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Help requested in IDing a late '30s Bulova "Click" to Login or Register 
Picture of Dave Keefe
posted
Hello all

My wife spotted this beauty in an antique store over the holidays, and fell in love with it, so it came home with us! It's SO GOOD when a spouse also gets the vintage bug.

The panel over at MyBulova.com are working to ID it, but it seems to be an undocumented outlier, and the conversation continues. I was wondering if there are any experts here that could ID the model

Other than the Accutron Spaceviews, I am not all that familiar with Bulova. However, some old ads lead me to believe it is a Ben Hur model. The model name is enough of a rabbit hole to explore all on its own!

Here’s what I know:
- Case # 8680395
- Movement is an adjusted 21 jewel 10AE
- Case is gold fill or gold plate (no markings)
- likely dates to '38 or '39, or both (see below)

Here’s where I’m confused
- all other similars are US-made. But this is Swiss made dial and movement
- all others I’ve seen are light coloured dials
- Date stamp on the movement is a crescent moon (so '28 or'38), AND, also the ('29 or '39) shield stamp - which I originally thought was a scratch, but now would believe it is indeed a shield, though it is less crisp than the crescent moon

Thanks in advance for your comments

Bulova dial
 
Posts: 92 | Location: Vancouver, Canada | Registered: November 24, 2020
Picture of Dave Keefe
posted
Back

 
Posts: 92 | Location: Vancouver, Canada | Registered: November 24, 2020
Picture of Dave Keefe
posted
Inside case

 
Posts: 92 | Location: Vancouver, Canada | Registered: November 24, 2020
Picture of Dave Keefe
posted
Mvmt

 
Posts: 92 | Location: Vancouver, Canada | Registered: November 24, 2020
Picture of Dave Keefe
posted
Date mark close-up

 
Posts: 92 | Location: Vancouver, Canada | Registered: November 24, 2020
Picture of Dave Keefe
posted
Period advertisement

 
Posts: 92 | Location: Vancouver, Canada | Registered: November 24, 2020
Picture of Dave Keefe
posted
Update: The good folks at mybulova.com have confirmed this is a ‘39 Bulova Ben Hur. No advertising has yet been found for the black dialed variant. Interesting also, the movement is stamped with both the ‘38 and ‘39 date codes.
 
Posts: 92 | Location: Vancouver, Canada | Registered: November 24, 2020
posted
Bulova 10AE basic model is Swiss FHF (Font) caliber 324.
 
Posts: 653 | Location: St Paul, Minnesota in the USA | Registered: May 04, 2004
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