# A Quasi-Military Gruen



## Sisyphus (Jun 3, 2009)

This is a new addition to my modest collection, a Gruen "Pan American" from the late 1940s. Everything is original except the strap and the luminmous material in the hands. Though technically not a military watch, the Pan American has a military pedigree of sorts. The interesting history of this Gruen model is set out after the photo. It was written by Cary Hurt, a Gruen enthusiast, and posted last year on the NAWCC forum.










Prior to World War Two, Gruen had established a promotional relationship with several airlines, including Pan American. Once American involvement in the war began, Gruen found themselves in an odd position. Since they depended upon imported Swiss movements for their watches, they could not guarantee supply for what was considered a crucial strategic commodity, so they were not awarded any contracts for the production of US Government-issued military watches. They did contribute quite substantially to the war effort by producing gauges for planes, ships and land vehicles, radio components, medical devices and millions of timed artillery fuses. Gruen President Benjamin Katz was a member of the War Planning Board, with the company subsidizing his salary (the government paid board members $1 per year).

Since they didn't have to dedicate watch production to the military, Gruen was able to still produce some watches for the civilian market, something Bulova, Hamilton, Elgin and Waltham all were struggling to do. This also left them in the position of having to justify or prove their commitment to the war effort, as a patriotic consumer might not want to buy a watch from a company who couldn't produce for the military. Gruen advertising offers several clues to this awkward position, and their slogan in their print ads from 1942 through 1945 was â€œBuy a Gruen watch, but Buy a War Bond First.â€ They even printed ads that never mentioned watches, instead concentrating on Gruenâ€™s non-watch contributions, or upon the importance of not cashing war bonds early.

In a first-rate marketing scheme, Gruen used their relationship with Pan American to capitalize on one of their material contributions to the war effort. The Pan American â€œClipperâ€ flying boats were among the few aircraft (early in the war) capable of making the long non-stop flights necessary to maintain contact with scattered outposts in the Pacific. Their cooperation with the US military in delivering supplies, messages and diplomats throughout the region was well-known, and the Clipper pilots gained a measure of celebrity. Beginning in 1943 Gruen began advertising that they were providing a new navigation watch to the pilots and crews of the Clipper flying boats, and that when the demands of the war relented, these watches would be made available to the public. These first Pan American watches were in simple yellow gold-filled cases, soon followed by the commonly seen models in brushed chrome on base metal.

In August, 1945, with a broad media campaign, the civilian production Pan Americans were introduced. There are at least eight different case designs seen in Gruen advertising listed as Pan Americans, and some others that have the look, but haven't been identified from contemporary documents. There are round and square models, and menâ€™s and ladies models. They are seen cased yellow, pink, white and two tone cases in gold-filled, chrome plated, and Guildite (stainless) cases, and a very few in yellow or pink in 14K solid gold. I've seen applied numeral dials, painted numeral dials, Roman numeral dials, white, black, gray, pink and gold dials, and on and on. Most have the distinctive bold 13-24 hour inner dial, while some have very small 13-24 characters. Most have red sweep-seconds hands, although at least one Pan American model had sub-seconds. There seems to be no standardization in which dial went with which case went with which hands.


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## Top Cat (Feb 24, 2011)

That was an enjoyable history lesson. I never heard of this company. Thank you for sharing.


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