You don’t see this every day!

A vintage reissue watch seems like a more recent idea in the industry, right?… what about a vintage reissue that was made in the 80s? A vintage, vintage reissue???WAT.

While scoping out a new spot to hunt vintage watches, I stumbled upon what looked like a stunning 1930s/1940s Gruen Precision in a glass case, with a few other watches that weren’t of any interest to me. The price was right, so I made the purchase, and on I went with my shopping, never even giving the watch a look-over until I get back to the car…

When I start inspecting the watch, I start noticing that the crown seems a little small for a vintage manual wind, I turn it… no resistance! so I look a little closer at the dial and see the cute little word “Quartz” just above the seconds subdial! I rubbed my eyes and looked again… and I wasn’t seeing things.

The dial says Gruen Precision AND quartz! Imagine my shock when the watch that I was positive was a 1930s/40s watch MUST be much much newer… at first I was super bummed, I thought I may be holding a somehow fake 1930s Gruen…  Then I thought, “there must be more to this story” so I did some research, found a few listings, found a few posts, and a YouTube video with a Gruen family member talking about the history of the Gruen watch company that was recorded in 1990. At the end of the video he even touched on the subject of the state of the company after the change of ownership, and the (then current model) reissue models from the 1980s.

I was aware of the Gruen name being used to make entry level quartz watches for the mass market through the 80s and 90s. What I didn’t know, was that they also produced reissues of 1930s models, like the Curvex and Precision! These were made in Switzerland, and some in Japan, or Hong Kong. Some had ETA quartz movements, and some had Seiko movements, some were solid gold, and some were (supposedly 20 micron) gold plated. Mine is a Hong Kong made, gold plated Precision with a Morioka Tokei branded Seiko movement. I’m noticing that these seem to be a little harder to find than the original, not that it’s worth any more or it’s any more desirable, it’s just less common. To me, it’s more interesting! I have had plenty of 1940s art deco watches, and come across vintage Gruen, Bulova, Elgin, Benrus, you name it… All the time. I’ve never come across a vintage reissue that was made so early. I thought I knew what I was buying, but I was in for a cool surprise.

I’ll keep this watch in the collection and enjoy it thoroughly. Thanks for letting me blab about this watch that most will consider ultra boring! 😄