Wristwatches · Wristwatch
Gruen Airflight, 1950s
- Maker / attribution
- Gruen (maker)
- Date
- 1950s
- Historical period
- Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Wristwatch
- Dimensions
- Case 34 mm
- Stock no.
- 40991299
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Analog/Shift (40991299)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Gruen Airflight (English)
Editor's note
The dealer's brand field named another maker; the dealer's own listing title identifies the watch as Gruen.View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Analog/Shift (dealer), New York (stock number 40991299), this is a wristwatch by Gruen, made in Switzerland, dated 1950s. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Wristwatches collection. Recorded dimensions: Case 34 mm. The record is illustrated with 5 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Analog/Shift
Watches with 24-hour displays are common enough, but certain methods for displaying ‘military time’ are more innovative than others. Take, for example, the Gruen Airflight; A unique dial features cut-out indices with numerals 1-12 visible beneath; as the watch strikes noon, these indices shift to numerals 13-24, indicating the transition to the afternoon/evening. Pretty clever! Well known for its simple dress watches, Gruen was once the largest and most prosperous American watch company; the Airflight is among its more unusual, complicated designs. This particular Airflight is housed in a 34mm 14K yellow gold case with faceted, stylized lugs, a signed crown, an acrylic crystal, and a smooth bezel. It features a domed, satin silver dial with a rotating 12-24 hour disc beneath the 12 apertures, an outer, black minute track, and a combination ring-dauphine handset. Dating to the 1950s and powered by the hand-wound Gruen Calibre 510, it comes paired to a brown, two-piece alligator leather strap from I.W. Suisse. With its unique complication, fancy lugs, and excellent size, this vintage stunner from a historically significant American company would make an excellent addition to any budding watch collection. Watches such as this one are fun and wonderful timepieces, and there's no telling if and when one of these in any condition, let alone excellent condition such as this example, will surface again. Snap it up before somebody else gets the same idea!
Historical context
Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
Tool watches for divers, pilots and astronauts; electric watches anticipate the electronic age.
The classic era of the mechanical wristwatch: dive watches, chronographs for motor racing and space flight, GMT watches for jet travel, slim dress watches, automatic calendars, and the rise of Japanese manufacturers alongside Swiss, American, German and Soviet industries.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking
Atlas type guide
Wristwatches
Bracelet watches were worn by women from the early nineteenth century — Breguet made one for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810–12 — but the wristwatch only became a man's instrument with military use and aviation in the early twentieth century. Between the World Wars it overtook the pocket watch; the 1920s and 1930s brought rectangular Art Deco cases, water-resistant cases and the first automatic winding systems.
After 1945 the wristwatch became a carrier of identity — dress watches, sports and dive watches, chronographs, calendars — produced by Swiss, American, Japanese, German, Soviet and Chinese industries. The quartz revolution after 1969 and the mechanical renaissance since the 1990s, including the rise of independent watchmakers, complete the story.
What to look for
- The reference number (between the lugs or inside the case back) and serial number, the starting point for dating.
- The calibre: its maker and number are often stamped under the dial or on the bridge.
- Originality of dial, hands and crown — refinished ('redial') dials are common.
- Case material marks: 18K/750, 14K/585, stainless steel, gold-filled, plated.
Dating clues
- Wire-lug cases: before c. 1925.
- Water-resistant screw-down cases: from 1926.
- Quartz movements: from 1969; sapphire crystals widespread after c. 1980.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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