| 50th Anniversary Pocket Watch [message #17916] |
Tue, 27 December 2022 18:53  |
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kastner
Messages: 339
Registered: May 2013
Location: Pasadena CA
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Gruen Guildsman |
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Model name : 50th Anniversary
Type : Pocket watch
Period/date : 1924 (The movement was made in 1924, but it is unclear when this watch was cased and sold)
Gender : Men's
Case Maker : Gruen Cincinnati
Case Material : 18kt white gold
Case Serial : 1072311
Case Style no : none
Case Inscription (inside caseback): "Made Especially for Gilbert J Easton"
Caliber : See below
Movement Maker : Gruen
Movement Serial: 204
Movement details from Priceless Possessions of A Few by Fuller.
- 17-linge (approximately 10-size) open face, 23 jewels (21 extra quality ruby jewels, plus two faceted diamond cap jewels over escape wheel and balance wheel pivots on upper plates)
- 12kt gold plates (total 19 penny weight), individually engraved in floral relief pattern
- Steel cup in each counter-bored hole for plate screws
- Follow-up die used to slightly bevel around edge of spoke and inside rim of wheels
- Gold plated train wheels
- Chronometer style balance with solid gold screws
- Detachable staff which can be removed without disturbing relationship of balance hairspring, collet, and roller jewel
- Jewel pin fastened in balance arm with a bearing twice the length of the usual watch, making it doubly secure against coming loose
- Double steel roller
- Hand finished visible steel escapement with posing arms
- Patent micrometic regulator of continuous equal action
- Meantime adjusting gold screws
- True isochronal and Breguet hairspring
- Finest Swiss mainspring of lasting quality and great elasticity made by hand-rubbing so that the motive power is practically constant whether watch is fully wound or nearly run down
- Patented American pendant-set device of very few pieces
- Geneva style stop works and cut-away barrel bridges
- Eight adjustments to all positions, isochronism and temperature
- Fine Silver dial
- Patented inverted (Verithin) wheel train construction
- Extra finely finished in all details
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| Re: 50th Anniversary Pocket Watch [message #17919 is a reply to message #17918] |
Wed, 28 December 2022 00:04  |
thesnark17
Messages: 654
Registered: January 2017
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Gruen Master |
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The detachable staff is a friction fit, and continues the principle of the earlier Chronometer Balance found on the V1, V2, and V3.
The earlier balance design integrates the roller jewel and double roller into the balance so that they cannot be removed, meaning that a restaffing will not disrupt their relationship. This design seems to take the idea even further. I would love to see a close-up of the balance removed to see how it works.
[Updated on: Wed, 28 December 2022 00:05] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: 50th Anniversary Pocket Watch [message #18632 is a reply to message #18631] |
Mon, 04 September 2023 13:41 |
thesnark17
Messages: 654
Registered: January 2017
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Gruen Master |
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Looks like you got it all right. That's an original late watch, and a beauty.
However, I never really looked at Art's SN 79 before. The more I see, the more I question it. It's obviously the wrong dial, and that makes me suspect the case too, since the dial has been redialed as a 50th anniversary (therefore someone had money).
Looking over my data (which is a bit thin for 50th, I'll admit), here is the distribution for Gruen gold cases with 7-digit SNs:
103xxxx - 1 (suspect; probably a marriage)
106 - 5
107 - 5
108 - 3
117 - 1 (SN 79)
Conclusion: I really need more data.
Case serial 1178002 would match up best with 1928-29. So I guess one question is when/whether Gruen had cased up these watches, or whether they reserved cases for them. We know there were several style lines of case as well, so it's not a simple question - plus these watches could be ordered to taste.
Looking into the other information I have for case serials 117, I think it could be original, but I'm inclined to be skeptical.
[Updated on: Mon, 04 September 2023 14:09] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: 50th Anniversary Pocket Watch [message #18633 is a reply to message #18632] |
Mon, 04 September 2023 14:26 |
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JackW
Messages: 1931
Registered: May 2013
Location: Denver
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Gruen Authority
Head Janitor
Site Admin |
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More data is always the correct answer. Yet, there is a trend that can be discerned and your info suggests that the #79 may not be a late sale but something else, and tbd. It is an outlier, to say the least.
Glad to know I didn't give bad information to the other thread.
All I know is based on hard work & writing by others. I can only aspire to augment this body of knowledge. If I am wrong it is because of my own failings. -me
"If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." - Newton
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Said it before n I'll say it again, 5Oth's are one of the neatest pocket watches ever designed. 
