Questions regarding a Curvex 440-449

[Barney Green]

Mike,

I get you. The problem is that I have a number of Cadet pictures from 1947, all seem to show different watches. And yes, you are right, one is showing the watch we are talking about. The extra metal between the lugs is definitely missing on the Comet.

Here are my 1947 Cadet pictures, as you can see they all show totally different watches:

[MikeTheWatchGuy]

I'm not sure what to tell you other than you should write a letter to Gruen complaining about model-name reuse.

So far, the ONLY match to the watch originally posted, the 440-449, is the image Kastner pointed us all to. It's the one from The 1940s book and matches the image you've posted from Dec 16th 1947.

I would bet money that if one was to overlay the image of the Curvex Cadet from the newspaper with a photo of the watch, the dimensions would match and the dial figures would as well.

We also know already that the Curvex Comet has a style number of 440-544, not 440-449.

I have only seen one image match the photo of the 440-449 watch posted and that's the Curvex Cadet advertised on Dec 16th 1947. I haven't found anything else that matches.

[Mugea]

I would bet money that if one was to overlay the image of the Curvex Cadet from the newspaper with a photo of the watch, the dimensions would match and the dial figures would as well.

Mike,

just for the fun of it, I took a straight front photo and brought it to the same dimensions as the 1947 ad:

Curvex_440_05_576x768.jpg (98.42 KiB) Viewed 588 times

Comp_Ad_440-449.jpg (76.52 KiB) Viewed 588 times

Seems, this IS a match!

When you order a crystal, be sure you use the 440-449 style number rather than the model name

I have located a thin glass Watchcraft crystal that should fit your watch. If you are interested, please PM me.

Thanks for your kind offer, but I have a crystal already. Should fit the 440-449.

Curvex_440_10_1024x768.jpg (105.06 KiB) Viewed 588 times

Best regards

Martin
P.S: This little Gruen was my first vintage watch I bought back in 1994 or ’95, when the prices for vintage watches were crazy high in Germany….

[MikeTheWatchGuy]

Thanks for the additional photo.

I took the photo of your watch and the advertisement illustration and superimposed them. It appears that this ad was drawn using a photo of an actual watch as the dimensions fit perfectly. I did not distort the illustration when I resized it to match the photograph.

The illustration is colored red in this exercise.

You can read more about this practice and see other examples in the Reference Section of GruenWristwatches site.

Curvex Cadet Superimposed.jpg (305.8 KiB) Viewed 586 times

[Mugea]

Again, thank you all for identifying my Cadet! Meanwhile, my watchmaker managed it to replace the crystal - now, it looks much better.

Curvex_440_11_576x768.jpg (79.3 KiB) Viewed 428 times

Curvex_440_12_576x768.jpg (63.46 KiB) Viewed 428 times

Best regards

Martin