Who contracted with Bulova and who did Bulova own? I don't claim to know the answers but an observation I've made over the years is with Warwick Watch Company. I am trained as a jeweler and had my family store that came down through my family. In the 1980's I bought a 72 piece collection of Warwick watches from a customer, I don't own any of those but I kept accurate records in case anything came in that was stolen. Of the 72 piece collection I noticed that 27 of the watches had American Standard cases and movements very similiar in design to Westfield/Bulova Movements. There were an additional 38 watches in Knickerbocker case, Knickerbocker was a wholly owned subsidiary of Bulova in the late 1920's but I don't know when they were purchased. My assumption is that either Bulova owned Warwick as a subsidiary, the same way they owned Westfield, at least in the 1920's. It also may be possible Warwick had a long time contract with Bulova to produce watches, similiar to what they had with Hoffrers and some of the other shops in New York City.
Warwick Watch Co 7M Movement
Westfield 7M Movement
Late 1920's American Standard Marked 7M, this particular type of movement is to add to the discussion but directly referenced in the US House of Representative testimony in 1930 with how Bulova was marking imported movements with "American" to confuse the public.
Superficially my thoughts were, Wow! an early Bulova
Familiar Engraving on the sides
Familiar Case Marking
Familiar Back
Unexpected Warwick 6S Movement, must be a non-conforming model.
Warwick dial but oddly familiar case design.........
Engraving pattern familiar......
Interesting..........
And the movement, another non-conforming model????
Another very familiar movement out of an AS Case............
Although I don't have a photo, the Westfield 10B was also produced and marked Warwick.
And lastly a late 1920's 10B with American Standard Marking.
I did not want to give away the whole story in the beginning but the other common case marking for Warwick watches is Providence Watch Case Company:
Of the 72 in the collection I purchased in the 1980's:
27 - American Standard
21 - Knickerbocker Watch Case Company
13 - Providence Watch Case Company
It's interesting that you say Bulova had a contract with Hoffrers. I had never heard of Hoffrers, but I spotted this watch, and bought it. I thought it looked just like an early Bulova with a Bulova 10AI movement. The case was an American Standard and even had a 7 digit serial number. Overall it looked just like a Bulova except it had the Hoffrers name on the dial and movement.
Now I apologize if I get this wrong as I am working currently from my horrible memory :
Hoffrers was a business in NYC that was similar to Bulova early on, they were primarily jewelers but dabbled in watches. I have no documentation just dozens of personal observations but 95% of all the Hoffrers watches I have handled were rebranded Bulova. My assumption years ago was a contract since I have original ads somewhere for Hoffrers, they were a brick and mortar business.
In the case of Warwick, I am leaning heavily on Bulova owning them at some point. It could also be a similar situation to Hoffrers being a long term contract but then Black Tuesday possibly put the company in a bad spot.
Nov 13, 1929 Congressional testimony identifies Knickerbocker watch case company being a wholly owned subsidiary of Bulova:
Second. Knickerbocker watch Co., Westfield Watch Co., Arrow Jewelry Mfg Co., American Standard Warch Case Co. are listed separately but in reality are nothing but subsidiaries of Bulova Watch Co.
Bulova is listed as wholly owning all of their subsidiaries earlier in the record. Just need to connect the 7 year gap to understand Knickerbocker and Bulova relationships. I will dig through the trow registries from 1922-1927 and see if I can find a connection.
Did figure out Hoffrers, Hofrers, ect. they were the label sold by Hoffman Brothers on 5th Ave.
Thank you Thom for posting all this information on the myBulova.com website. I can imagine that many things may go through your head trying to "connect the dots". Let me do an attempt to shed some light on the topics you posted. Let me start with American Standard. Key thing to note is that making cases and making movements were two different things, even today. In the '20s, Bulova made movements, and American Standard made cases. American Standard sold those cases to many movement brands or importers of movements, just like Wadsworth or Star Watch Case did, to mention some other case makers. As a result, you see many brands using the American Standard cases e.g. Warwick and Hoffrers. Where it gets interesting is that the watch scene in New York was very small and concentrated in the Jewelers district. For starters, American Standard was owned by Arde Bulova, the son of Joseph. So, of course Bulova would use their cases, but not exclusively. American Standard was focused on volume and gold-filled cases, hence Bulova bought the solid gold and platinum cases from other case makers in Manhattan like Simon Bruner, while American Standard sold to many brands, like Hoffers and >20 others that I identified over the years. Warwick bought cases from American Standard because its owner Ira Guilden was married to Louise Bulova, the youngest daughter of Joseph, while his brother Morris Guilden owned shares in American Standard. Morris later went on the start the Longines Wittnauer company from the same address as Bulova on 5th Avenue. Ira was appointed to head of Marketing at Bulova on 23 January 1929 just before Bulova went public in an IPO shortly after. In the papers for the IPO, it was stated that the activities of Bulova Canada, Westfield and American Standard would be consolidated in the newly founded company. Warwick (or Knickerbocker Watch Co.) was not mentioned, hence I assume Warwick probably just stopped when Ira joined the "family business" Bulova.
Then the movements. Brands like Bulova, Hoffrers, Warwick or Benrus were considered "importers", bringing in watches movements from Switzerland, contrary to Elgin or Hamilton that produced everything "in-house" and in USA. The "importers" bought their movements from Swiss manufacturers like FHF, Schild, Aurore and A. Michel. On 27 December 1926, they consolidated in a cartel called Ebauches S.A.The importers would buy blanks (or ebauches) e.g. Bulova or complete movements Since all these (New York based) importers bought from the same Swiss suppliers, their movements all look the same. The 7M mentioned above is an ebauche from A. Michel, that Bulova used for their Westfield brand, but not for their Bulova brand. Westfield was started on 16 January 1928 and probably it was the family connection with Ira that resulted in A. Michel supplying the same movement as they already did for a few years to Warwick.
Hope this helps connecting the dots.
Alex,
Definately some good information;
One of the easiest ways to find parts for a Bulova 6AT or other somewhat scarce movement is to buy another brand of the exact same movement. I probably own 40 "Bulova 6AT" movements with a dozen different names and identifiers but only the Bulova examples are marked 6AT.
I am not formally trained as a watchmaker, I'm a jeweler, apprenticing through my family buisness and watches has always been a niche market. I am basing my opinion on what I've observed and read from different sources. I also admit my mind is not what it once was as I continue to age and I can't find half the records I know are somewhere in this house. I have a list somewhere of all the watches I've handled with American Standard Cases. My log books for the family business goes back to 1922 when my grandfather opened the doors until 2003 when I sold the business. If I can find the books I'll post the list for you to compare notes.