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Re: Caliber 89 (Extra Precision) – 8.75'" 18J, All Adjustments [message #14531 is a reply to message #14528] Wed, 17 February 2021 20:03 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Barney Green
Messages: 1755
Registered: February 2014
Location: Wolfsburg, Germany
Gruen Authority
Afire,

you are correct that from 1935 to the mid 50s only some specialties were sourced from a few other vendors and the vast majority had been built in house.
The time frame I was referring to, and yes, I did not mention that, has been the state before the precision factory was built. This has been the status quo at that time and there were many exceptions arising. Aegler, Lavina, Marc Favre and some others did many complete designs as most Guild members did. Not all of them were assigned a facory letter, not all of the factories which had a letter were building complete movements from plate stamping to the finished product. There were hundreds of movement factories until the 1920s, some very small like Gruen in the 1870s/80s, some already large factories like FHF Fontainemelon.
At some point of time Precision and Extra Precision grades were built in house. But not before the precision factory was opened. Gruen did not have their own factory at that time! They left their customers under the impression that they had that, but this is not true. St. Imier, Madretsch, these have not been solely Gruen owned factories, all the factory A,D,R,T,V,... whatsoever movements were outsourced for manufacturing. In some cases they have been own designs, but Gruen always partnered with someone for manufacturing and most movements were simply sourced by others. The Guild marking was developed later in time.
The first years of the the Precision Factory it is said that only pocket watch movements have been built there. It took Gruen more than 10 years to move also other products to their own factory.
Just what I learned from closer looking into the "real" sources of many movements which I tried to track down.
This is a rather huge puzzle with thousands of pieces and the third dimension of time makes it even more complicated as some of the movements were acutally moved from one factory to another in time.

Gruen, Gruen, Gruen ist alles was ich habe... Gruen, Gruen, Gruen is all I have...(German folklore song)

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