest known type number is number 1231. Starting with type designation 1000, the leading 1 was omitted, so that the type designation starts again with 0 from around 1956. Each type number relating to the case and crystal of the watch usually has a specific movement associated with it. However, around 225 watch models are known that were delivered with at least two different movements, in individual cases and with very successful models (for example model 466) even with up to 7 different movements. In addition, many watch models were delivered with different dials in terms of color and design. If you take all these variants into account, you can easily assume several thousand different watch models and model variants, which made Gruen certainly one of the most creative watch brands of its time, which, combined with the high quality of the movements, also contributed a lot to the success.
Movements (caliber)
In contrast to most other American watch companies, Gruen had its own watch factory very early on and was therefore not or only very little dependent on third-party watch movements. The clockworks were mostly designated with three-digit numbers, some of which had letters attached to the front or back. The letters were used to distinguish certain complications if different versions of a clockwork were produced. In detail means:
SUFFIX: SS = Sweep Second (central second) CA = Calendar (day of the month) CD = Calendar, Day (day of the month, weekday) C = Curved (curved dial side) R = Resistant (shock protection) RI = Reserve Indicator (power reserve indicator)
PREFIX: N (movable stud carrier)
Model families
From the combination of movements and watch models, one can differentiate between different model families, as shown below using men's wristwatches:
Watch Specialties
approx. 1910s; Dial mostly only marked with green; round clockwork, labeled Watch Specialties Co. and DG&S logo; Clockworks and a. 611, 806
Guild Watch
approx. 1920s; Dial mostly only marked with green; round clockwork, marked Gruen Guild; Clockworks and a. 127, 179, 315, 700, 703, 705, 707
Green Quadron
approx. 1925–1930s; Dial only marked with green, possibly with the addition Precision; barrel-shaped clockwork with the designation Gruen Guild; Clockworks and a. 117, 119, 123, 157, 325, 355, 3251; Special shape: Gruen Techni-Quadron (rectangular movement with rounded corners, labeled Gruen Guild, movement types 877, 877S)
Green Watch
around 1930s-1950s; Dial only marked with green, possibly with the addition Precision or other additions; round, rectangular or barrel-shaped clockwork, e.g. T. also with a curved top with the designation Gruen Watch Co .; Clockworks and a. 115, 155, 156, 400, 401, 410C, 411C, 421, 500, 501, 587
Green Curvex
approx. 1935 to 1950s; Dial marked with Gruen Curvex, possibly with the addition Precision; The clockwork is curved on the top and bottom and is labeled Gruen Watch Co .; Movements 311, 330 440 and 370
Gruen Veri-Thin
approx. 1938–1950s; Dial marked with Gruen Veri-Thin possibly with the addition Precision; round, tank or pillow-shaped clockwork; Clockworks and a. 380, 405, 405SS, 406, 406SS, 415, 415R, 416, 420, 420SS, 421, 421SS, 425, 426, 431, 435
Green 21
approx. 1949 to 1950s; Dial with Gruen 21 Precision and possibly a stylized 21 logo, without the addition of Swiss or Switzerland because it is manufactured exclusively in our own workshops in Cincinnati; barrel-shaped clockwork; Movements 335, 335R and 335SS
Gruen Precision
around 1945–1960s; mostly round, rarer angular dial with the inscription Gruen Precision and possibly other additions; Central second, less often decentralized second at 6 o'clock, possibly with day and date; earlier models from our own manufactory, later models from various European manufacturers, clockworks, etc. a. 310R, 355, 355C, 415, 415SS, 420SS, 421SS, 422, 422SS, 422RSS, 425SS, 455R, 490SS, 497R, 510, 510CD, 510RSS, D510CD, N510, N510R, M510CA, 510RSSCA, 512CA, 512CD, N512CA, 515SS, 522CD, N522CD, 525SS, 528CD, 552RSS, 624SS, 770
Green car wind
around 1950–1970s; Dial marked Gruen Autowind or Self-Wind and some additional additions; Automatic clockwork with hammer or rotor; Central second, less often decentralized second at 6 o'clock, possibly with day and date; Clockworks and a. 460, 460SS, 462, 462SS, 470, 470SS, 475, 480, 480SS, 490SS, 518CA, 518SS, 550SS, 560RSS, 570SS, 580SS, 580SSCD, N580SS, 622SS, 629SS, 631SS, N710CA, 710RSS, N710SS, 711CD, 712CA, 712SS, 718SS, 730CA, 731SS, 745, 750SS, 780CD, 790CA, 790CD, 930SS, 933SS
Gruen Geneve
approx. 1958-1976; Dial marked with Gruen Genève partly with additional additions; mostly high-quality movements from various Swiss manufacturers, etc. a. 224R, 711CD
Green watch with complications
1950s-1970s; this includes wristwatches which, in addition to the second, day and date display, have other complications or special features such as B. Gruen Mystery Dial, movement 415; Green Power Reserve, movement 550RI, Gruen Calendar, movement 415CA; Gruen Alarm, clockworks 910SS, 940RSS, 950CA; Chronograph, movements 770CA, 770R; Jump Hour, movement 156D, 238ADI; Airflight, movement 422RSS, N510SS
Gruen Electronic
around 1960s; referred to as Gruen Electronic; early electronic clocks with batteries but without quartz made in Switzerland
Green quartz
from around 1970s; Quartz watches from Swiss, Japanese or Chinese production sold u. a. under the name Gruen Quartz, Gruen II, Embassy by Gruen, Precision by Gruen
Green with mechanical movements from Japanese and Chinese manufacture
from approx. 1990s; often replicas without a license or cheap mass-produced goods with the Gruen logo