This certainly appears to be a 1969 Sea King. I found a couple other examples of the exact dial style including the numerals and the Sea King - Whale - Automatic designation. You're seeing the eBay seller's pics, they're better than I could take. The strap isn't to my liking, I have a NOS period correct black lizard strap on the way. This is my first vintage watch, I think it's stunning, and I'm in love with it. OH! I did a 12 hour timing...12 hours on the watch was 11:59:43.17 on a stopwatch. I'm guessing that's pretty good? Any thoughts and comments welcome.
Hello KHatfull, welcome to myBulova. I'd say the timing was pretty close. We always recommend a full professional service prior to extended use of vintage watches. Even though they run accurately there can still be dirt and grime that needs to be cleaned out. Vintage watches can be VERY addicting, when you're ready to expand your collection, let me know, I have a couple hundred you can choose from.
I don't find an exact match to your watch in our advert dB but from the dial markings I'd safe it's safe to assume its a Sea King. So far we have 20 variants in our dB, perhaps one day we'll find a match to your. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks Geoff, I appreciate the reply.
Since I decided to get the Sea King I've been looking for someone local to do a COA on it. Obviously it doesn't need a "restoration", I just need the movement cleaned, oiled, and adjusted (huh, COA, go figure). I have a hard time searching the site. Are there companies/individuals that folks here on the site would recommend for such a service? I'm not time sensitive at all and if that's an individual, a company, or a site member any of the three work for me. Good work at a price fair to both parties is more important to me. I've gotten ballpark quotes from a couple companies here in MSP that made it obvious that they were looking to dissuade the business.
I'd appreciate any pointers. I'm usually a DIY kind of guy, cars, plumbling, electrical, computers, you name it. THIS is a bit beyond my ability to "pick up". And besides, this Sea King would be the WRONG thing to take a first try on. Hahaha. Thanks!
It looks as though the Sea Flight was re-named the Sea King by 1969 as indicated on the dial. Very good looking watch.
In reply to It looks as though the Sea by Andersok
In reply to I thought the same thing Ken, by Geoff Baker
I did find one other example dated 1969 with the same Sea King designation on it (albeit I didn't seah REAL hard): Don't know if that helps or not. I did search for adverts as well, no luck. Was Bulova ever in the habit of "cleaning up" inventory during model changes such that some parts may have been used in later watches that aren't typical of the model?
In reply to I did find one other example by KHatfull
In reply to I finally got the black by KHatfull