Bulova watch crystals

Submitted by Janet on June 13, 2010 - 9:27pm

Hi everyone

I am a newby  to Bulova watches, but learning fast.   Have already bought several watches and added one watch (1926 unknown womens watch) to the Updated Watches and will post others when I can.   

Where have I been - These watches are beautiful and beautifully made.

My Question today is -

Are there a lot of Bulova watches with plastic (arylic) crystals or are these just replacements for the original glass?   Can you still get glass crystals for the older watches?

Stephen Ollman
Posted June 14, 2010 - 12:07am

Janet, welcome to the wonderful world of the Bulova watch! I'm glad you caught the bug.

They are a highly under-rated watch in my opinion and something I hope this site will help rectify. Bulova have a strong and wonderful history in making watches and some of the more famous ones infact bear the Bulova name.

I hope someone can help you identify the 1926 watch, I know I've been trying to find it in the vintage ads I have.

Regards your question, from what I've read and witnessed the glass crystal was I gather normally used a the original crystal by Bulova, although plastic crystals have been around since the early 1900, Bulova from what I gather primarily used glass on most of their stock. Happy to corrected if someone has a different opinion.

My preference is certainly glass, but it's sometimes very difficult, if not impossible to find an original 'new old stock' glass crystal and they tend to cost more.  I believe that there are companies round that specialise in manufacturing watch crystals for odd shaped watches.

RGB
Posted August 6, 2010 - 1:05am

I've had a few Bulova's with celluloid crystals as well. From my limited number I'm guessing they used glass in the 1930's as my President but cleuloid in the 20's as another I haven't identified yet.

MikeSoCal
Posted August 13, 2010 - 9:22am

Steve, Did you see the Bulova artical in the August 2010 NAWCC Watch and Clock Bulletin? Bruce Shawkey wrote a great article about Bulova 23 jewel automatics and provided an extensive reference table detailing all the Model and ref #'s. He also notes as you have about the quality of Bulova and how it is under rated. check it out.

Mike