Dietrich Gruen

Dietrich Gruen ( born February 22, 1847 in Osthofen, † April 10, 1911 in Italy ) was a German-born watchmaker who emigrated in 1867 to the United States and with the Gruen Watch Company one of the most important American watch manufacturers during the first half of the 20th century founded.

Life

Childhood and education in Germany

Dietrich Green was born on 22 February 1847 at Rhinehessen Osthofen and attended both public and private schools. At the age of 15, he learned the art of watchmaking with the eminent teacher Jess watchmaker Hans Martens ( 1826-1892 ) in Freiburg / Baden and worked among other things in Karlsruhe and Wiesbaden. After completing his training, he spent three years in Switzerland.

In the United States

1867, at the age of 20, he traveled to the United States, where he followed his three older brothers, who had emigrated before him in the United States. One of his three brothers had died in 1863 during the American Civil War. On this trip he met Pauline Wittlinger, the daughter of a watchmaker. Wittlinger lived in Delaware, Ohio. In 1869 he married and moved to Delaware, where he worked for his father in law.

Dietrich and Pauline first child was a son of Frederick ( Fritz) G. Gruen, born on 15 April 1872 in Delaware. The second son, George J. Gruen was born in 1877.

Since 1906 Dietrich Gruen suffered from heart problems and entrusted his sons more and more business. In 1911, Dietrich Gruen and his son Frederick took the steamer "Berlin" as almost every year a trip to Europe. Frederick should take care of business matters, Dietrich wanted to cure at Bad Nauheim. Shortly before arriving in Italy succumbed Dietrich Gruen on April 10, 1911 suddenly of a heart attack. He was in Cincinnati (Ohio ) buried at the Spring Grove Cemetery, where his tomb is still to be seen.

Labour and Entrepreneurship

In 1874 Dietrich Gruen received a patent for an improved center wheel - drive safety in movements, which should prevent the damage of a clock, when the coil spring to drive the clock broke.

In 1876 he founded with a partner the Columbus Watch Manufacturing Company in Columbus / Ohio, which he left in 1894 because of economic difficulties again. In the same year he founded with his older son Frederick, the watch company " D. Gruen & Son ", with the younger son Georg entry three years later in " D. Gruen & Sons " was renamed. The company expanded with its own movement production to Glashütte in Saxony and later Biel / Switzerland. In the 1920s, the Gruen Watch Company, as it was later called, the largest watch manufacturer in America.