Can anyone offer a little information on this watch found in an antique store last week.
It is a 14K, 21J Gruen in it's original box. any help, date etc.
This is my first post, after 'reading the mail' for months, as you can see I'm also learning about photography as well as Horology!

inner case

movement.. Lots to learn about depth of field... Sorry

another movement shot..

If you have not yet read the material on this web site, you should give it a visit.

http://www.pixelp.com/gruen/

It may help you date your watch.

Charles,

You have a nice, rare watch on your hands. The 325 was one of the last of the "Quadron" movements. It dates from approximately 1931 to 1939, and from the styling, I would place it a bit later in that range. The movement is the same size, and is similar in layout to the earlier Quadrons from the mid 1920s. I have seen very few of these in solid gold.

Your watch contains the 3251 movement, which was a higher grade offering of the 17 jewel 325. It differs in having a capped pallet fork, and jeweled center wheel.


There is some conjecture as to why Gruen continued with new movements using the Quadron base after the mid 1930s introduction of the Curvex and Veri-Thin lines. In addition to the 3251 and 325, there were contemporary 15 jewel (the 485) and 7 jewel (the 487) movements in the same size. While some believe that Gruen management wanted to continue to offer traditional movements to appeal to more conservative customers, the small number of these watches seen, relative to the number of the new models, leads me to believe that they were simply made to take advantage of the existing case dies and styles. Most watch companies did some odd things to try to stay competitive in the deep part of the Great Depression and Gruen is no exception.

I am not sure that the box is original to your watch, as that style box is usually seen with earlier models, but I'm also not sure it isn't correct. Again, who knows what any of the watch companies were doing at this point in the Depression. Also, if the watch was originally marketed in Canada, Gruen maintained a workshop in Toronto that may have used different packaging than those that came from Cincinnati.

I'll post more info if anything comes to mind.

Regards,

Cary

Thanks for the Info, Tom and Gary!

I appreciate your comments and insight, Gary
The reason I think the box might be original is the tag I found under the box liner, showing the same case number as on the watch. Still circumstantial, but persuasive...

Here is a shot of the case back.