Purchase this on ebay for what I believe was a fair price, then I broke it. John L. did a fantastic job with the repair. Gains about a minute a day, give or take. Thanks Cary.

The pictures are from the seller and are not mine. I don't own a camara. The movement and case have been cleaned of accumulated grime and presents itself better than the pictures suggest.
The dial appears to be dirty rather than having an even patina which leads me to believe....

...it's a redial; but is it correct to the watch? I'm also guessing that the hands have been replaced with generics. If so, would like to find replacements correct to the period; if possible.

The pictures don't really show it, but it is most definitely green gold and begs the question, how many? Anyone have a matching buckle they want to part with?







Caliber 707 with 2 adjustments


Gruen
14K
Goldfilled
Wadsworth
3170512
707 1

Allan,

That's a nice late '20s Gruen. For those who aren't familiar with the model, it's a good bit bigger than the similarly shaped Hamilton Cushion. The 707 is a 12 1/2 ligne movement, which would be a bit bigger than a 3/0 size.

Gruen made a lot of green gold watches during this time, more than other American companies. While green gold was somewhat popular at the time, there was also a concerted marketing effort by Gruen to push green gold, partly as a play on the company name, since Gruen means "green" in German. White gold was still more popular, and stayed around longer. I have that same model in white, and also with an engraved bezel in white. Like Hamilton, Gruen sold two-toned versions also.

I think you're right that the dial has been refinished, though it appears quite nice. I'm not sure that the gold numerals are correct, all I've had with that style dial had luminous. There was an applied gold number dial used for this watch. If your dial was originally luminous, the hands would have been the veined luminous type as well. The blued hands currently on it look suspiciously Elgin (or generic) to me. Still makes a nice looking watch.

I think you can see in the image below your watch fitted with the luminous dial and hands. There is an example of a similar model at the bottom of the page with the AGN dial, and blued Breguet hands. The image is from Bruce Shawkey's scans of the 1929 Gruen Guild Master Book, which is a compilation of the years advertising that was provided to Guild member dealers.

I have some of the veined hands, and I also have some recent Hirsch bands with a soft yellow toned buckle. Not green, but a much better match than the bright yellow on most buckles. I'll see if I have an extra buckle to send you.

Enjoy your new watch, glad the repair worked out.

Cary

Cary,
Did Gruen have names for the watches in 1929? If not, when did Gruen start having names assigned to its watches/////

Hi Tony,

I know that some of the Quadron models had names as early as 1928, but the use of names for all models (in Gruen advertising at least) begins to show up in 1931. Unlike Hamilton and Illinois, Gruen was bad to change names, or use the same names over, so it's sometimes hard to identify a model by the name.

Regards,

Cary

Looking closely at the pic I see that it is definitely a redial. The gold colored numbers have a reflective quality in that they act much like a street sign would with headlights sweeping across. Easy to read in the fading light of the day. Thanks for the picture Cary.

Elgin huh? LIke owning a ford with pontiac hubcaps.

Take care,
Allan

Hi Gruen Fans,
here's a favorite Curvex from my collection. The dial has been refinished. The WGF case with faceted crystal is like new. The 330 movement is in great running condition.

Figure I

Figure II

Hello Dave,

Good looking watch. Hopefully my next Gruen looks as fine as this piece.

Allan