Deitrich Gruen started his first US Watch Company December 1874,in Columbus, Ohio. Naming it "Columbus", he imported Watches from a watchmaker in Madretsch, Switzerland marked with his name for his "new" patented safety pinion. Gruen adjusted and timed these movements which he sold for a few years until he decided(was persuaded by his stockholders) to make an all-American watch. It has been speculated that there were up to about 10,000 of the Swiss watches made with serial numbers reaching all the way to 70,000. Recently one of our members found an early example of one of these movement; Serial number 859, which was assuredly finished and timed by Mr. Gruen himself in the first year of business! The watch presents well . . .

with a beautiful case marked "18" . . .

a profoundly advanced 18s movement with 3/4 plate design, Breguet Hairspring, "Anchor" Escapement, well balanced wheel train and in-line escapement system. Such technically advanced features of an early 1870's design easily matched or surpassed the best of USA watchmakers in that time . . .

But . . . this watch is 150 years old! In restoring it, I found 2 broken screws, bent 4th wheel seconds hand arbor, a replacement 4th wheel that is the correct tooth count but is 0.8 mm too large at the "points" of the wheel teeth causing stoppage at the escapement wheel pinion (until I carefully filed the teeth back and re-clearanced EACH ONE OF them!), a pallet stone which had been mis-adjusted and had to be re-sunk in, and the pallet lever bridge bent UP so that it had became a "stop" for the cycling balance wheel both ways as the cross arms "clanked" into the pallet bridge head.

EACH ONE OF THESE ISSUES were deceptively hard to sort out, and resulted in considerable time to correct.

I must advise ALL of our IHC185 members who are "DIY'ers" ("do it yourselfers")that you are working on an OLD WATCH which has suffered the ministrations of lord knows how many good and not so good watch repairers in the past.

WHEN YOU HIT A SNAG, ASK SOMEONE to look at the problem with you! These watches are becoming increasingly priceless artifacts of our creative history and deserve the best care to their restoration and maintenance. END OF RANT

Dietrich Gruen was one of Americas great watchmakers in MHO, yet seldom gets the accolades to which he is most assuredly deserving of !!!!!

Very nice Dave. Very ahead of its time and unusual in its appearance.

I have a box of movements. When I am working on a watch and cant figure out whats wrong, after awhile I put it into the box with the date I last worked on it. About every 6 months I look into the box and open the oldest watches and a lot of the time my skills have progressed that I see what I missed the first time. Sometimes walking away from a problem is the best solution rather than forcing a fix on something.
It looks like this one had a few fixes forced on it. Im happy to see you were able to repair those forced fixes in this case.

WOW

This watch is great !

The swiss movement; the Ohio Columbus Watch Co dial; Gruens Improved Patent safty Pinion on the plate brought back to life by you David.

Recognizing what it is and having the ABBEility and skills to fix it the right way could not be respected more.

Thank you David and the unknown owner !

Regards
Gerald

Thank You David for sharing a unique beautiful timepiece.

Gary

Dave do you know who made your watch case? Do you think it is filled/plate or solid? The reason I ask that is the identical marking that is on my Elgin hunter keywind.

Hi, Claude,

Can you estimate the date of your watch? Do you think the case is original to the movement? I would like to identify the mark, too.

Dennis

My Elgin is in the low six digits and I think when I looked it up it was in the 1870 or so range, sn 168,xxx. I also think the case and movement are from the same time zone and if I were going to make a guess that they were probably mated together since there are no other screw marks.

amazing Dave, may I ask, what do you see as the value once done?

Andy, with that dial and case, the insurance value should be about $500.

never saw one before. Love it. Dave, my hamilton 936, any chance you can fix the broken staff and ?

Sure, I will be glad to take a look at it. e-mail me your phone and we can discuss what you want. david@glopar.com

David, it was a pleasure. We are not done!!