Gruen Curved Tank - 1939 - Salmon Dial - Original Speidel Bracelet - 10K Gold Filled

On a hillside above Cincinnati stood a building with a steep tile roof and half-timbered walls, and inside it rows of watchmakers sat at long desks and worked by daylight through tall windows. The lobby ran two stories, a mahogany staircase climbing one wall and a fireplace faced in Rookwood tile set into another. The valley below held the river, the rail yards, and the pork houses whose smoke had driven the company up out of downtown in the first place. Gruen called the place Time Hill and called the men inside it the Gruen Watchmakers Guild.

The watch here was cased and timed in that building in 1939. Its movement had come the other way, from Gruen’s own factory at Biel in Switzerland, and the two halves met in Cincinnati, where the case was closed around it and the watch was set running to time. The inside of the back says it plainly: Cased and Timed in U.S.A. by The Gruen Watch Co.

The dial is salmon, a warm rose that reads pink in some light and copper in others. Silver and cream are what these normally wear, and a salmon one surfaces seldom enough that a buyer can watch the market a long while before meeting one. The numerals are black and drawn with a flourish, the 4 left open at the top, the 7 tailed, and a railroad minute track rings them. The seconds keep their own register at six inside a shaped border. Two blued steel hands cross the face, dark against the rose.

The movement is a Gruen, seventeen jewels, wound and set from the crown, its plates signed by the company and marked Switzerland.

The case curves along its whole length, the ends turning down so that the watch follows the wrist instead of bridging it, and from the side that curve is the whole shape of the thing. The bezel is 10kt gold filled, stamped so inside the back, and the back is stainless steel, with the case number 2855021 struck below the maker’s line. It comes on a gold toned Speidel expansion bracelet.

The gold has worn thin along the edges of the case and at the corners where the bracelet meets it, and the inside of the back carries scratched service marks left by earlier watchmakers, all of it in the photographs. The watch runs, and its service history is unknown.

Terms: Please review all photos carefully as they are a part of the listing. This is a vintage timepiece. Accuracy, power reserve, and water resistance are not guaranteed. Vintage watches may require periodic service. Performance can vary with wear, temperature, and position.

I am happy to service any unserviced watch listed on the site, please inquire about service charges when purchasing.

All sales final.