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Gruen precision diver 17 jewels

jerryct
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Hi,

Just want to share on the forum my new acquisition off eBay. There was barely any description and photos were minimal. I threw a low offer and was accepted.

I have no idea if the watch is entirely original and I can't find much reference on it online. Maybe you guys can help me out here.

When the watch arrived, the condition was pretty bad. Crystal was badly scratched, the bezel can't turn and the watch wasn't running properly.

I polished the crystal as much as I can, washed the watch with soap and water and then scrubbed off the gunk using a soft toothbrush. I took some time to reach under the bezel to clear off the gunk. Next I took the watch for a service and it turns out the movement was clean but it was just the minute and hour hands that were loose. It took my watch maker just a couple of hours and it is running fine now.

I will share some photos to show the progress from how it was till what it is now.

BTW: this watch came in its box too. I am just not sure if it is original.
 
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ahsposo
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Congrats! It cleaned up nicely.
 
noelekal
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A fine effort that makes that watch really "pop."
 
bovecHD
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you did a nice job on the crystal, I have not so high end watch i need to polish. what did you use may I ask to polish?
movement looks great.
 
jerryct
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bovecHD bovecHD
you did a nice job on the crystal, I have not so high end watch i need to polish. what did you use may I ask to polish?
movement looks great.
I only used polywatch and kitchen towel to polish. It took me a total of 2hours to get it to this level. Of course I took breaks! If you have tools then it would probably shorten the process by a lot !

I was very surprised the movement is still so clean given that the watch was in such bad shape. It was obviously never serviced before. Guess I was really lucky with this find.
 
jerryct
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sdre sdre
VERY NICE JERRY! Jerry texted me about this piece and I told him about https://omegaforums.net/threads/gruen-diver-with-spillman-case.62405/ that was going at 675 USD. I thought the ebay one was a steal and it looks great imo!

We visited the same watchmaker and he commented how clean the movement was!

Great find !!!!
Thanks for sharing the joy with me bro! You were there with me right from the point where I was thinking whether to get this or not.
 
jerryct
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I noticed there are variations to this watch in the color of the date wheel - white or black. However based on my own reading up, my own deduction is that neither one was due to replacement. Gruen produced these divers at their low point. I believe they just fit in whatever parts they had to produce this watch. So whether you get a white or black date wheel depends on the production period of the watch. What do you guys think?
Edited:
 
SeanO
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more than likely. by the time Gruen were offering such watches they were well and truly past their glory days. which is good because there is nothing inherently wrong with the diver (except maybe that it's a manual wind rather than auto). Waltham and Elgin also suffered the same fate during the period.

so win/win for people looking for that 60's/70's Blancpain fiddy clone watch.
 
bovecHD
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jerryct jerryct
I only used polywatch and kitchen towel to polish. It took me a total of 2hours to get it to this level. Of course I took breaks! If you have tools then it would probably shorten the process by a lot !

I was very surprised the movement is still so clean given that the watch was in such bad shape. It was obviously never serviced before. Guess I was really lucky with this find.
thanks for the details. I have few parts watches I need to practice on before trying others that are working and could use a little love. 👍
 
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