Bulova quest - birth year watch

Submitted by ldhunter1959 on August 19, 2020 - 8:44am

For some time, I have been "kind" of looking for a reasonable Bulova watch from my birth year - 1959. You guys dated a 1961 Presidente of mine and apparently the Accutron found in my dad's collection is 1961 as well - kind of  odd, guess dad was in his watch phase. We found a few Timex's and another vintage watch (seems like a Whitmire or the like). My preference is for thin watches as I have a small wrist. There are a couple of 59 Bulovas (well billed as 59s) on Ebay that have my attention. I am thinking I want an automatic.

Any recommendations from you guys on search terms that might help me  locate myself a 59 Bulova that would be decent for daily wear (even though it won't be worn daily - I cycle through an odd assortment of watches)?

ldhunter1959
Posted August 20, 2020 - 8:04am

Of the ones I saw, the black faced with gold numbering President was pretty neat looking.

Thanks for providing that list. Too bad that wasn't a catalog (:

 

neetstuf-4-u
Posted August 20, 2020 - 10:18am

Easiest search terms are "Bulova 1959" and  "Bulova 1950's" . "Bulova L9" catches the ones being offered by folks who don't understand the dating system, but realize L9 means something.

As far as condition, you need to individually open ads and read them. Look for "keeps time" in the ads. Although that is a fair indication at best if the watch isn't listed as keeping time over an extended period (24 hrs). A watch can appear to keep time over a few hours while it is being listed, while losing or gaining a second every 2 minutes. That is nearly impossible to detect by the average person. Over say 4 hrs - 240 minutes. 1 per 2  minutes = 120 seconds, or 2 minutes. That makes the total loss or gain over 24 hrs to be 8 minutes. "I have been monitoring it for a couple hours and it keeps time" indicates only that the watch runs. Look for descriptions like "Watch has been running over a day and is off by a minute or 2 in that time".

Any vintage watch worn frequently should be serviced. A couple minutes variation for me is acceptable, however, big variations may be a sign the watch is in need of more than a COA (clean, oil, adjust). Just my thoughts, if you love a watch and it is listed as running reasonably close to accurate and you buy it knowing it should be serviced, all is good. If you have a limited watch budget and only intend on wearing it a day or 2 a month without having it serviced (not really advised), look for one confirmed as keeping decent time over 24 hrs.