Bulova 1931 Kirkwood

Submitted by tshanno on January 14, 2024 - 10:41am
Manufacture Year
1931
Movement Model
10AN
Movement Date Code
Square Shield
Movement Jewels
17
Movement Serial No.
552607
Case Serial No.
136_808
Case shape
Stepped
Case color
Two-tone
Case Manufacturer
Bulova
Gender
Mens
Watch Description

I'm preliminarily calling this a 1931 Kirkwood.  

The first digit of the serial number is tough to make out because there's a drop of glue or something over it.  But I think I can make out a 1 underneath.  That would be consistent with the engraving and the movement.  But your mileage may vary.

I notice that the ad says 15 J but there are a lot of watches in the database that are 17 J.

face
side
back
inside case back
movement
ad
mybulova_admin
Posted January 14, 2024 - 4:31pm

I think we need to locate another period Kirkwood advert to confirm the use of a 17 jewelled movement as I agree that many of the other examp,es we have in the sites database house a 17J movement and yet are all referenced against an advert detailing only 15 jewels.

I'm good with ID'ing as a Bulova Kirkwood to keep them all grouped.

The watch is inscribed to late 1932 so it might be better to date to that year unless we can get confirmation of the first number being a 1.

1955mercury
Posted January 14, 2024 - 6:56pm

In reply to by plainsmen

Take another look at the movement in the one you had Plainsmen. The barrel bridge says "17 jewels" but the train bridge doesn't have a jewel for the center wheel, which would indicate a 15 jewel movement. One of those bridges wasn't the original for that movement. 

mybulova_admin
Posted January 15, 2024 - 5:19am

In reply to by 1955mercury

It's a bit tricky to say for sure if there is a center jewel. The angle might be masking the jewel color. If no center jewel then yep definitely a swap out bridge.

Kathy L.
Posted January 15, 2024 - 11:46am

The inscription is very intriguing!  Nice example

1932 Bulova Kirkwood

JimDon5822
Posted January 15, 2024 - 11:15pm

I am good with 1931 Bulova Kirkwood.

mybulova_admin
Posted January 16, 2024 - 3:57am

Looking at the other Kirkword examples for 1931 and 1932 and their case serial numbers. I'm now comfortable saying that the first number is very likely to be a '1' as the second number looks to be a '3' and we have a few other examples of '13xxxxx' and no examples of '23xxxxx'. The cases starting with a '2' seem to be '20xxxxx'.

1931 Bulova Kirkword

Geoff Baker
Posted January 16, 2024 - 8:24pm

Cool watch Tom! I like this model = 1931 Bulova Kirkwood