Bulova 1932 Sky King

Submitted by jabs on January 24, 2014 - 10:32am
Manufacture Year
1932
Movement Model
10AN
Movement Date Code
T
Movement Jewels
17
Movement Serial No.
-
Case Serial No.
2071685
Case shape
Other
Case color
Two-tone
Case Manufacturer
Bulova
Crystal details
15,6-20 x 21,1 mm
Gender
Mens
Watch Description

1932 Sky King I mean

1932 Sky King
Bulova watch
Bulova watch
Bulova Watch
Bulova Watch
FifthAvenueRes…
Posted January 25, 2014 - 7:05am

ad Dated 1931

Geoff,

I will quote a statement You made in reguards to advertising errors in the 1930 - 1939 ad forums

"I'm certain that this happened more often than not. However I don't think it's made a big impact on any of our ID's. Furthermore, I doubt Mr Bulova would much have cared, as long as people hurried into Kay Jewelers to buy a new Bulova."

Yet in this particular instance You seem convinced that the conflicting ad depicts the 'SKY KING', can You please explain?

Geoff Baker
Posted January 26, 2014 - 5:47am

In reply to by FifthAvenueRes…

Mark - the quote is correctly attributed to me but taken out of context. I do not dispute the ad you placed has the model names reversed but it is irrelevant to this watch. The panel has decided these watches are Sky King's.

William Smith
Posted January 26, 2014 - 1:49am

These ID's and discussions are the ones I love.  We learn more from our debates than from our agreements or consensus.

FifthAvenueRes…
Posted January 26, 2014 - 6:23am

"We learn more from our debates than from our agreements or consensus."

We do Will.

 

"The panel has decided these watches are Sky King's"

Geoff, there cannot be 2 different Bulova 'SKY KING"s within the same given time frame. By far the majority of ads dated 1930 -1934 show the 'SKY KING' as having a fish engraved pattern Case with Chevron details at the Case ends.

Anyone who takes time to read through this thread and absorb the information put forth will see that the Panel consensus on this XX pattern Case is wrong!

Period.

William Smith
Posted January 28, 2014 - 4:29am

Fishy or XX - XX -    most of the ads show two rows of horizontal engravings- chevrons most of the tme.  This watch has one horizontal row of engraving (fishy or xx'e no matter- still two rows).  The watch database is replete with inconsistencies on these guys.  The ads do show both fishy and XX-XX-  but arn't they always with two horizontal rows of engravings?

FifthAvenueRes…
Posted January 28, 2014 - 5:45am

Will,

No, the oddball XX pattern case ad does not show the second row engraving of the 'SKY KING'.

Printer images (or typeset) errors occured, particularly in early Newspapers, that is a fact.

It's up to Us to weed them out.

 

Reverend Rob
Posted January 28, 2014 - 11:57am

There are live auctions at this moment showing XX pattern watches touted as "Sky King". 

Since the two patterns existed at the same time, it does make sense that they can't both be Sky Kings. It's a minor thing, but this is a common occurrence in Bulova history, indeed, name changes can occur even without any design change. 

So either the design teams at Bulova changed the pattern arbitrarily during the run of the watch, or the watch is actually two different models. I suspect the latter is true. 

As to which watch is the SK, I suspect the fishy one. Regardless, something is amiss in some of the ads. Just my HO. 

edit: Not a lot of info out there, and what I did find was based on what we have here. I even did some digging at Bulova here. The people who would remember or worked back in the day on this are all gone, of course. I strongly believe  that somewhere there exists some surviving documentation from Bulova that would clear this up. Someday somebody is going to find the family of a Bulova design member or bigwig, having a garage sale. Or Auction. 

William Smith
Posted January 31, 2014 - 3:20pm

In reply to by Reverend Rob

...or the company reports (either internal or to shareholders) as Bulova was publically traded by this time.....wasn't it?   In a basement, in a box, forgotten by time and lack of current interest, some grandkid of a shareholder or someone on the board, horded these documents....and they are just sitting there....waiting to be discovered, or thrown out when the grandkid moves or sells the house.

Reverend Rob
Posted January 31, 2014 - 5:42pm

I am looking to see Joseph's descendants and mayhap somebody is still around.

edit: Interesting, but gotten nowhere. 

William Smith
Posted February 2, 2014 - 5:12pm

I gotta look back at previous examples in our database and see how I voted, and why.  If for no other reason than consistency on my part.  Doesn't mean I got it right, but at least I can be consistent....