I bought this watch at an auction just for the gold value, they told med it was 14k and link 18k. I won and opened the watch to my surprice it was 18k. And now my detective in my started.
It was an Rubaiyat movment, what i first fought was some russian junk or copy. But then i found this site and found out it is probably an early Bulova. It is signed and has the year 1919 outside.
But it is in a MIMO case (what i think bucuse it´s has a Memi stamp) that is own by Girrard Perregaux at that time. And there is a crown stamp and a womans head stamp and an stamp that i cant se what it is.
The movment has Rubaiyat, swiss , 15 jewels,3 adj,.
I wolud really by happy for more news about the watch.
Mimo produced gold watch cases and complete watches and were affiliated with GP by 1913. It appears that Mimo bought GP in 1928, but I am still trying to confirm this. I would say this is a Rubaiyat, and these are becoming quite scarce in gold cases. It is possible that this is a marriage, as I don't recall Bulova using Mimo cases. That said, gold cases that Bulova used tend to be a bit unusual.
Mimo produced watches for the Miltary contracts in Germany, and when WWII was over, ordered all service watches to be smashed, including those still in the factory. This was to avoid flooding the market with service watches post-war, and to attempt to retain some prestige within the Mimo brand.
I would not be at all surprised if the case is original, as the good Rev said when it came to solid gold cases Bulova didn't always use their own. If it was all original then I'd say that you have one rare bird in your possesion. As you say many have been scrapped for the gold over the past 90+ years.
Rubaiyat, purely based on the movement for me.
AND a sincere thanks for adding it to the myBulova.com website! A real treat to see it here in this database.
Any chance of a photo of the 1919 detail you describe?
I found some more clues, the woman head stamp, and crown stamp is used in swithzerland as 18k gold proof stamps. There is another stamp that should say who the maker is but i have a hard time to read what it is. I will buy a better microskope. And today i found on the wristband a new stamp other than the 18k 750 stamp a name, i think it says geneva something. But i have to look that up better.
Ok, found a wrinkle. I have a Mimo watch from the 40's and the case is not made by them. So either the gold case above was sourced from Mimo, or it wasn't. If it wasn't, that would of course indicate a marriage. Now, there are over 20 years between the two, but now I'm suspicious.
I'm trying to find out if Mimo supplied cases to anyone.