Bulova Automatic, Design a la Royal Oak. ADDED INFO: There is also a second number located above the Bulova insignia on the case back. It is 4420101. On the case back inside I found: "Bulova N9 All Stainless Steel 12055". ADDED INFO 2: Movement is marked with: "ETA CW 2892". Rotor is marked with " BULOVA 1432.10 Seventeen 17 Jewels SWISS N9"
In reply to Hi, @bobbee: Thanks for the by Samurai
I have exactly the same watch, I posted on the forums a while ago, but then moved house and temporarily mislaid the watch. I have just taken it to the jewellers and he removed the back and the numbers are the same.
If you get any further information, I would be extremely interested to find out more about it.
I must have failed to save my own post? I could have sworn I added something within the last day or so...
Anyway, I was told this is a Genta design, as was the Royal Oak, and I don't think Bulova would have blatantly used it without authorization, so it seems to point to Gerald Genta collaborating with Bulova or at least licensing said watch.
Ok, some more info on this piece. It was the product of an early to mid seventies collaboration by Gerald Genta and Bulova, and predates the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, making it in essence the very first incarnation of a Royal Oak design.
In an interesting side note, The Chrono 'C', aka the "Stars and Stripes", is stamped 'GG' on the inside of the case. Although I cannot match the design of the logo exactly, it does make one wonder. Did Gerald Genta use the left and right facing 'G' s as a trademark? Still researching.....
An update: The chronology is wrong. AP had the Royal Oak design before Bulova. This means that in order for Bulova to take the trouble to manufacture a copy of the design, it must have been authorized by Genta or AP, although why AP would allow this is beyond me, their watch was a runaway hit by this time.
Finally found an ad confirming the model. I just purchased this ad from eBay. This 1975 ad shows this as model #4420102.5. Based on this ad can we ID this watch as a 4420102? I think this dial is darker than the subject watch and wonder if the .5 part of the model number indicates the dial. Can we also show this as a 1975 since this has no date code instead of the default 1979 used by the owner.