Hiya;
I'm working on determining how many variations of the G dial were produced. I've currently found 6, (excluding the V variant) and was wondering if there was anything on these forums about it? I'm looking for year made for some variants. Any information is helpful. Thanks.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15mxpWHhVfMpLVxZV3RCJ__Ou0Vb16FE…
Tayloreuph - good question! Before I answer I want to make sure of a couple items. A couple of the photos in your google drive bear Owner ID marks. We're kind touchy about using photos on myBulova that we don't own the rights to but if granted permission we note it. I know that Mr Rosen sent you several powerpoint files (he copied me), I'm not sure if any of those photos are included. Technically any photo found on the myBulova website cannot be reproduced without the site owners permission. I'm pretty sure Stephen would be agreeable but to be fair you should ask him. If use of any the photos in the drive haven't been granted permission for use, I'll remove the link and email it the panel members so they can still view. OH - of course you can repost a photo found on myBulova BACK on myBulova! Whew - sorry had to say it.
Our primary goal at myBulova has always been to help collectors in every way we can. We have, as you know, an extensive collection of resources on the site. Unfortunately we do not have any resources that are not on the site, so basically you already have access to everything we know. Regarding the Oceanographer G: As per the Bulova Line books and adverts there was ONE and only one G variant. While it is possible that Bulova made slight changes to the dial or hand set there is no documentation WE HAVE to support the theory. The snips from the line books in your drive are near impossible to resize to compare adequately but I note that the MODEL 114720-7W / 24500 does not change. The bracelet shown in the line book doesn't change and the G is NEVER made with a date/day complication, it only ever has a date complication, if it had, there would be a different variant assigned. Bulova sold watches in Asia and Europe that occasionally appear with slight variations but we would normally not assign them the G unless we note possible modifications. (remember - all "rules" have exceptions). That we have several different "G' models in the dB speaks only the the fact that we've accepted them as being close enough to G to catalog them as such, in some case noting the slight variations. We certainly recognize that a 50 year old watch may have been 'modified' over it's life and frankly we've seen the minor modification on dozens and dozens of models, likely even the G variants we have. There are a few models that have the variant determined by the mount (bracelet, strap or band) but the Oceanographer G is not one of those models.
PS - the only tried and true method to date a Bulova is by case and movement date code (recognizing the possibility of modification).
Thank you for the notice. I have removed the offending pics, and kept the ones I have rights to, as they are mine. I have replaced many with pics from MyBulova in their stead.
My... I guess we could call it research, has uncovered the following noted variations:
(these are all for what we would consider the classic Oceanographer G dial, with the luminous plots, black dial, red sector division. It does not include the V variant)
Legend:
Brand
Any dial text above the center pinion
(space)
Any dial text below the center pinion
(Seconds hand, hand set, complication)
year (if known)
v. 1
Bulova
Oceanographer
Snorkel
Automatic
666 feet
(Lollipop, standard thick white baton handset, date)
v. 2
Bulova
Automatic
Snorkel
666 Feet
(Lollipop, standard thick white baton handset, Day/Date)
v. 3
Bulova
Snorkel
Automatic
Waterproof
666 feet
(Silver stick seconds, silver handset, date)
v. 4
Bulova
Oceanographer
Automatic
Snorkel
666 feet
(Red lollipop, standard thick white baton handset date)
1970
v. 5
Bulova
Snorkel
Automatic
(Stick seconds, silver hands, date)
1969 ~ potential JDM
v. 6
Bulova
Oceanographer
Snorkel
666 feet
Automatic
(Lollipop, standard thick white baton handset, date)
1969
I don't have a current example of the day/date dial (version 2) in the folder, however I have seen a couple examples of it, with the same dial hallmarks, black dial, red sector marks, silver applied BULOVA, luminescent cylinder hour markers, etc. The Version 5 dial, I've read speculation that it's a Japanese Domestic Market version of the watch, as the Japanese consider 6 an unlucky number.
There is no way to know when different dials were produced for different variants of Bulova Oceanographers. In some years there were as many as 10-12 different variants of the Oceanographer model in production. Dating specific dials is something we can't do as we have no resource to do so. If you have specific watches in question, please add them to the database we can help identify the year, model and variant if applicable.
Geoff, are you saying that there were 10 variants of the G style dial within one year, or 10 difference designations of Oceanographer (A, B, C, D, etc) within a given year?
Perhaps we can attack this from a different avenue. Do we know who produced dials? Were they all done in house, or were the dials outsourced? I could understand variations if they were produced by different partners, with a different pad print perhaps.
What I'm saying is that Bulova produced ONE Oceanographer with the G variant that was, to the best of our knowledge, never changed relative to the case, dial or bracelet. The G variant was most likely identical in every year it was sold, although we realize that there may have been slight changes over the span as well as modifications done to the watches after market. This could include things like dial restoration, bracelet change and even swapping dials AND movements from other watches and watch models. By the 1930 already, Bulova made generally made their own cases, almost always their own movements and as far as we know,always their own dials. T
There are currently in our database 84 different Bulova Oceanographers spanning 20 different variants roughly from 1966 to 1978 (LOOK HERE). It is possible that there are model variants that we have not yet seen. Note that the watches that do not have variants listed are ones we cannot tie to a specific variant because of modifications or a lack of adverts showing the particular style.
From what I can see the three (3) main layouts are:
Top dial section:
- 1968: Bulova -] Snorkel
- 1968-69: Bulova - Oceanographer - Snorkel
- 1970-1972: Bulova - Oceanographer
Bottom dial section:
- 1968: Automatic - Waterproof - 666 Feet
- 1968-69: 666 Feet - Automatic
- 1970-1972: Automatic - Snorkel - 666 Feet
There may be other combinations, but these 3 seem to be some what consistent.