Bulova 1921 Hudson Maxim

Submitted by Reverend Rob on January 27, 2014 - 7:32pm
Manufacture Year
1921
Movement Jewels
17
Movement Serial No.
1210451
Case Serial No.
1076572
Case shape
Round
Case color
Yellow
Case Manufacturer
American Standard
Gender
Mens
Watch Description

Here we have a nice Hudson Maxim model gent's pocket watch, given by the Kingston Police School's class of 1930 to one of their instructors, a certain Sergeant Charles Phinney. Mr Phinney would later become the Chief of Police in the town of Kingston, Ontario.

I'm still trying to suss the movt ebauche, but it is a high quality, 17 jewel example, with jewels in chatons, and Breguet Overcoil. It has its original case, and was discovered far afield in the State of Texas, in Houston. 

Pictures taken and used here by kind permission of the owner. 

1920 Hudson Maxim
1921 Bulova watch
1921 Bulova watch
1921 Bulova watch
1921 Bulova watch
JP
Posted January 27, 2014 - 8:32pm

Very beautiful and historic watch Rob.

John

FifthAvenueRes…
Posted January 27, 2014 - 8:39pm

whoa, check the box!

I'm going to have to say the Watch pre-dates 1930, is there a datecode on the Movement?

Great find reverend.

OldTicker
Posted January 27, 2014 - 10:03pm

Amazing how things seem to migrate to different parts of the world aint it?

Very nice piece of Bulova/Hudson history, and it is nice to get a glimpse of what the case looked like for the old pocket watches.

Look at those BIG lumed numbers & hands!

Reverend Rob
Posted January 27, 2014 - 10:50pm

No date code, just the serial numbers. I am not the owner, and the watch has now been sold, but the previous owner was kind enough to send all the pertinent information and pictures for us to use here for the purposes of identification. It is certainly possible that the watch predates the presentation date. 

William Smith
Posted January 28, 2014 - 4:39am

I have three "similar" watches....a couple with Hudson Maxim on dial.  The green presentation box....now that's really cool.  Wonder if there is any Bulova sig somewhere on the green box?   I think all three of mine have the Breguet Overcoil.  I bought them in a flurry, took a couple pictures, and have placed them in a drawer somewhere...... I gotta either take pics and load on site....or sell them to someone who is more obsessed then I...and less lazy.  Subject watch gotta be earlier than the dedication.  Rev Rob, I bet this is where you wish you had the keyless sig side picture.....

Reverend Rob
Posted January 28, 2014 - 10:50am

In reply to by William Smith

Alas, Will, I have no such pictures. The watch has now moved on to its new owner. 

FifthAvenueRes…
Posted January 28, 2014 - 4:49am

We are fairly certain at this point the Bulova W. Co signature on the Movement predates 1924 and I've recently viewed a very similar box which would also do the same, pre date '24.

The Hands on this rascal are also familiar, and early 1920's. They can be seen here http://www.mybulova.com/watches/1923-8-days-2440 on this Bulova 8 Day which We have pegged currently at 1923, the Date of manufacture of which may or may not be 100% correct, in hindsight 1924, maybe.

Add the attribute of a Movement without a Datecode to the puzzle of this 'HUDSON MAXIM' and 1923 possibly before becomes more probable. There is more than likely a clear indicator of Date of manufacture for these early Bulovas', to Date We have yet to realize it.

1923'ish

 

mybulova_admin
Posted January 28, 2014 - 6:32am

Pre 1923 wouldn't have a date code so that would be my estimate, knowing what we know about these early Hudson Maxims.

The watch is great but with the original box...WOW!

Great find.

Movement should be a 17TR, 17A or something of that nature.

Reverend Rob
Posted January 28, 2014 - 10:52am

As near as I can determine, the 17AA, and its predecessor, the 17AN, along with the 17A, 17R, 17TR, 17AB, 17H and 17V, are all in house Bulova movts, made in Switzerland. There is no evidence that I can find of them being an adapted ebauche, and would mean Bulova was executing them in their entirety. This is fairly unusual for the time in the young company's history, and predates the later in house movts and American made movts. I wish we knew more about the setup and running of the Bulova Swiss factory, it may be that Bulova acquired some defunct tooling to allow the easy adoption of these larger movts, made in house.

There are no other marks on the box. I believe what we have here is an earlier watch, presented in 1930.  I have adjusted the date to reflect this, and we may find that even that is off by a few years.

William Smith
Posted January 31, 2014 - 2:48pm

I stretched that dial pick as every which way, trying to see if it has the small script Hudson Maxim on the dial. It didn't work.  I can't tell if Hudson Maxim is on subject dial.  
I'll send ya some pics of my similar case markings/movement.  Mine has similar SN's to case..mine with the American Standard shield vs the subject watch globe.  My movement doesn't have a movement model on bridge, but sure looks like subject movement.

or I'l get industrious and list mine as a pending unknown....:)  (EDIT) My similar example below:

Subject watch Movement Serial No.:  1210451 located beneath balance. My example below has two SN's: the one beneath the balance on the plate is 1219087.  On bridge at bottom of photo, I have SN 123092

Subject watch case SN:1076572      My similar case below case SN: 1098712