Gruen Precision 65 Jewels Autowind — Swiss Automatic, 10K RGP Bezel, c.1960
$ 60.72
Description
Gruen Precision 65 Jewels Autowind — Swiss Automatic, 10K RGP Bezel, c.1960. SWITZERLAND (the 665SS / AS-1580 family), and it winds and runs. A Gruen Precision "Autowind" from the turn of the 1960s, and the dial makes a claim worth pausing on: 65 jewels. The number is real, and it's a perfect capsule of mid-century watch marketing. During the so-called "Jewel Wars," brands competed on jewel count as a stand-in for quality — so the 17-jewel automatic movement here was dressed with 48 additional decorative, non-functional jewels set around the rotor rim, purely to reach the headline figure. The fashion was short-lived: once US and Swiss authorities began taxing watches by jewel count, the high-count novelties quietly disappeared. The movement: Swiss autowind automatic — 17 functional jewels doing the real work, plus the 48-jewel decorative rim that earns the "65 jewels" on the dial. The rotor is signed GRUEN WATCH Co. SWITZERLAND (the 665SS / AS-1580 family), and it winds and runs. The Gruen footnote: Gruen was a genuinely great American name — Cincinnati, pedigree to the 1870s, prestigious through mid-century. The original company was sold off in 1958, after which the name rode on Swiss-sourced movements. So this is an American label in its Swiss afterlife: heritage outliving the company that built it. The dial: A clean silver sunburst with gold-tone stick markers, Arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9, and slim dauphine hands — an understated dress face that lets the caseback story do the talking. Condition: Runs on the autowind movement; the silver sunburst dial is clean and legible and the crystal is clear. The 10K rolled-gold-plate bezel shows light gold-tone wear with age and the stainless caseback carries fine swirl marks; it arrives on an aftermarket Speidel gold-tone expansion band. One for the buyer who collects the footnotes of watchmaking — a working mechanical curiosity from the brief, slightly absurd era when more jewels were sold as more watch. Included: Watch on its Speidel gold-tone expansion band. Runs.
