This is a Bulova Ladies watch in 14 KT White Gold with twenty-four (24) Diamonds. No Date code stamped on the movement. Looks very close to the 1936 Dauphine and Princess Pat, except the lugs are different. Kathy helped me to eliminate the Pandora with her enlargement.
In reply to Beautiful watch, The by bourg01
Hello Shawn,
Thank you for the compliment on my watch, and you are correct about the date: at least 1936.
I found the same watch on Ebay but the lugs are consistent with the Dauphine.
Possible previous owner(s) had the lugs altered?
Nice to have you on the board again.
Dauphine is close but I'm not on board with Dauphine. Her lugs are elongated triangular shaped and are solid so the could not have broken and be replaced with the loop shown on our subject watch. Given that the band matches the bezel on our subject, I believe it is all original.
Lastly the subject watches diamonds are prong mounted. The Dauphine ad appears to have them bezel mounted.
I've come back to this one several times and have to agree with Shawn for the time being. I think the lug difference is a little too elaborate to be a jeweler mod/repair, but that's me basically thinking out loud. Face of subject watch also lacks the detail center "square" line shown in ad.
I doubt it's a repair, if anything it's a mod to allow use of a metal band as opposed to a silk cord, and an expensive change. If that was the case, why cut down the lugs to the extent seen? It would have been a lot more cost effective and less modifying of the overall watch style/appearance to just put a ring in the cord hole to change mounting from "female to male" for lack of a better description.
There is also the possibility it's a Dauphine Variant differentiated by band?.
A close-up photo of the lug end looking straight at the wire where it goes through the band end may help. It may provide enough detail to determine if it is modified or factory.
I'm on the fence, but agree it's a beauty as it is.. I will go with general concensus, but just wanted to add my thoughts and observations.
Looks just like the Dauphine, except for those lugs!
TexasLady, is there any evidence of a repair in this area? Tool marks, hard solder, that sort of thing? It's possible one of the original lugs was say broken off and then lost, the repar being to remove the other one and attach wire lugs. Those wire lugs look totally out of place, here.