This is an interesting one. I do not know if Bulova used Rey W. Co. for cases in the early days. I can not find a proper date code. The case is sterling silver. It has 16 jewels with serial number 105146 with 2 adjustments. Interested to see what you all think.
Very cool. Great find! I suspect the movement is a 10AA. There are 8 watches in the database bearing this movement. Based on these that are dated as 1923-1925, movement s/n (lowest so far documented on site) and the "10AA" not being in a box, I'm going to venture a guess this is an early one. 1923 or earlier.
Per this sterling watch blog A fineness mark of 0.935 accompanied by a Swiss hallmark comprising three bears, one small bear above two large bears, shows that the case was hallmarked in Switzerland between 1888 and 1914. I think I'm seeing 3 bears. One above and below .935 and the shadow of a weakly stamped one to the right of .935.
Case s/n is curious. The 9 stamped directly above makes a 7 digit number. Is the "9" the first number? If so, the second number is "1". Early cases go by second number, so would this be a 1921? If "9" isn't the first, the second number is "3" - 1923?
My take so far, still looking.
In reply to Very cool. Great find! I… by neetstuf-4-u
Thank you Bob! Yes I agree that it looks like a 10AA, I didn't catch the 10 because it was smaller than the AA. I agree on dating this by the movement so I will change it to 1923. Very interesting info on the hallmarks. So it looks like this case is per 1914 which is very cool and interesting that this style of watch was being made prior to 1914. Thanks for your research.
I did not manage to find anything on Rey, neither did I bump into Rey in the past in relation to Bulova. Based on neetstuf's timeline, it seems to be a replacement movement in a foreign case. We have to bear in mind that Bulova movements are among the most abundantly available movements, and as a result have a high chance to be used to get a watch ticking again.
In reply to I did not manage to find… by Alex
In reply to Apparently Rey was a watch… by 1955mercury
I've not come across any early cases that started with a 9. My take is that it's a mariage, BUT could be wrong.
The watch just doesn't look right to me and I think I can see the original bezel line just wide of the minute track.
I'd have to go non-confirming unfortunately. Still a nice solid sterling silver watch.
In reply to I've not come across any… by mybulova_admin