Here is my current project watch. It came to me missing the bezel and bezel insert. I have a friend that is working on replicating a bezel for me. He also has a case and bezel himself. He is using his bezel as the pattern for mine. He will use my inner movement cover and dial as patterns for his watch and hopefully, when we are through, there will be two examples of this watch to enjoy.
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There is speculation that this watch was a prototype under MIL-W-22176 and not an actual issued watch. I find it hard to believe that this is the case because if you will notice, the caseback has wear marking from a military nylon strap. These wear markings take some time to make and they wouldn't have been made in the typical testing of prototypes. It could have been a prototype and then somehow made it's way into the supply channels but I doubt that it would have been released this way. We will probably never know the whole story of this watch.

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The movement is a gilded Bulova 10 BPCHN, 17 jewel hand wound movement with hacking feature. It is in pristine condition and is currently keeping time to within 4 seconds per 24 hours. When I first received the watch, the movement was not working. Upon close examination, I notice that the main spring wheel was out of alignment and that the center screw was loose. I tightened it down and wound it up and it seems to be running great. I will have my watchmaker perform a complete clean and oil on it so that I can put into rotation with some of my other military issued watches.

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The movement is covered by a brass movement cover. You will notice that the movement serial number 127 is stamped on the case back.
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As was pointed out to me, the brass movement cover looks like a prototype piece as the machining looks kind of crude and not something you would expect to see on a production piece.

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The original glass crystal has quite a few flaws in it ranging from light scratches to circular divets. It is lead soldered into the case and is a high dome type. I will try to get it polishe as best I can as I want to keep this part original to the watch.
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The spring bars are original to the watch and are quite heavy duty.
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Any comments or thoughts on this watch would be appreciated.
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I forgot to mention. The watch that is being built up based on mine does not have the proper movement. Does anyone know if this movement was used in other watches or know of a source for one.

Thanks,

James Delgado

James,
I love serendipity! I noticed this watch in the "Friday night Group" because it had the same scratched out looking cartouche on the dial as a mov't I'd found at the flea recently, one that I've been meaning to ask about here. The last thing I did before leaving the shop tonight was to jot down the info on the back to see if I could find out any more about it. I turn on the computer and saw your post about the same watch movement!

Mine is uncased but otherwise complete and running with an excellent dial,hands,stem and crown. It is BPCHN #0077 and, since I see the odds of stumbling onto a case are next to nil, I suppose we need to talk .I will see the dealer I got it from in the morning and will take a last look for a case with 0077 on the back.

What I found intriguing about the movement was that it appears to be virtually all brass including the winding wheels, screws and even the stem. I guessed it was designed to be anti-magnetic. Could that blocky back cover in the photo above have served as an anti-mag shield?

Cool! I'll take a pic of mine tomorrow.
-Cort

Hello Cort,

Yes, we need to talk! Email me at the following... quattroassi@REMOVETHISaol.com.
The movement is only gilded stainless steel, not brass. The movement cover would have no anti-magnetic properties, that would need to be soft iron. My guess is that the movement gilding and cover are brass for anti-corrosion properties. I am really looking forward to hearing from you!

Best,

James Delgado

James,
I'll email you. I have to point out that I'm still impressed with this coincidense. I signed on last night intending to post about this watch, only to find your post about the same watch. How obscure is that? Well, consider this.

My sister runs the computer program at a grade school outside of Boston, A few years ago she taught me a game called "google whacking". The object is to come up with any two words which, when submitted to a Google seach, would produce but one solitary "hit". It's nerdy but challenging. After writing my post here last night I did a Google search for "Bulova BPCHN" and got one "hit" which was your post here... and it was less than an hour old. So, in all the history of internet tracking by Google that has occurred since time immemorial, your post was the first to contain those two bits of info. Cue the "Outer Limits" theme song...

OK, I'll shut up now.
-Cort
p.s.-My mail to you was returned "unroutable".
Frankly, the email address given above seemed improbable.My email is available by clicking my name and then "public profile". We'll get there eventually. -C

Hello Cort,

I tried to view your public Profile but when I click on it, it says that I don't have the necessary permissions to view it. Anyway, please email me at the following address quattroassi@REMOVETHISaol.com Please remove REMOVETHIS from the address, it will work. It's a valid email address.

Thanks,

James

I get it now. I hadn't seen that before. I'm at
mahdmoore@REMOVETHISmindspring.com.
-Cort