Vintage GRUEN CURVEX, solid Gold, Original issue, circa 1937

Vintage watch - The GRUEN CURVEX, solid Gold case, Original issue watch, excellent condition! circa 1937

This is a very attractive gentlemans 14 karat solid gold watch manufactured by GRUEN during the 1940s. The overall condition of this watch is excellent.Original dial and the case is in lovely, condition .The freshly serviced CURVEX movement cal. 330 is running perfectly and keeping time. The design is a strong Art Deco style . Signed on the case, dial and movement, authenticity is guaranteed.

During the mid-1930s, the fashion was for longer and more curved rectangular watches for men. However, the thinness and curve of the case was limited by the need to put a flat movement inside. As the case got thinner and more curved, the only conventional option was to use a smaller and smaller movement. By a clever internal arrangement of the wheels and bridges, Gruen solved this problem by building a curved movement—this allowed them to put a bigger and more reliable movement into a thinner and more curved case than their competitors could. Since the design was patented, these curved movements were exclusive to Gruen. The Curvex was very successful, and was soon followed by women's models.

There were four men's Curvex movements. The original 1935 model was the long, thin calibre 311. This was soon replaced by the more curved 330 (1937), also long and thin. As fashions changed, later Curvex models used the short, squarish-oval 440 (1940) and the short and wide 370 (1948). Watches with the 330 were called Custom Curved and 370 models were called Curvametric in Gruen advertising, although the dials are all marked simply Curvex and Precision. Any man's watch that does not contain one of these four movements is not a Curvex, no matter what is on the dial or how persuasive a seller might be. Dials can be redone or swapped with another watch; it's the movement inside that counts.

GRUEN CURVEX watches are experiencing a renaissance which spurred Gruen to re-issue the Curvex with a modern Quartz model with slightly different dimensions.  We currently have a rose gold Curvex re-issue available on this site. As evidenced by Gruen itself, the Curvex makes a very good collectable investment, likely to increase in value over time.

The case is in very good condition and is 14k solid gold 42mm x 23mm (without crown). The outside of the rear cover is marked "14k gold ". The dial has natural patina and is completely original having no signs of re-paint.  Recessed subsidiary seconds dial just above 6 o'clock and applied alternating numbers.  The gruen signed manual movement cal 330 has 17 jewels. It has recently been serviced so it is running perfectly and keeping time.