This was my grandmother's watch. I believe its date of manufacture to be 1929 based on the shield mark and the style of the watch. The movement is marked "BULOVA WATCH Co", FIFTEEN 15 JEWELS FOUR 4 ADJ.", "SWISS", "6AF" (within a rectangle), and the small shield, which appears to have a diagonal slash thorugh it - possibly a flaw. I don't have a good enough magnifier to be confident in the movement serial #, but it appears to be 168826. The inside of the case back is stamped "BULOVA QUALITY PAT. JUNE 10, 1924", "3011341", and is also marked by hand with "HA294", and "W". I have seen watches on this site with identical movements and very similar, but not identical, cases. This watch also has a bracelet of black cord with silver clasp, which I have not seen on another watch here (although my perusing of the site is certainly not exhaustive), and only in one ad, but shown with a different case. The main thing missing in my knowledge seems to be the model, but any other information is appreciated.
Dear real Balmer, your watch is "unkown". So far we have not found an ad to confirm its identity. The design style is part of a series of 6 to 8 watches from 1929-1930 that some people call "Southern style", but I could not find much info on this particular style on internet to confirm the name "Southern style".
Your watch is very intriguing because of the serial number starting with 3. This is an indication it is from 1933. It is intriguing because I never saw this model from 1933, normally it is from 1930.
The movement symbol for 1933 is a cross but yours is different. Could you post a good close-up shot of the date code to confirm? Thanks!
In reply to Dear real Balmer, your watch by Alex
I've taken a couple more pictures - one of the date code as requested, and one of the movement serial #. I found that the camera on my tablet is actually able to focus pretty darn close, so it gave me more clarity than my magnifying glass. I now believe the movement serial # to be 165538.
Pictures added below.
Case serial is probably a mistruck 8 that looks like a 3, thus the case is from 1928 with a 1929 movement.
As Alex rightly says, this is one of those mysterious models that we have yet been able to identify through the use of vintage adverts. This s why after 10+ years we are still seaching :-)
I looked at the possibility of a mis strike, but the case signature of 80 cases are different and indicate "pat jun 10 1924, Bulova, gold filled, 14K, New York" and then the serial number. The case signature of the subject watch is indeed the one as used for cases as from serials starting with 92 from 1929 all the way up to 1933.
In reply to I looked at the possibility by Alex
I agree with Alex. After examination of the case serial #, the first digit is clearly and unambiguously a 3. The ends of the "arms" on the left side of the digit are fairly crisp (rather than tailing off like a misstrike), but more telling is that the angle of the upper curve as it leaves the midpoint of the 3 on the right is clearly different from the angle at the same point of the 8 that appears 4 digits later.
That is indeed a shield indicating 1929. So, either the movement is a replacement and the case is from 1933, either we have an anomaly in the date code of the case and the watch is from 1929. To Real Balmer, Is there any way to reconstruct when this watch was given to your grand mother?