SPOILER ALERT!

Gruen

The history of “Gruen Watch Company” as James Bond watchmaker spans from 1874 to 1958.

The name was originally spelled “Grün” in Germany, where the patriarch was born. Over the course of its existence, the company operated under different names, beginning with Columbus Watch Manufacturing Company from 1876 in Ohio, although Gruen later, then consistently, cited its own launch as two years prior to that.  In 1953, the company posted the highest sales in its history.

Post-1958 Gruen-branded timepieces are not considered part of that legacy here.

Columbus Watch had been founded by Dietrich Gruen (1847-1911) and William J Savage, but began to fail less than two decades later due to an economic crisis second only to The Great Depression. Consequently, Mr Dietrich left and formed a wholly new enterprise with son, Frederick Gustavuus Gruen (1872-1945), in 1894.

Early Gruen watches featured movements manufactured by Assmann in Glashütte (which itself had been launched with the help of Adolf Lange — better known for A Lange & Söhne) and LeCoultre. In 1898, second son George John Gruen (1877-1952) joined the Gruen company, bringing with him formal training in business and accounting, as opposed to watchmaking skills. The business following purchase of its watch case producer. Movement production in Germany was eventually eliminated in favor of sole reliance upon Swiss mechanisms.

During the Q&A for a National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors (NAWCC) seminar held in 2001, Charles Cleves noted that at one point, the “factories for the Gruen and Rolex doctor’s watches were back-to-back over in Switzerland.

They shared a lot of stuff in those days; they shared a few other watches …, like the Gruen 819. You can take the parts off of a Gruen 819 wind-up watch, and they fit the bubble-back. All the winding and setting parts are the same as the Rolex 600 movement …. I think there’s (sic) about 10 movements that Gruen and Rolex share ….

[The] companies got along very well …. There was talk of merging the two companies in the late 1920s … because they were having problems, and they thought they could streamline the operation and both would be more profitable …. 

NAWCC historian Bruce Shawkey has emphasized “that, while Gruen cased and timed its watches in the United States, Gruens are generally considered Swiss watches because the movements were imported from Switzerland.” This would later prove disadvantageous, as it closed access to the home market for “railroad watches,” which, by increasingly tightened regulations, were required to be “American-made.”

“D Gruen and Sons” was often nimble in its anticipation of the market, producing wristwatches for American consumers as early as 1910, according to researcher Anthony Gohl. They went on to capture “a large part of the American wristwatch market,” and offered an impressive “seven men’s military wrist models” in their 1918 line. And as a business, after a decade of moving its captive manufacturing locations in Biel, Switzerland to increasingly larger spaces, Gruen started construction on a large, purpose-built structure some time around 1921. In 1922, its disparate assembly, case-making, and movement operations were “merged to form the Gruen Watch Company,” with Fred Gruen as president.

But the brothers were often out-of-synch as well. As author Paul Schliesser summarized impacts of The Great Depression, watch sales “in the U.S. had gone from over five million to around 800,000 per year, and most of these were in the lower price range, not the upscale watches that Gruen had sold previously.

In 1935 Fred Gruen, now 63 years old, became Chairman of the Board and Benjamin S. Katz was brought in as President of the Gruen Watch Company. In 1935, Gruen was about $1.8 million USD … in debt ….

World War II provided a short-term opportunity for watchmakers who adjusted to supply Allied efforts by shifting to production of gauges used in bombers and ships. But this left most, Gruen among them, unable to supply post-war consumer prosperity, and interest in higher-end wristwatches that Swiss makers were able to answer by quickly moving into the otherwise underserved U.S. market. Gruen continued to pursue seemingly lucrative military contracts after the war had ended.

This, Mr Schliesser argued, “would eventually lead to the company’s downfall.”

By 1953, the two second-generation Gruen brothers had passed away, their heirs had sold-out interest in the company, and Benjamin Katz had been “forced into retirement after scandal ….” The watch business had been “seriously neglected,” and “massive legal problems,” significantly stemming from government contracts, added to a corporate debt that by 1958 was so large that Gruen was no longer able to either service or restructure it. What was by then known as “Gruen Industries” was sold off as pieces, and the company that had produced the Precision watch models that appeared in James Bond movies ceased to exist.

Select Horology

On June 12, 1874, Dietrich Gruen applied to patent “Center-Pinions for Watches …

… to provide against the injury to the train of wheels in a watch in case the mainspring breaks or becomes otherwise detached, so that the train will not receive the shock caused by the recoil when the spring gives way.

From his earliest days with Columbus Watch Manufacturing, “size and wearing comfort” were concerns central to his modification of raw movements imported to the company from Switzerland. He “introduced 16-size watches as an alternative to the heavy and thick 18-size and larger watches that were prevalent at the time.” Author Paul Schliesser has credited the Gruens with introducing and translating American manufacturing approaches to modernize Swiss movement production.

