Vintage Jewelers gone AD watch retailers⌚, GRASSY 🙌!

This once in a lifetime find sparked this post!

I slepped on it for two days and then jumped on this watch. To my scrutinating knowledge it is literally one of two in the world. I mean, there must be others out there, but even in this era of social media none other have come up!

We are all familiar with Jewelers gone AD watch retailers. Famous names such as Serpico y Laino, Brock & Co, Tiffany & Co, Beyer, Birks, Türler, Gondola, Labouriau, Gobbi Milano, Asprey and today's subject; Grassy 😃.

This is my watch,

And this is Grassy's CEO Yann Reznak's example,

For those Vintage Watch History Buffs, here we go...(most of it is Google translate from their spanish website with some personal tweeks 😅)

Born in Constantine (Algeria), of Italian origin and French nationality, Alexandre Grassy arrived in Spain at the end of the twenties of the last century. He was on his way to America and was only thinking of making a stopover, but a Portuguese jeweler he met during the trip made him see that his America was in Spain, then a country with a great future and opportunities. Alexandre came from a family of Milanese goldsmiths and his older brother, Charles – who had emigrated to Brazil where he had a large jewelry store – taught him much of that trade. When in Spain, Alexandre decided to settle in Madrid.

The first jewelry stores: Infantas and Gran Vía 29.
A shop/attelier was the first jewelry store to open on Calle Infantas, specializing in watches. This was a subject that Alexandre Grassy particularly liked, as he was fascinated by the mechanisms and precision of manual machinery. Due to the great success of this first business, a few years later, in 1923, he opened a second establishment in the commercial area of ​​the San Luis network –at Gran Vía 29–, under the name of the Swiss Watch Union. Grassy already had two "branches" in Biarritz and Paris. The building in Madrid had two floors and more than fifty watchmakers worked in the large basement. His goal was to work exclusively with the brands he sold. He made names like Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Audemars Piguet known to the people of Spain. Its reputation as a serious and honorable house grew along with the business, which led to the opening, in 1953, of a second store at number 1 Gran Vía, where it is still located today.

Gran Vía 1 
This store, which coexisted for years with the one at number 29 on the same street, is located in an area of ​​the most elegant Gran Vía –the most important section of jewelers in Madrid– and Alexandre Grassy had the intention of being a point of service to his most exclusive customers. This Grassy headquarter is located in one of the most emblematic buildings in the city, built in 1916 and whose project is the work of the Spanish architect Eladio Laredo Carranza. The store, the first with automatic doors in the capital, houses the Old Clock Museum in the lower part, a mecca for watch lovers.

Jirka Reznak 
In 1959, Alexandre's son-in-law, Jirka Reznak, joined Grassy. At the age of twenty-four, he took over the business. Jirka did not know the trade then, so he followed the instructions of his father-in-law, who maintained the idea that no one teaches you this profession but that you have to "steal it" or "copy cat it", that is, learn it little by little by looking, investigating and experimenting… Under his direction, Grassy enters a stage of development and economic expansion. New markets are opened with the exclusive representation of the Piaget and Baume & Mercier brands in 1960 and 1964 respectively, and with the distribution of the Rolex brand in 1967. Collaborations with artists also begin, highlighting the emblematic Salvador Dalí jewelry exhibition in 1982. At the same time, a major boost is given to a facet that Alexandre had already started earlier: the business of antiques and art objects, subsequently adding pieces to the Clock Museum that sits quietly in the Grassy headquarter's basement vault!

Yann Reznak
In the 1980s, the third generation of the family joined the business with the addition of Yann Reznak, Alexandre's grandson. Yann, who follows in his grandfather's footsteps in terms of his personal passion for watches, their mechanical complications and technical boasts, has been able to transmit this love for watchmaking to the firm, making Grassy a Watch Enthousiast Mecca in Spain for all watch lovers. In 1989, he also promoted the opening of a new Grassy store in the strategic José Ortega y Gasset street, in the Salamanca district. Hand in hand with Yann, Grassy has become a pioneering house with well-known brands such as Bréguet, Bell & Ross, Enigma, Bédat or Chronoswiss, among others, establishing a distribution network throughout the national geography.

So it seems that there are only two GRASSY Skindivers out there 🤷🏻‍♂️. I will make a more elaborate write-up and add more historical photos on an upcoming YT video 🎥🎞️🎬😀👍.

Let's hear your thoughts and comments!