History begins in Glashuette i. Sa.
The watch history of the watch brand GRUEN begins in the 19th century in Glashütte i.Sa.
The first GRUEN watches worldwide were made in 1894 at D. GRUEN & SON, in collaboration with the highly regarded watch manufacturer J. ASSMANN, in Glashütte i. Sa
see Glashütte story by H. G. Donner: www.glashuetteuhren.de, in the left column under "Die Uhrenfabriken" and there under "ASSMANN"
Photo right: Thorsten Bechtoldt DGS Glashuette i. Sa. GmbH
We maintain our company museum in the house Hauptstrasse 16, in 01768 Glashütte i. Sa., with numerous original exhibits from 1894 to 2015. You can also find examples here on the website
Above: Company logo 1898 for D. GRUEN & SOEHNE, Glashütte i. Sa., after renaming from D. GRUEN & SON to D. GRUEN & SONS = D. GRUEN & SÖHNE. The US office in Columbus, Ohio, which was an important location for importing documents and selling Glashütte watches on the American continent.
Photo above: Ingeborg Bechtoldt DGS Glashuette i. Sa. GmbH
Photo editing above: Gerhard Bechtoldt DGS Glashuette i. Sa. GmbH / Photo Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Glashütte i. Sa.
ABOVE:
Photo of the founding celebration of D. GRUEN & SON in Glashütte in 1894, with Dietrich Gruen in the middle of the front row, next to Paul Assmann and Fred Gruen. Additionally, important representatives of the "Glashütte publishing industry" of that time are present. The young Ernst Assmann (front right) later worked at GRUEN, USA.
http://www.uhrenmuseum-glashuette.com/presse/pressemitteilungen/02062014-verlagwesen/
ABOVE: Original working sketch by FRED GRUEN from the German Watchmaking School in Glashütte i.Sa., for the world's first GRUEN watch with the company name D. GRUEN & SON in the year 1894. Originally FRED GRUEN intended for movement numbers beginning from 35,000. Later, In cooperation with Julius Assmann, the first prototypes with a work number of around 32,000 were built and for the subsequent series production of D. GRUEN & SON watches in Glashütte i. Sa., new serial numbers from 62,000 onwards were used. - See the list of numbers below of the Gustav Gessner engraving company in Glashütte i. Sa., archived in the German Watch Museum Glashütte i. Sa.
BELOW: The world's first GRUEN watch by the GRUEN brand was built by D. GRUEN & SON in Glashütte in July 1894 as GRUEN-PRECISION no .: 32,000, in 1 A quality. This first GRUEN watch is shown below. The semicircular engraving "S. Pinion" in the middle around the minute wheel in the center stands for "Safety-Pinion" (safety drive). The "Safety-Pinion" for the minute wheel was patented in 1874 by Dietrich Gruen in his adopted home: Columbus Ohio / USA. Its purpose is to avoid the destruction of the fine parts of the movement and gear train in the watch due to the kickback in case of spring outages, which often occurred in the USA at that time. see: http://www.pixelp.com/gruen/1867.ml + http://immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=219
This patent was used from 1876 in the Columbus Watch Company in Columbus, Ohio / USA, in which Dietrich Gruen was a partner until 1893. see: Columbus factory photo below
Photo above:Hendrik Bechtoldt DGS Glashuette i. Sa. GmbH
ABOVE: The signature engravings D. GRUEN & SON were updated with D. GRUEN & SONS in 1898 after the second son George joined the company. Dietrich Gruen and his sons Frederick (Fred) and George were company owners in Germany, Switzerland and the USA from 1898 onwards.
BELOW: Dial of the world's first GRUEN watch no .: 32,000 from Glashütte i. Sa., enamel, three-part, partially hand-painted, blued steel hands
Photo above: Hendrik Bechtoldt DGS Glashuette i. Sa. GmbH
Photos above: Ron Geweniger, DGS Glashütte i. Sa. GmbH, courtesy of Jones & Horan, NH/USA, www.jones-horan.com
ABOVE: Copy of a newspaper report from August 16, 1894, on the founding celebration of GRUEN watch company, in a hotel in DRESDEN, in Glashütte i. Sa
BELOW: List of works by master engraver Gustav Gessner, with the number index of the GRUEN PRECISION movements processed in Glashütte: Beginning in July 1894, with the first work numbers 32,000 and 32.001, and continued in December 1894, with a new series of work numbers: 32.031 through 32.035. (possibly pre-series as a sample for sales demonstrations at USA jewelers?)
