1949 Aeronaut with BLACK dial?

Submitted by DennisBlva on January 16, 2020 - 1:34pm

I recently saw a 1949 Aeronaut 17J, 8AE with a black dial on ebay. It was listed as Vintage Bulova A9 Men's Wristwatch (view in completed auctions).

I saw three 1949 Aeronauts here on the site, but all three, including any adverts. showed a WHITE dial.  I believe the one on the ebay auction was a newer, black re-dial. 

My question is....did Bulova ever make a BLACK dialed '49 Aeronaut?

Thanks,

Dennis

 

neetstuf-4-u
Posted January 16, 2020 - 5:59pm

To the best of my knowledge, they did not. It's tough to tell without a pic of the dial outside the case. The case of that watch shows heavy wear, the dial if original should reflect that amount of wear as well. If the dial is far better than the case, I would suspect a re-finish. Generally, if a dial has been re-done there is a small locator notch in the outside edge to position it in a jig for resurfacing (but not always). Most pre-1950 Bulova watches with a factory black dial are in a white gold case. I actually looked at that one while it was listed and passed because it seemed suspect. My personal opinions, for what they are worth.

Geoff Baker
Posted January 16, 2020 - 9:41pm

For the record we do allow links to completed eBay listings, we do not allow links to in progress eBay (or any other auction/sales sites).

Here is the referenced Aeronaut, my guess is it is refinished. We really don't know for certain but I doubt it's original.