Bulova 1945 President

Submitted by timetravel on December 20, 2020 - 2:24am
Manufacture Year
1945
Movement Model
7AP
Movement Date Code
Triangle
Movement Jewels
21
Case Serial No.
4235171
Case shape
Rectangle
Case color
Yellow
Case Manufacturer
Bulova
Gender
Mens
Watch Description

Dear all, this is my rose gold Bulova President. It has like many other Bulovas on the site two date markings: the 1944 circle is overstamped by the 1945 triangle. The dial and watch are quite worn, sadly. To me, the watch is beautiful, though. I bought it during my college years in the nineteen nineties in the US, now I am back in Germany. I collect vintage wrist and pocket watches of several brands (104 watches at the moment). Best wishes! 

Bulova President front
Bulova President Back
Movement
Caseback inside
plainsmen
Posted December 22, 2020 - 2:20pm

In reply to by JimDon5822

Yeah and thst F is peobably a few years earlier as well.  Interesting though.  Maybe a jeweler swap.  Thry did things like thst back in the day...  customize your hotrod.

timetravel
Posted December 22, 2020 - 10:17am

Thank you all very much for this valuable info. For sending my watch back to the watchmaker I now will try to find pics of my case version with this serial number range in pink gold, to see which was the exact dial in use. So far, I did not find any. The ad shown at the very top of the post shows the yellow gold version, so I would rather try to find an ad or a modern picture of the case model in pink gold of 1944 or 1945. I saw this case so far online just with higher serial numbers.

Any additional help is greatly appreciated, if at all possible.

neetstuf-4-u
Posted December 22, 2020 - 10:35am

In reply to by timetravel

Personally, I would leave it as is until you are positive what the original dial looked like. It would be a shame to replace it and find out a year in the future you removed the original.

JimDon5822
Posted December 22, 2020 - 2:33pm

In reply to by neetstuf-4-u

I agree I would not change it.  The fact that we haven’t documented this combination does it mean it did not exist.  And had my show up in the near future or a few years from now. 

Andersok
Posted December 22, 2020 - 5:52pm

We often see a variety of dials matched with rose gold cases during the 40s, such as: copper colors, shadowed numerals, multi-color (like subject). It is likely that something different from the ad would have been used with the rose case.

The already posted ad states a yellow gold and a pink/rose option.

I believe the yellow gold is the 'G' variant, per this 1946 ad:

1946Ad_PresidentG.jpg

timetravel
Posted January 2, 2021 - 10:59am

dial of President G in solid pink goldDear all,

by now I found two watches with my case style and in 14 kt. pink gold, which both have an identical brown dial (different to mine) with simple, centered arabic numerals with shade-effect (see picture).

The case serial numbers lay well below and well above mine, so this case must have been on the market for a quite long time (no. 3375738 and no. 6593979). Because of the copyright I will not post the pictures here, bit just the dial photo.

One can find them through search machines. They were/are offered by Fidelity Estate Services, Phenix, and by American Antiques & Jewelry.

Would you recommend that my watchmaker replaces the dial with this dial version?

I like mine better, but found only the President F with the two-tone dial and roman numerals, so far.

Many thanks for your help!

timetravel
Posted January 30, 2021 - 1:02pm

Dear experts, 

after all we now decided to change the dial of my college years Bulova President, and replace the dial with one of the above shown version, identical to the two known (mentioned) watches with identical rose gold case. The old dial will be kept, too, to make sure. Since there are no known watches with the Roman dial, this just seems right to me and a correct restauration.

After all, you all did so much research and no ad popped up with the Roman dial on that case.

For comparison, these are links to the two other watches mentioned:

https://www.aaandj.com/vintage-bulova-7ak-14k-solid-rose-gold-watch-wit…

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/14k-rose-gold-vintage-bulova-wat…

Many thanks!

timetravel
Posted January 31, 2021 - 10:52am

The result with new dial.Here the result, after the dial change.

JimDon5822
Posted January 31, 2021 - 6:09pm

Looks great.  Well done.

CodeGuy
Posted May 3, 2022 - 10:00am

pres h

President H Dial