Gruen, like so many watch manufacturers, had a long history of ups-and-downs but for the most part maintained a strong quality focus. Their founder was born in Germany and despite the company’s roots in the United States and later Switzerland, they maintained a long-term relationship with German suppliers right to the end. One such relationship was with the German movement manufacturer PUW. In this Gruen 711CD, produced near the end of the company’s closing its doors in the 1970’s (to be reopened in 2000), clearly shows the connection to PUW. When disassembled, you can see that this movement contains a large number of PUW components even thought the watch is marked as Swiss. Right down to the left-winding mainspring (something never seen on Swiss watches), this watch speaks to you in German as you work on it ;-) The movement is very well made— it is highly modular and has 25 jewels. It’s a bit more complex than some other day/date automatics of the era which adds to the servicing workload. It’s an interesting, well made, and attractive watch.
