Antique bulova ladies watch serial number

If you have not added your watch to the site then you will not find a match for your watch serial number. Please enter the first few numbers of either the movement or case serial number and you may find a watch that was manufactured around the same time as your watch or a watch that matches your model. Bulova Serial Numbers Unlike many other watch manufactures, Bulova did not record their serial numbers against watch models, or if they did this information has long been lost.

Mov - Any - With Mov. Mov starts with. Case starts with. Though some Bulova watches have serial numbers on the movements, we do not. The company began manufacturing fine watches in , and Bulova watches were issued to military officers during World War I.

Today, Bulova continues to make watches, and vintage Bulova watches are highly collectible. Look at the face of the watch and the back of the watch. Most Bulovas have the name engraved or printed on the face or are stamped with 'Bulova' in the metal of the watch case. Look for a code on the back of the watch. Since , Bulova watches have a two-number code on the back indicating the year the watch was made.

Instead, the appropriate decade must be determined by examining the style of the watch in light of the styles of each decade. Below is an example of a watch, where the year of manufacture has been determined using both the symbol on the movement and the matching serial number, along with an examination of the watch's characteristics. Important factors in identifying the proper decade of the watch's manufacture based on it styling include the size and shape of the case, engraving placement and patterns, dial and hand designs, and movement calibers.

A very good place to study styles by decade is right here on Watchophilia. The large collection is organized by decade, and all watches for a given decade can be viewed together on one page, making it easy to scan the page and note the styles used during that time period. Becoming familiar with other examples and with the available advertisements will also help determine when elements, such as dials, hands, and straps, are not original to the watch and should not be considered when determining the date.

The only way to know which decade applies to the watch at hand is by careful study of available resources, including vintage advertisements and actual watches. Matching the elements of the watch to a particular decade becomes easier over time, as more watches are studied and compared to the available advertisements. Another factor to consider in dating a pre watch is whether there is a serial number printed on the movement, as, for the most part, Bulova stopped that practice after A few strays with serial numbers have been observed through the mids, but by far the majority of movements made after do not have a serial number.

So, if your movement has a serial number, you can probably narrow down the date of the movement to at least pre, and, quite likely, even to pre As with all things Bulova-related, there are exceptions to the rule, and a few pre movements have been observed without serial numbers, particularly in the 10AN caliber movements. So, the existence or non-existence of a serial number is just one of many factors to be considered when dating a watch.

All factors discussed here should be considered together to make the best possible date assessment. Fortunately, dating a Bulova watch gets much easier in and beyond. Before we move on to the s, we need to consider exceptions to the serial number method of dating a Bulova watch. I hinted earlier in this section of the discussion that there were exceptions to the rule that the first digit of the case serial number indicates the date of manufacture for watches made from through There are actually at least five currently known exceptions to that rule, and the list keeps growing as more watches are studied.

For models dated and beyond--and even some made in the late s--Bulova printed a two character date code on both the case and the movement. Typically, the case date code is found on the outside of the case back, but sometimes it is located inside the case back.

Those two codes--which should be identical or no more than one year apart--indicate both the decade and year of the watch's movement and case manufacture. For example, the code "L3" indicates , while the code "M4" indicates A list of the known codes can be found at Bulova Date Codes.

Note that the full date chart includes variations of two-character codes sometimes seen on watches as early as By , this practice was becoming more common, and by is was the norm. Below are examples of this style of date code on the movement and case.

Ideally, the date of the movement will match the date of the case. Occasionally, however, that is not the case. In those circumstances, I subscribe to the "latest date wins" theory only when the case and movement are dated within one year of each other. If more than one year separates the movement and the case, for me, the case date rules.

The reason for that limitation is that movements can, and often are, replaced when the original one breaks. Therefore, any watch with a movement dated more than one year later than the case is assumed to be a replacement movement. For all watches in my collection, the movement date is noted for the record, even if it was not used to date the watch. I do believe that the case is by far the most important factor in determining both the date and model of the watch, and all other factors are to be considered but do not necessarily control the outcome, because all other factors--movements, hands, dials--can be changed.

When purchasing a watch, I check both the case and movement date, and if they are more than one year apart, I assume that the movement is not original to the case. When selling a watch, it is very important to accurately date both the movement and the case and to inform potential buyers of that information. A watch that has mismatched parts should be fully disclosed as such.

I have a few examples where the watch has neither a movement code nor a case serial number. One such example is a very early, solid gold model. So, it has problems being identified, both because it is very early and because it is solid gold see above for problems with serial numbers and solid gold cases as well as early movements with no date code. Additionally, I have some late s models that bear no date identification that I can determine.

These later watches are invariably made outside the United States, as many Bulova watches were at that time, and so they do not follow the usual marking conventions.

So, if you run into one of these, don't be surprised. Determining the Date of a Bulova Watch For purposes of assigning a date, Bulova watches break down nicely into three basic groups: 1 pre, 2 through , and 3 and beyond. Inside case with June 10, patent date Inside case with January 11, patent date Pre Watches manufactured prior to are difficult to date with certainty.

Co" with no globe or shield symbol not to be confused with a case signed only "American Standard", which is a later, Bulova trademarked name Movement signed "Rubaiyat" or possibly an as yet undiscovered name, but not signed "Bulova" Dial signed "Rubaiyat" or possibly an as yet undiscovered name, but not signed "Bulova" No movement caliber designation No movement serial number No movement date code Case serial number begins with "2" or "3" Case style of pocket watch, typically converted to wear on the wrist; crown at 12 o'clock position Case signed "Wadsworth" or "American Standard" with globe symbol Movement signed "Rubaiyat", or "Bulova", or other Swiss movement maker e.

More than one name may appear on the movement.