Then in June 1895 another special series (complicated watches?) With numbers 32.261 to 32.265 were processed. The entry of 3 double pages in the processing suggests that these 5 watches were particularly high-quality or complicated watches?
The more well-known 60,000 numbers for GRUEN PRECISION watches also started in 1894, with the number 62,000 in November.
(Copy of the list of works by master engraver Gustav Gessner for "Uhrenfabrik D. GRUEN u. SON Glashütte i. Sa.", with the kind permission of the German Watch Museum Glashütte i. Sa.)
Photo/Collage above: Gerhard Bechtoldt DGS Glashuette i. Sa. GmbH
ABOVE:
The next work book by Gustav Gessner for the GRUEN watch factory in Glashütte, which was later renamed D. GRUEN & SONS / D. GRUEN & SOEHNE, is no longer available. In this respect, the later D. GRUEN & SONS / SOEHNE number lists from the processing in the house of master engraver Gustav Gessner are lost. Work number and date of the last GRUEN PRECISION watch from Glashütte i. Sa. are currently not precisely determinable. Experts now suspect that the last Glashütte work number should be in the 68,000 range.
www.glashuetteuhren.de/die-uhrenfabriken/j-assmann-glashuette-i-sa-deutsche-anker-uhren-fabrik-1/gruenschen-uhrenfabrikation-gruen-und-assmann/
BELOW: Factory photo of the world's youngest ever documented GRUEN watch from Glashütte i. Sa., with movement number 68174.
This watch is also in our company museum. It is a DGS Extra Precison watch in A-1 quality, with 21 jewels and a special dial.
In contrast to earlier works, Mustache anchor and escape wheel are made of steel, the chaton screws are set radially and the fine adjustment was modified.
BELOW:
After the death of the company founder Dietrich GRUEN on the high seas on April 10, 1911 - (see funeral notice below) - FRED GRUEN was appointed as head of the company. FRED GRUEN obviously remained very positively connected to his Glashütte watchmaking years: A letter imprinted by Fred GRUEN from 1928 shows his special appreciation for his learning period in Glashütte i. Sa. as well as that FRED GRUEN also handled complicated clocks at that time. (see below: translation from the newspaper "Uhrmacher-Woche" No. 18, from April 1928, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the German watchmaking school in Glashütte on Saturday)
Photo above: courtesy of Charlie Cleves at http://clevesandlonnemann.com/about_cleves_and_lonnemann_jewelers.html
BELOW:
Letter of recommendation from FRED GRUEN to Glashuette i. Sa. for the 50th anniversary of the German School of Watchmaking in Glashuette i. Sa.
Photo courtesy of H. G. Donner http://www.glashuetteuhren.de/
in the excerpt above, Fred Gruen reminisces fondly of his schooling at the Glashuetter Uhrmacherschule (Glashuette school of watchmaking). He states that his time there had awoken his interest in pursuing watchmaking and he later praises this watchmaking school as being one of, if not the best in the world.
Following Glashütte, GRUEN continued to have a business presence in Germany with the GRUEN-UHRMACHER-GILDE until 1939 - as part of the ALPINA-GRUEN-GILDE SA, and with its German representative, the DUGENA (Deutsche Uhrmacher-Genossenschaft Alpina) in Berlin - see website: ALPINA-GRUEN
DGS Glashuette i. Sa. GmbH - website watch brands with a historically relevent context - in alphabetical order: ALPINA, ASSMANN, DUGENA, GRUEN, MORITZ-GROSSMANN, PATEK PHILIPPE, ROLEX, are registered trademarks / trade marks and are thus protected by law for commercial use through property rights (also see the below imprint).