Don't miss the next drop
In the golden era of American watchmaking, few brands managed to combine Swiss precision with genuinely avant garde case design quite like Gruen. While most American competitors of the period stuck to conservative tank cases and round dress pieces, the Gruen Watch Company, founded by Dietrich Gruen in 1874 and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, was unafraid to push the envelope. The Barclay, nicknamed the “Spider” by collectors for its eight long, curling lugs, is one of the most distinctive expressions of that adventurous spirit and arguably the most photogenic dress watch Gruen ever produced.
This particular example is a Reference 335-723, dating to roughly 1950 or 1951 based on the style number 723 stamped inside the caseback. The 10K gold filled case is a small sculptural marvel, with a faceted octagonal bezel framing a recessed circular dial and those signature spider lugs flowing outward in pairs at each corner. From the side profile the case practically looks like it is floating between the strap horns, an effect Gruen’s industrial designers achieved through a clever combination of inner case and outer wireform cage. There is no mistaking this watch for anything else on the wrist.
Powering the Barclay is the Gruen in-house Veri-Thin caliber 335, a 21 jewel manual wind movement that ran at 18,000 vibrations per hour with a 37 hour power reserve. The 335 was Gruen’s flagship calibre of the era, part of the celebrated Veri-Thin family of compact movements that gave the brand’s designers room to dream up cases as adventurous as this one. The bridge is signed in copper toned gilt with “Precision Gruen Cincinnati USA, 21 Jewels,” the Veri-Thin patented designation, and the caliber number 335R. Fit and finish on these movements continues to impress us decades later. The interior caseback carries the full “Cased & Timed in U.S.A. By Gruen Watch Co.” signature alongside the anchor logo, the 10K Gold Filled stamp, the case serial M47865, and the reference designation 335-723.
The dial is original and beautifully aged, with the cream silver finish having taken on a soft, even ivory cast over the past seven decades. Applied gilt dart indices mark the hours, and the Gruen wordmark sits in black printing at the top, paired with the small applied “21” shield emblem just below. We want to call special attention to that applied 21 emblem because it is rarely seen. Most Gruen Precision dials of the era used a simple printed “21,” and the small applied metal shield is generally reserved for higher specification dials destined primarily for the American market. To us, it is one of the details that elevates this particular reference. “PRECISION” is printed in black just below the central pinion, and a recessed sub-seconds register with a crosshair pattern and railroad style minute track sits at six o’clock. The gilt dauphine hands have aged in concert with the dial, picking up a warm patina that ties the whole composition together.
We have paired the Barclay with a brown pebble grain leather strap, which feels like exactly the right register of warmth and texture for a watch with this much character. The deep red brown plays gorgeously off the gold filled case and warm gilt dial elements, and brings out the depth in the patina we love so much on this dial. In our opinion, the Barclay Spider sits among the most collectible and distinctive American dress watches of the post war period, a piece that rewards close inspection and wears with a personality far beyond what its modest 30.5mm case diameter would suggest.
