Bulova 1976 Model

Submitted by JimDon5822 on March 18, 2018 - 9:26am
12543
Manufacture Year
1976
Movement Model
11AOACD
Movement Jewels
17
Movement Serial No.
-
Case Serial No.
3945650
Case shape
Round
Case color
White
Case Manufacturer
Other
Crystal details
28.5MM X 30.5MM Flat Rounded Square Shaped
Gender
Mens
Watch Description

This is my favorite Buolva.   it is a tonneau shaped stainless steel case with a beautiful brushed champagne dial.  It has applied minute markers and printed Bulova Automatic on the dial.  It has a Date window.  The case back is marked with a stylized RV ?  and Swiss and 7688.  I cannot find any date codes.  It measures 42MM x 36MM.  

1979 Bulova watch
1979 Bulova watch
1979 Bulova watch
1979 Bulova watch
mybulova_admin
Posted March 24, 2018 - 11:41pm

Closest matches I can find.

Dec 1977 Clipper advert

1977 Bulova Clipper watch advert

It is strange that there is no date code on the oscillating rotor weight.

Reverend Rob
Posted April 3, 2018 - 11:05pm

Possibly there is no name, simply a model number at this point?

No date code, but also no import code. Everything says Swiss. This is the quickset date version of this series, descended directly from the 11ANXX series. 

I'd say 1979 Bulova ref. 7688, although 1979 unknown would work also. This is the last of the automatics, during the height of the quartz crisis, and all bets were off. 

Geoff Baker
Posted April 4, 2018 - 6:08am

JinDon - we're pretty rigid when we assign names to watches. In most cases we want to see a Bulova produced advertisement that contains the name. In past we focused on magazines because they had nice, color ads. Within the last few years several of our members have gotten very good at researching newspaper data bases for ads, again focusing on watches displayed with the names. In the mid seventies Bulova phased out proper names for watches so, post 1975 we find very few Bulova watches with names but only reference or model numbers. In the past we published some watches using only the reference number but as of late have shied away from the practice. Unfortunately, some sellers do incomplete research and list watches for sale with an improper or a made up name which sometimes also makes our job a bit tougher.

JimDon5822
Posted October 5, 2019 - 9:25pm

Well after countless hours of searching I have found an ad match.  Based on the serial number hinting at 1976 and this December 1975 ad I ask that this be reconsidered as a 1976.  Still no name though.

The Evening Independent (Massillon, Ohio) · 17 Dec 1975,

Geoff Baker
Posted October 6, 2019 - 6:46am

I'm open to updating the year to 1976, I think it stills falls within the period of the mid/late seventies. I appreciate that you're not giving up on the ID for this beauty.