Gruen Percision

[James A Robertson]

I picked this Gruen Precision up last week. When I received it I was shocked by the condition it was in. The case was a smoke gray color and the crystal was so badly scratched that I could not read the print on the dial. The movement was a different story. Clean as whistle and not a mark on it. After polishing the case I found a crystal in my junk box put it on a padded strap, not bad. The movement is a 17 jewel stem wound 510 SS.
I did find a service scribe inside the case back but could not make out the numbers. Gruen in its day made good quality watches. The movement is Swiss as Gruen manufactured their movements at their Geneva facility and assembled in Cincinnati. Towards the end, the Swiss allowed the export of machinery and Gruen made a 21 jewel movement in the US. At the bottom of the dial is printed AA SWISS AA. I assume it reads American Assembled
Swiss. I'm not quite sure of the year this watch was made. I'm guessing the mid fifties.
Best, JR

[JohnF]

Hi -

Great find! I really like the 510SS caliber, it's very robust.

However, it's probably from the 1960s. The 510SS was, if I interpret the calibre development properly, one of the post-Cincinnati caliber works, i.e. post 1958 but pre 1976, when Gruen went into receivership. It's definitely a Gruen calibre, though, and not a relabelled or rebadged calibre.

Enjoy your watch! As you have perhaps seen from my posts here, I collect a few Gruens and it's so nice to get a classic watch that has such a wonderful calibre hiding away... :-)

JohnF

PS: As Ray and I will always say: any vintage watch needs to be attended to, with a cleaning and oiling critical to maintain such beauties...so have you had it cleaned and oiled? :-)

[James A Robertson]

Oiled and cleaned two days after I received it. Currently runs 6 seconds fast, so I'm going to leave well enough alone.
Best, JR

[JohnF]

Enjoy the watch! I'm about to embark on trying to further disassemble my old Stowa Seatime with PUW 1650, this time I'm going to try videoing it. Found that my video camera has a great macro function! :-)

JohnF