GRUEN WATCH COMPANY HISTORY

This watch was probably assembled in Norwood Ohio where the Gruen family had established a factory in 1950. It's a genuine antique timepiece from the USA made ca. 1955*. The Gruen family sold their interest in the company in 1953, and the firm was broken up and sold off in 1958. The watch business was then moved to New York under new ownership, with manufacturing done exclusively in Switzerland.

The Gruen Watch Company was formerly one of the largest watch manufacturers in the United States. It was in business from about 1894 to 1958 and was based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Gruen was one of the first US watch companies to offer basic movements produced in Switzerland, in a wide variety of cases and prices, but adjusted, dialed and cased in U.S.A. Some of their finest movements were made by Jean Aegler (who became a business partner of Hans Wilsdorf, Rolex). In 1904, the company introduced the Veri-Thin pocket watch movement, a new arrangement of components that allowed the movement to be made much thinner. The first Gruen wristwatches were introduced in 1908. These found favor with women buyers, but were not popular with men at the time (who considered wristwatches feminine). The company did not return to making wristwatches for men until World War I, when military use made wristwatches acceptable for men to wear. It was during and shortly after World War II that many American watch companies began to lose market share to Swiss imports. Numerous American watch companies began to move manufacturing to Switzerland in the 1940s and 1950s, while Gruen, had always manufactured watch movements in Germany or Switzerland. More History.
* It's possible the watch was assembled in N.Y. between 1960 - 1969.