Vintage Bulova Automatic

I'm wearing another vintage piece today, a Bulova from 1953. One of the reasons I'm doing this blog is to catalog my watches, including a number that my father collected over the years. Many of the watches that used to be my father's I haven't even taken a good look at yet. I was very surprised when I pulled this one out as it's a little different than many of the other vintage watches you see here. First off, it's automatic. It's something that we kind of take for granted today, but I believe this would have been a more expensive watch than many of my similar handwind models from this era. Second, the case seems to be all stainless (including the screw-in caseback) with gold plating. This means the case has stood up very well over time. Where a regular gold filled case would probably have pitting or heavy wear on the elaborate lugs this has little to none. The ends the lugs are still pointy, and the lines down the sides are still well defined. Since it's from 1953, I believe it's my earliest watch with these relatively advanced features. Not to mention it's still a very nice looking watch. I might have to think about getting a nice leather strap for this one as I think it's a keeper and the expanding bracelet is a bit unattractive and mundane.

Vintage Bulova

Today I'm wearing this vintage Bulova. It's from 1960 and the case and screw-in caseback are stainless steel. It's pretty nice with an interesting pattern on the dial. It looks like the dial has been defaced by some felt pen or the like, as it has black marks on the hour markers and some other places, but I don't know what happened to it.

Vintage Bulova Fancy Square

No, "Fancy Square" is not this watch's actual name. I don't know if it has a name, but it is fancy and square, so I'll go with that, if only to differentiate it from my other Bulovas. I thought this watch was from the 30s due to the design, but the "M3" marking on the back means it's from 1963 (as I learned when I was researching my Bulova Oceanographer.) I guess it was just a fancy men's dress watch because most of the other 1960s watches I've seen are much sleeker and simpler. It's a very nice design with an embossed checked texture on the white gold plated case around a cushion-shaped dial. The dial has some discoloration to it and I'm not sure what caused it, but it does add some visual interest to the plain-colored dial. It also has a previous owner's name and phone number engraved in the caseback, but it's not very deep so I'm sure it could be removed with some buffing. I just put it on a new lizard strap which fits well enough (maybe a mm or less too narrow at the lugs)
and it looks good if a bit fancy for casual daytime wear.

Vintage Bulova 23 Jewels

Today I'm wearing this vintage Bulova. It's yet another of my vast accumulation of fairly common vintage watches, and like many of them I got this one from my father. It keeps good time, although it will occasionally stop, but not often. Probably just needs a cleaning. It's from 1963 (the "M3" on the caseback indicates M for 1960s plus 3 for 1963. N is 1970s, L 1950s, etc.) and has a pretty typical look for that era. It's all stainless with bright hour markers and a ring around the hour track, with a very faint linen pattern on the dial. The acrylic crystal is in decent shape, as is the expanding bracelet. I don't normally like this kind of bracelet, but this on is only half expanding, and half fixed, so I think I like it a little better. I haven't opened this one, but I believe the 23 jewel movement is Bulova's in-house one, which means it was made in the U.S.A. The rest of the watch would have been made here too, and assembled here. I think by the early 1960s even Hamiltons were mostly Swiss, so it's kind of nice to have a later all-American watch.

Vintage Bulova Oceanographer

Today I'm wearing another watch that my father acquired sometime in the last decade or so, a Swiss-made Bulova Oceanographer from 1969. I don't believe it's been serviced at all but it is in very good condition and runs strongly, if a bit fast (a couple minutes a day.) It's all stainless steel with a not-to-be-trusted-on-a-vintage-watch depth rating of 333 feet. Today this would not be considered a diver's watch (200m is generally accepted as the minimum depth rating, typically along with and one-way adjustable bezel or dive timer) but Bulova did advertise this and similar watches to be guaranteed to operate at the rated depth. They also made the Oceanographer Snorkel which seemed to be more of a full-on diver's watch. I'll definitely keep my eye out for one of those as I quite like the look of it. This watch is nice as well, if a bit plain in comparison. The slightly aged off-white dial has unique red and black hour markers with tritium dots that have long lost any glow. The cushion-shaped caseis only 34mm wide, but doesn't feel excessively small, probably because of the 40mm length of the watch. Most of the word "Bulova" is still visible on the original signed crown. It's currently on a somewhat plain (but practical) waterproof leather strap, but would look great on a vintage Tropic strap, although I would prefer a modern reproduction since that authentic "new old stock" one costs about $100, which is probably more than the watch is worth.

Bulova Accutron VX-200 Automatic Diver

Let me start by saying I promise to wear something other than a diver's watch tomorrow. But today, it's another diver's watch! It's a Bulova Accutron VX-200 automatic. It's one of my more recent watch purchases, but not a surprising one. First, it's a diver's watch, and I seem to be drawn to their style, functionality and durability. Second, it's somewhat similar to the Tissot Seastar 1000 which I always liked the looks of but was unimpressed with the feel when I finally tried one on. Finally, it was on sale for a quarter of the MSRP which was impossible to pass up, especially since the Bulova outlet store was selling them for much more. It's a great watch, big and heavy but not overly bulky. It has a unique look that stands out in the world of cookie-cutter divers, large screw-down crown and a fantastic bracelet made up of more than a hundred individual link pieces. Overall it's a great watch and I've been very pleased with it.