Antique or vintage Bulova watches are affordable timepieces for the beginning collector. The Charles Lindbergh Bulova Watch. Additionally, within each model, Bulova often produced variations of the style.Variations in models typically appear in one (or more) of four areas:Identification of a watch is a process, typically done as follows:Genuinely Bulovas are almost universally marked clearly on the dial with the word “Bulova.” There are a few exceptions.

Vintage Womens Bulova Hand-Wind Watch 10k White Rolled-Gold Case & GF Top Band $49.99 VINTAGE 50's BULOVA MYSTERY DIAL SOLID 14K GOLD CASE 30J AUTOMATIC WATCH WORKING Find the worth of your vintage Bulova wristwatch. Bulova recognizes and celebrates the extraordinary individuals who pioneered movements, pushed boundaries and challenged the status quo. A-15 Pilot. Powered by Bulova’s proprietary high-performance quartz movement with 262 kHz vibrational frequency for extraordinary precision, the new styles feature stand out colors with striking open-work elements. To a lesser extent, dial features, like the placement of the second hand and the shape of the sub-seconds (if any), are also very useful indicators.The are several very helpful resources for model identification, online including:The date of your Bulova watch case is relatively easy to identify, at least from 1950 onwards.

Bulova watches can be identified with a reasonable degree of certainty, due to the existence of a body of work gathered by collectors over the years. Read reviews for Bulova Mens A-15 Pilot Silver-Tone Leather Watch, 96A245. The key to identifying models by their case design is to pay attention to the details. Note that the date codes prior to 1950 also used a different format — they are graphical symbols, as shown in the chart below. Non-precious parts have to be deducted before doing a proper evaluation. Research our price guide with auction results on 61 items from $23 to $3,120. There are also a few examples of very early watches (1920s period) appearing without any Bulova markings on the exterior. It is merely the date of the copyright of the case design and tells us nothing about the age of the case (other than it is certainly from the year stated or later).Check your watch, then use the chart below to match the code to a specific year. Always consider that non-precious parts of a watch can add up. Don’t rely on this exclusively, however, as crowns can be changed easily.Note, watches with dials that state “Bulova movement” are not Bulova watches; rather they are watches that have been created by taking Bulova movements and putting them into third party cases (cometimes called “jobber watches”).When it comes to identifying the model of a particular Bulova, the bottom line is: It’s all about the case — movements don’t determine model, case designs do. Case signatures often seen on legitimate Bulovas include:Signed crowns can also be useful. The newest timepieces feature distinctive case shapes and diamond accents.
Purveyors of Classic Vintage Mechanical Watches (6) American Clipper. (Note: The graphic symbol code system includes some repetition! ★★★★★ ★★★★★. One of the challenges you will quickly discover, however, is that definitive information about older watches is often hard to find. After 1949, the date code is typically found on the back of the case. All watches of a particular model had the same case style (though the material may vary, i.e., yellow gold vs. coral gold). Bulova watches are not marked with names or identification codes that allow you to simply look at the watch and derive the model and age. Information resources are scattered among numerous sites and the quality of that information often varies widely.

On June 11 1927, upon his return to the US aboard the Memphis, the Bulova Watch Company presented Charles A. Lindbergh with a Bulova watch and the $1000 Bulova Prize money for making the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris. Beginning in 1950, Bulova used a simple code to date the case.

The company grew out of a hobby, albeit a rather obsessively serious hobby. There is no date code on the case; the code was located on the movement. A name in use in the 1930s might very well crop up again in the 1950s on a totally different looking model.

Finally, Bulova did produce several subsidiary brands and those are marked differently (discussed further on the “The case back can also provide insight into the manufacturer.
Join our list and be the first to hear about latest styles, news and more! Bulova watches are not marked with names or identification codes that allow you to simply look at the watch and derive the model and age.

The faces of many firsts. Charles Lindbergh was an early fan of Bulova watches. The inside of the case back will typically be marked with the name “Bulova”; the exterior of some case backs are also marked (rarely with the name, but often with a recognizable Bulova date code after 1948). Read the full story on how this watch was presented to Lindbergh in 1927 and how this watch found its way to myBulova.com We share here some of the resources we have discovered over the years. Bulova Watch Identification Guide Bulova watches can be identified with a reasonable degree of certainty, due to the existence of a body of work gathered by collectors over the years. I began by collecting pre-WWII Hamiltons, but my attention soon shifted to the wider field of firms that were competing with Hamilton, particularly Elgin, Bulova and Gruen. The tradition of clock and watchmaking began in 1911 and by the 1920s Bulova had a reputation for producing the finest quality wristwatches. $340.00 $425.00. Most Bulova watches (9 out of 10) are worth the current gold value with no additional premium for rarity. Geometric silhouettes, sleek cutting-edge design and high contrast materials bring contemporary style to life in the Futuro Collection. That is not the date of manufacture of the case! Prices range from about $100 for 1930s and 1940s tank-style, or rectangular, watches to more than the $1,000 for electronic 1960s Accutrons. A chronograph with an 18-karat yellow gold case and automatic movement only costs 1,300 euros. As a result, the burden has fallen to collectors.

The presence of a signed crown will add another piece to the puzzle. The letter represents the decade, the number the last digit in the year.Dating cases prior to 1950 is largely guesswork.