I had this watch restored which used to belong to my father. I was wondering if anyone knows what kind of band and buckle originally came on the watch and where I can find one now? Any information would be helpful. Also, if anyone has advertisements from Gruen they can post I would appreciate it. Thank you, RR
Posts: 1413 | Location: Fremont, California in the USA | Registered: February 06, 2010
Richard i have never owned one of these i would think any nice leather or croc. band would be okay with a regular type clasp or buckle ..That,a beautiful watch if it were mine i would buy a good quailty band and skip the cheap ones.
Samie, Thank you for the advice. I've been researching this watch and changed the title now that I know the model of the watch. I also changed the description I had earlier to say buckle rather than clasp. I've found two sources for a stamped Gruen buckle. I'm getting closer to finding a nice original Gruen band that will work, but I'm still unsure if I'll be able to find what may have originally came on the watch becuase according to information at T H E G R U E N W A T C H C O M P A N Y 1929 - 1940 "A normal leather strap is awkward to use with these watches, because the buckle ends up on the little-finger side of the wrist, opposite the watch. Some originally had special straps, which were extremely long on the buckle end, but very short on the other end". It would be nice if someone who has one of these special straps could post a picture and if anyone comes across one for sale they could contact me. I'll probably have to move this post to items wanted. Thanks again, RR
Posts: 1413 | Location: Fremont, California in the USA | Registered: February 06, 2010
Great watch, Richard. Is it a 5/8" lug spacing? If you can get an accurate lug measurement in MM with a digital caliper, and the length required, I can look through my inventory to see if I have something. I know Erd-Ber made straps that were short on the buckle end and long on the other, and I think I have a couple.
My wrist measues 8 inches and the spring centers on the watch are 1.2 inces apart. Around 6.75 would be the length if the strap was tight. Also, I can get a 13mm or 14mm buckle. Thanks, RR
Posts: 1413 | Location: Fremont, California in the USA | Registered: February 06, 2010
Scott A customer today asked me if i can get hold of military watch straps. Is this something that you can provide?
What he means by military is the wide strap but with a thin central strap that goes though the wire lugs and under the back of the watch, which was often used for first world one type watches.
Kind Regards
Clive
Posts: 264 | Location: Westbrook, United Kingdom | Registered: June 15, 2007
After the above post Scott and I corresponded and Scott has a very nice brown drivers band however I really wanted to find a black one to match the dial and so I could use the watch for formal occasions.
Scott,
Thanks for finding a suitable band, if I didn't find a black one the brown one would have also worked out nicely.
After searching online for Gruen specialists I came across a gentleman who referred me to someone who had a large selection of Gruen parts on ebay. I sent them some e-mails and after a few days they found a black suede band.
When I went to install the band it ended up being 17mm instead of the 16mm needed for the watch. I let the seller know I was going to try to cut it narrower with a razor blade. They informed me that wasn't a good idea as .5mm on each side isn't much. He told me to try using sand paper so that's what I did. After a couple hours of careful sanding and fitting here's the finished watch with its new Gruen black suede band.
Posts: 1413 | Location: Fremont, California in the USA | Registered: February 06, 2010