Throughout this history, their watches were known for high quality, beauty, and accessibility for repair and maintenance. They were also uniquely sold as complete, cased timepieces, in fine presentation boxes. And they increasingly pursued a higher-end market, most notably associated with their “VeriThin” movements — which arguably led the industry in a new direction of smaller sizes, if not elegance. Notwithstanding, they produced non-specialized pieces that met “all of the technical and accuracy requirements” and were actively relied upon by similar Canadian railroads of that period.

Strategically, Gruen leveraged its position with premium pocket watches as it moved into wristwatches

A decade or so later, Gruen unveiled its “Techni-Quadron,” which has come to be more commonly known as the “doctor’s watch.” It featured completely separate dials, with one for time-telling with hour- and minute-hands, and the other for seconds. The movement had been developed and was supplied by Switzerland-based maker Aegler, Societe Anonyme, Fabrique des Montres Rolex & Gruen Guild A, which Gruen co-owned with Rolex and Aegler itself. Rolex produced its own virtually identical watch, which it called “Prince.”

In 1935, Gruen seized dominance among consumers interested in having curved timepieces that “fit the natural cover of the wearer’s wrist” with its “Curvex” models. These leveraged VeriThin experience to develop “a patented curved movement” design that could be fitted into a thinner, “more curved” case — making for a “more accurate and reliable wristwatch than if it would have had a flat movement ….”

It was around this time that Gruen completed construction of its purpose-built Precision Factory in Switzerland, where it would go on to produce all but the few 17- and 21-jewel movements that it made in the United States during its waning years.

When Gruen turned out their lights for the last time in Cincinnati, their Swiss Precision Factory has been sold-off. Rolex now owns it.

En Route to 007

When Harry Saltzman secured a six-month option from Ian Fleming to produce James Bond thrillers as major motion pictures, it was three months before the first edition of Thunderball would be published on March 27, 1961.

At that point it had been established that James Bond generally wore a wristwatch that, if not a dress piece, was an appropriate fit in high-class environments. The “Rolex” brand first appeared in Live and Let Die, of course — in the sole context of support gear supplied for underwater commando work {page 204}.

Mr Fleming was more expansive in specifying wristwatches for his bad guys, however. Hugo Drax matter-of-factly wore “a plain gold Patek Phillipe watch with a black leather strap” in Moonraker {page 46}. Outside of missions for SMERSH, Donovan Grant wore a “Girard-Perregaux model designed for people who like gadgets” in From Russia, with Love {page 13}. It was also conspicuously bulky and gold, consistent with what von Hammerstein wore (“on a gold bracelet”) in For Your Eyes Only {page 96}. And when Thunderball did appear in print, it brought similar heft via SPECTRE operative Giuseppe Petacchi with “a solid gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual Chronometer on a flexible gold bracelet …” {page 90}.

On April 12, 1961, Ian Fleming suffered a major heart attack, leading to a longer-term hospitalization during which he wrote Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (despite having been deprived of typewriter, in obviously futile attempt to discourage such exertions). In the decades since, documentation has continued to build in evidence of need for a prolonged convalescence that ran on at least into September. Notwithstanding, Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were able to form a partnership and exercise the 007 movie option just before it expired, after which the two producers quickly met with United Artists to lock-in a six-picture deal.

Forty years later, James Bond: The Legacy appeared as the authority on that critical convergence of creative forces in-place for three short years. Relevantly, authors John Cork and Bruce Scivally, quoted production buyer Ron Quelch, who “recalled the day in 1961 when the filmmaking team decided to accessorize 007.

‘They were looking for everything Bond might or might not have been wearing. Whether he would have cuff links or whether he wouldn’t. … what watch he was wearing …. Everything that went to create the character of Bond was discussed at that meeting, and it took a long time, believe you me.’

In 2013, James Bond Watches spoke with Mr Quelch directly and resolved the “it needed to be a Rolex” myth with regard to (a) the obvious fact that there were two James Bond watches that appeared on-screen in Dr No, and (b) that the dress watch that had appeared in the opening London scenes, as well via the first day of shooting at the Jamaica airport (due to continuity error) was a Gruen model. Additionally, the “meeting” that Ron Quelch had recalled to Messrs Cork and Scivally had taken place before Sean Connery had been cast and before Terence Young had been hired to direct.

In the eight years leading up to pre-production on Dr No, Gruen might not have been the “large part of the American wristwatch market” it had once been. But in 1953 it had sold more watches than at any point in its history, with 250 models in its line — from price points of $35 to $2500 apiece. A current search on eBay shows six different advertising creatives for Gruen wristwatches run in leading consumer magazines between 1958 and 1961, all of which focused on dress watch styles.

Double-0 Watch Status

Gruen first became a James Bond watch through the premier of Dr No on October 5, 1962.

Related Page

  • James Bond Watches Blog: “Gruen“

— Dell Deaton
Updated: December 31, 2024
December 28, 2013

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