My First Bulova (1940 Beacon?) - Care & Cleaning?

How to add images to myBulova.com forums & comments

Submitted by nwfisk on January 27, 2011 - 8:52am

So, I bought my first Bulova (in running condition) off of eBay, and while I'm waiting for it to arrive, I thought I would start to gather some more information.

Here's the photo:

I *believe* it's a 1940 Beacon, according to this ID page.

So, what do I do when it gets here? I'd like to polish it up a little bit, depending on what it looks like, and I'm not sure if that should include the dial. Is even touching the dial problematic? I have never owned a manual winding watch in my life - so I honestly know nothing. What would all of you do with this watch?

Thanks for any info you can give!

Timemachines
Posted January 27, 2011 - 9:40am

Hello, Nice looking watch.

 The first thing I would do is get it serviced. One of the biggest problems with watches is that most people dont service them.

 If you were to look at the movement in these watches like a car motor, you will relize that they have gears, wheels, bearing's ect. and they run 24/7 and you would not even thing of buying a old car and not changing the oil in it.

 The watch made it this far, and it could last another 100 years if you take care of it.   Mike...........

FifthAvenueRes…
Posted January 27, 2011 - 10:10am

I agree.

Service from a competant Watchmaker, not necessarily  the local Jeweler.

Worry about how it looks after getting a clean bill of Health.

nwfisk
Posted January 27, 2011 - 10:37am

Service it is, then! Thanks. Any tips for recognizing a competent watchmaker?

FifthAvenueRes…
Posted January 27, 2011 - 11:03am

Word of mouth, referral or the old downtown Jewelery store owner. Definately not the large Chain or Mall based Jewelers.

Your Watch identification looks correct and should be added to the database once You verify the Year of manufacture.

ML.

nwfisk
Posted January 27, 2011 - 1:06pm

Now that I look at it a little more closely, it seems like both the case and the hands on my watch are different from the Beacon in the ad, and in the image posted by plainsmen... Is this typical?

mybulova_admin
Posted January 27, 2011 - 6:01pm

Dials and hands did seem to vary in models. I think there were dial options with many watches and with this option came the ability to match the dial with different hands. We have seen this on a number of watch models.

Bottom, line for me (and something I think we tend to get caught up on too much) is that all the components look to be authentic to a Bulova watch of this period. The case, dial and hands all look good.

Look forward to seeing it added to the database.

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