Bulova 1951 Academy Award

Submitted by neetstuf-4-u on June 6, 2017 - 11:52am
R
Manufacture Year
1951
Movement Model
7AA
Movement Date Code
49 (A9)
Movement Jewels
21
Case Serial No.
4412344
Case shape
Rectangle
Case color
Yellow
Case Manufacturer
Bulova
Crystal details
Flat Glass 17.4mm x 21.4mm
Gender
Mens
Watch Description

 Academy Award, but what? Case is dated L1, movement A9. My initial thought was  an "R", but face is white, has no "X" and a variation of subdial that doesn't match known examples on the site. Band is marked Bulova and watch appears to me to be all original with literally no sign it was ever worn. By the inscription, it was likely a prized sock drawer watch only worn occasionally. No brassing whatsoever. Is this an undocumented variant? Face is unnotched, so a redial is unlikely. I find no interior mars or marks indicating it was ever apart. On a scale of 1-10, watch is a solid 9.8 for condition and keeps perfect time.

1951 Bulova Academy Award watch
1951 Bulova watch
1951 Bulova watch
1951 Bulova watch
1951 Bulova watch
Geoff Baker
Posted June 7, 2017 - 6:01am

This is an Academy Award case without a doubt, I think both the "R" and the "W" used this case. This band is also original to one of the the Academy models but I don't remember which one. I'm not 100% sure I've seen a plain white dial in an AA watch. While there is a minor possibility of it being a collection of AA parts, to your point Bob it's hard to imagine this being anything but a genuine Academy Award watch. I rather doubt it's a heretofore undocumented variant but it certainly is a possibility. I am not concerned with the year space between case and movement date codes. It shows very well, it's a beautiful watch.

1951 Academy Award

neetstuf-4-u
Posted June 7, 2017 - 7:20am

Thanks for the input Geoff,  nice to hear from the AA guy. I also considered the remote possibility it was a collection of parts, but couldn't find any examples of other models using this dial with a 1949 7AA movement either. Based on the overall condition of all parts involved, someone would have had to dismantle and cannibalize at least 2 or 3 desirable near perfect watches and re-assemble them with switched parts; it doesn't make much sense, but I guess anything is possible.  That and the person I bought it from had no idea what it was and I bought it for a song. The minor rubs on the perimeter of the face are a perfect match to the AA case. I looked at Shawn's collection on Lisa's site, and he has both a AA-T and AA-Z in the boxes that are sporting this band.

Andersok
Posted June 7, 2017 - 7:59am

I agree with the points made already, this is likely an Academy Award. I found this case in another ad with an alternate dial style that looks to be plain without stripes or two-tone, so perhaps there were other AA dial variants with this case, including the subject watch's style.

I do see the band was used on non-AA models, like this Duo-Wind, but not the case.

mybulova_admin
Posted June 10, 2017 - 1:12am

Agree that its probably either a dial from another model or simply a variant we haven't come across yet, after all there are 24 letters in the alphabet :-)

For now though a 1951 Bulova Accademy Award it is.

mybulova_admin
Posted April 25, 2018 - 1:37am

Looking at the new list here: http://www.mybulova.com/forums/bulova-academy-award-series

It looks to have the case of the Acadamy Award 'R' but the dial of the Academy Award 'Y'.

The dial of the 'R' differes fro what is on the subject watch, so I'm wondering if this has had a movement/dial swap.

plainsmen
Posted April 25, 2018 - 3:17am

You really can't seenit in this ad but I think the R also used an X shadow dial.

mybulova_admin
Posted April 6, 2022 - 1:00am

Based on the unique case design and the "W" variant having a very unique dial, I think we can still group this as an "R" variant.