This is a fine example of Gruen’s mid-century Autowind series, which introduced full-rotor automatic technology to the American market. I particularly love the overall look of this watch, with its subtly recessed arrowhead dial markers, tiered, sloping bezel, and flared lugs. It’s really a timeless, elegant look.

The 408SS movement inside is particularly interesting. All automatic movements that support hand winding need some mechanism to decouple the automatic rotor when the watch is hand wound (otherwise the rotor would have to spin around at an impossibly fast rate). The decoupling design in the 480SS is particularly unique and elaborate. It consists of two (!) separate ratchet wheels that are stacked above the mainspring barrel, one dedicated to hand winding, and the other dedicated to the automatic winding mechanism. Each wheel connects to the mainspring arbor indirectly via an internal ratchet mechanism, allowing them to turn the arbor and wind the mainspring independently. This complex mechanism completely decouples the hand winding and automatic winding mechanisms and results in truly excellent hand winding “feel” - an important consideration in the 1950s when most watch wearers were very much accustomed to regularly hand winding their watches.