1979(N9) Diver, ref 12094, cal 11aoacd 23j. There's a guy on watchuseek that is obsessed with these. There's almost no manufacturer information. I think there's also 5 versions, a mix of white and black dials, smooth and waffle dials, and round case and hooded/tonneau case. This is the round case, black waffle version. The second hand is similar to the original, but i had to replace it, cuz the arrow was snapped off. The crown has a tuning fork and screws down. The bezel is bi-directional clicking. One of the odd things is the 11aoacd, many are signed N7 not N9 like the case. I think I saw a few that were just unsigned, but never N9. It's a nice watch that several of us are stumped by, haha.
Cool watch, thanks for sharing. This is one I don't believe I have ever seen. After going through the linebooks 1977 - 1979 and not finding anything similar and the serial number starting with "6 - ", I have a theory.
I think this one was likely produced somewhere in Asia. We have pretty much determined that watches with a s/n starting " 1 - " were produced at a location in Europe for the non-US market. They don't appear in Bulova literature for the US and many are similar, but not identical to US produced watches.We also see s/n's starting with other numbers followed by a dash. It occurred to me that this first number variation might possibly correspond to region or factory outside the US, but I'm just thinking out loud.
Dates of movement and case not corresponding may have something to do with the Bulova parts shipped to place of assembly (using up stock not being used elsewhere) and creating watches that were felt to be desirable.
Watch was likely produced by Bulova or under Bulova supervision as seen, but I find no reference.
1979 Unknown.
This sounds plausible and sort of aligns with my own theories. If I remember right, bulova was purchased in '79, and this watch has a bunch of parts similar to several models from the previous decade. The hands match several various accutrons, the dial match previous late models, if I remember correctly the case is stamped "Japan" on the inside opposite the crown tube. And the 11ao/an movement should have been out of service by then. I see more ETA, Citizen, AS, etc. in the late 70's. So in my mind this watch looks like a last ditch effort, using remaining inventory. Since it's dated '79, it would be safe to assume this was in R&D through '78, and why there was only one year of these....Or I'm way off, and this watch was a flop and simply didn't sell well so they shut it down, haha
In reply to This sounds plausible and… by dc.gronlund
I purchased a model that looks almost identical to this yesterday, the only noticeable differences are that mine does not say swiss made on the dial, the crystal has a date bubble and the end links are different, other than that the movement is the same spec and the case seems to be the same as well. I cant seem to find much about this watch online
In reply to Thank you Dave for posting… by JimDon5822