| Re: Fully restored all-Swiss watch with 24-hour dial [message #6457 is a reply to message #6454] |
Sat, 23 January 2016 03:07  |
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JackW
Messages: 1931
Registered: May 2013
Location: Denver
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Gruen Authority
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No the only way to account for the difference in the thread size and diameter is that they were done that way on purpose. Just as Thojil supposes. Threads are cut after the cases were milled but before the plating on those that are base-metal bezels. They were not cast with the threads in place.
Anyway... This watch is on hold until I get the "studio" back in order... should there be an offer for its purchase. I'll post a picture of the current state of the studio on the "incoming" thread.
I'm still of the opinion that the dial was part of the "pre-Pan Am's that were being sold with all the look and feel of the ones that just a few months later were sold AS Pan Ams. You look at the old adverts from the time, I don't think it is a stretch that Gruen was testing the field with these "nearly-but-not-quite" Pan Americans. Monty er...I mean MonKey once shared a write up of case serial numbers for the 24-houred dialed watches that were sold between 1943 and 1948 that were marked and not marked Pan Am. This one falls into that range easily. One can argue what is the defining characteristic of a Pan Am: The dial or the mark on the caseback. If one remembers the Pan Am series in the Wadsworth and Star cased ones, then it should be the dial and how it fits into the overall scheme of Gruen's marketing. This above watch fits into the time period where they were teasing the public, while still enjoying nearly full production out of Switzerland, despite loosing one shipment and the reduction in supply of stainless steel in Switzerland. There was a war and an embargo, after all....
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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