Doing my usual hoping to find an ETA powered watch for cheap search about a week ago. I stumbled upon what looked like a nice Gruen GSM014 dress type watch powered buy a 2824 for $99 with three days remaining on the clock. So I put it away in my watch list and followed it.
While waiting I decided to do a little research on it and came up with quite an amazing history.
I remember Gruen as being a well respected watch maker back in the 60's. Presenting watches to Apollo astronauts upon their arrival home and such. But I guess the company came on hard times in the 90's and were sold to a Chinese holding company eventually.
Pressing on I learned that in the early 2000's this company made a deal with Walmart to design a line of three different watches to be sold only at Walmart for the cost of $151 each.These would be rectangular dress type watches with Chinese case and strap and Swiss internals. Pretty good looking pieces if you could put up with the huge Invicta like Gruen chiseled into the side of the case.
I came across some interesting chatter on now defunct watch forums stating that for some reason these watches just didn't sell. Some said it was because Walmart shoppers weren't the Swiss watch type. Others, such as Minuteman's Thomas Carey questioned whether the Swiss ETA 2824 movements within were actually Swiss at all. Is nothing sacred I thought. Could the Chinese actually build a 2824 movement stamp and all ? Anyway, back in 2004, these started turning up on ebay for $30 or $40 as it appeared Walmart was trying to make what they could off of them and just put this thing behind them. More forum chatter said that people / companies were buying in bulk just to get the movements out of them and repurpose them.
I've noticed since, that everyone that is trying to sell one avoids picturing the exhibition back above the balance wheel where the stamp is. Such was the case with the one I was watching. They are marked "Swiss" in front but not "Swiss made" at 6 o'clock. Case back marked Gruen Swiss model GSM014 and Swiss Automatic Movt. 2824. No ETA mentioned, and no "made" after Swiss. Interesting. I was beginning to doubt the provenance of the watch at this time. It had no bidders and was coming to a close. My interest was piqued though and I had to know if the movement was for real. I threw in a quick snipe for $125. But alas it was not to be. Beaten by another bidder who went $139. Guess I'll never know if I missed out on something special.
I'd like to know if any of the older members here remember these watches and what they thought of them at the time. Also if they knew what the other two dials looked like. If anything, it was an interesting journey.
While waiting I decided to do a little research on it and came up with quite an amazing history.
I remember Gruen as being a well respected watch maker back in the 60's. Presenting watches to Apollo astronauts upon their arrival home and such. But I guess the company came on hard times in the 90's and were sold to a Chinese holding company eventually.
Pressing on I learned that in the early 2000's this company made a deal with Walmart to design a line of three different watches to be sold only at Walmart for the cost of $151 each.These would be rectangular dress type watches with Chinese case and strap and Swiss internals. Pretty good looking pieces if you could put up with the huge Invicta like Gruen chiseled into the side of the case.
I came across some interesting chatter on now defunct watch forums stating that for some reason these watches just didn't sell. Some said it was because Walmart shoppers weren't the Swiss watch type. Others, such as Minuteman's Thomas Carey questioned whether the Swiss ETA 2824 movements within were actually Swiss at all. Is nothing sacred I thought. Could the Chinese actually build a 2824 movement stamp and all ? Anyway, back in 2004, these started turning up on ebay for $30 or $40 as it appeared Walmart was trying to make what they could off of them and just put this thing behind them. More forum chatter said that people / companies were buying in bulk just to get the movements out of them and repurpose them.
I've noticed since, that everyone that is trying to sell one avoids picturing the exhibition back above the balance wheel where the stamp is. Such was the case with the one I was watching. They are marked "Swiss" in front but not "Swiss made" at 6 o'clock. Case back marked Gruen Swiss model GSM014 and Swiss Automatic Movt. 2824. No ETA mentioned, and no "made" after Swiss. Interesting. I was beginning to doubt the provenance of the watch at this time. It had no bidders and was coming to a close. My interest was piqued though and I had to know if the movement was for real. I threw in a quick snipe for $125. But alas it was not to be. Beaten by another bidder who went $139. Guess I'll never know if I missed out on something special.
I'd like to know if any of the older members here remember these watches and what they thought of them at the time. Also if they knew what the other two dials looked like. If anything, it was an interesting journey.