What's the story of the naked Bulova lady?

Submitted by Hotshu on September 1, 2012 - 2:35am

Just purchased my 1st vintage Bulova gents watch. Came with the Bulova 1940's ivory colored presentation box & on the top outside is the same naked lady as in the banner of this website. Who is she & why did they choose her? How long has she been associated with Bulova marketing? Thanks! BTW my 1st post & I did search "naked lady".

bobbee
Posted February 7, 2013 - 5:11pm

Hey buddy, not getting my linen scrunched!

Just putting it out there that I didn't refer to anyone by that name, where you said I refer to his book?

I thought maybe you got  a link to somewhere else!

I also thought that with the Bulova ad on site with the "painted by Coles Phillips" on it, and the Bulova ad from 1926 on the site I went to when I googled "Coles Phillips", along with some very similar looking art work all supposed to be by the same guy there, it all gelled and looked genuine.

All those paintings are amazing, as are the contemporary works in many Bulova ads by the artist Franklin Booth, of which there are many examples in the ads, all signed.

 

William Smith
Posted February 7, 2013 - 5:59pm

I'm remembering something along the lines:

first- Cole Phillips artwork of the period
second- A painting either commissioned for Bulova, or later purchased by Bulova - not done by Phillips, but influenced by Phillips artwork
third- The Goddess of time Illistration done as a copy/representation of this intermediary non-Phillips painting 

Don't know how that explains the snippet Bobbee provides... 

...and I'm thinking it was a newspaper article or some snippet of a jewelers period rag (Jewelers Circular perhaps???) which didn't have any information on a Bulova watch model, so it didn't warrant a place in the ad database.  I think it mentions the Goddess of Time Illustration (not by Phillips), AND a painting almost identical to that Illistration (not by Phillips either) and a reference to some Cole Phillips illustration(s) on which both the Bulova Lady Painting and subsequent illistration were (albeit possibly loosly) based. ....heck, it may even have said who did this intermediat painting/illistration...
I fear the article is lost on my hards drive somewhere.....but I'm searching now....

to many Bulova...to little time....and poor research archiving on my part   :(  so for now, what I've said is little more than a myth or failed memory.

bobbee
Posted February 7, 2013 - 6:04pm

LOL!

Gotta laugh at that one Will, sorry buddy but you came across like the absent minded professor in that post!

Absolute Classic! You made my night there bud.

William Smith
Posted February 7, 2013 - 7:31pm

In reply to by bobbee

I usually have the memory of a rhinoceros...
Glad you enjoyed...and I'll continue my hard drive search tonight...

DennisVA
Posted February 7, 2013 - 8:26pm

 

You folks are amazing, I can't beleive the amount of research that has gone into this. It is a great story and maybe someday you all will fiqure it out. I've got to tell you, some of the post's have had me LMAO.

Thanks, Dennis

bobbee
Posted February 7, 2013 - 8:34pm

Any time, dude. The fun is in the research!

DennisVA
Posted February 7, 2013 - 8:56pm

In reply to by bobbee

Hey thanks Bob, your right I have been doing some googling myself to see if I can find something you folks might have missed. Nothing yet but will keep trying.

bobbee
Posted April 30, 2014 - 3:22pm

So, the contacted Bulova people who said the "Naked Lady" pic is the "Goddess Of Time" got it wrong, as did the "expert" on C. Coles Phillips artwork, who claimed this picture was not by him.

Another expert who has written many books and articles on American artists, Mr. Norman Platnick was "delighted" with this information, whilst Mr. Vadeboncoeuer has yet to reply to the email I sent him with all the evidence!

Here is a couple of snippets from the October 4th. 1922 issue of the Jewelers' Circular, naming the  watercolour painting as an original interpretation of "TIME".

DennisVA, you were right!

JP
Posted May 15, 2014 - 8:07pm

How come she is depicted facing one way in some ads and the other in others??

bobbee
Posted May 15, 2014 - 8:16pm

In the 1940's I noticed a change from right to left facing.

Don't know why.

Some old newspapers ads have both, I still don't know why! :-)

Political wind direction? Not a Yank so I don't know!

bobbee
Posted May 22, 2014 - 4:53pm

 A good pal sent me this:

"Coles Phillips lived and worked in New Rochelle, New York, a popular residential community for illustrators including JC Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell. He died in 1927 at the age of 47. The day he died, his good friend and neighbor in New Rochelle, JC Leyendecker took the four Phillips children into Manhattan to see the Charles Lindbergh Parade on Fifth Avenue."

Strange coincidence.

mybulova_admin
Posted January 3, 2019 - 8:14pm

Today I came across a 1923 Saturday Evening Post cover that was paintined by Cole Phillips, the same gentlement that painted Bulova's famous nude 'Time'.

I wonder if it's the same model that he used for both paintings?

1922 Bulova painting by Coles Phillips

1923 Saturday Evening Post cover by Cole Phillips

1924 Coles Phillips painting

mybulova_admin
Posted January 3, 2019 - 8:44pm

Also like this one that actally shows a period watch on the models wrist.

1923 Coles Phillips SEP cover with watch

Kathy L.
Posted February 14, 2019 - 10:13pm

This is from the 1955 Annual Report.  Looks like a new model?