

Some of their finest movements were made by Jean Aegler, who later became a business partner of Hans Wilsdorf, of Rolex. 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, dialled and cased in the United States. 1903, a subsidiary was formed, “The Gruen Watch Manufacturing Company”, located in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. The movements were no longer made in Glashütte, Germany, but in Switzerland again. The new company became partially a Swiss company.

In 1897, the name was modified again, as another son, George J.
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Father and son designed a series of pocket watch movements which were manufactured by the German watchmaking firm of Paul Assmann, and incorporated with an escapement designed by Moritz Grossman. Gruen & Son, a partnership with his son Frederick G. In 1894, Dietrich Gruen founded a new company D. Reincorporated as the New Columbus Watch Company, the firm continued in existence until 1903. During the Panic of 1893 the shareholders forced Gruen out of the company. In 1882 the company was refinanced and reorganized under the new name “Columbus Watch Company” and started manufacturing their own movements directly in the U.S.A. The movements featured Gruen's 1874 safety pinion design. Initially, the company imported and finished watch movements imported from Madretsch, a suburb of Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Savage, the son of a prominent Columbus, Ohio watchmaker and businessman, Dietrich Gruen started the Columbus Watch Manufacturing Company in 1876. Patent 157,913 for pocket watches, which prevented damage to the watch movement if the watch's mainspring broke.Ĭolumbus Watch Manufacturing Company

In 1874, he took out a patent for a safety pinion U.S. Later he worked for three years in Switzerland before going to the United States. At 15 years of age, he was sent away from home to become a watchmaker's apprentice. Dietrich Gruen, was born in Germany in 1847.
