Wow I just got off the phone with Bulova in New York City....

Submitted by plainsmen on January 17, 2011 - 4:01pm

WE might just be the largest trove of information out there on Bulova's baring some old guys in nursing homes with stuff in their storage.

Spoke with a very helpful older lady at Bulova Headquarters in NYC today on the telephone and she said that any and all records over 25-30 years old are GONE!!  Apparently they moved to smaller offices back then and just got rid of all the old archives.  Like... trashbin type got rid of...  They have nothing over 30 years old stored anywhere.

It's MAYBE somewhere if some individual wanted to keep it in my fairytale land, but not that they know of at all.

Now... that's crazy.  Baring some older jewelers/retirees someplace, and some of the other old collectors on other sites.... THIS is it!

Congrats on having the one website that's probably the foremost authority on vintage Bulova's Stephen!

vintagebulova.com
Posted January 17, 2011 - 5:31pm

Not suprising considering "recent history" of the company.  In 1973 a fairly large share of Bulova was sold to Gulf and Western.   They sold their interest to Stelux Manufacturing in 1976.  In 1979 Stelux sold their shares to Lowes Corporation who sold of a bunch of Bulova's assets between 1981 and 1987.  This included their main headquarters in Queens, NY and facilities in Italy and Switzerland.   With all this shuffling around it comes as no suprise that early records have been lost.      

Jay

vintagebulova.com

 

 

Stephen Ollman
Posted January 18, 2011 - 3:06am

Six years ago when I first laid eyes on a Bulova Lone Eagle and thought to myself...'now that's a beautiful watch' I wanted to know more about them and about the Bulova brand.

Like most of us here on the myBulova.com website my first search for information on vintage Bulova's really didn't turn up much at all. There were a few posts mentioning Bulova here and there scattered amongst the many many Hamilton and Waltman posts, but no where near the amount I had expected.

It struck me strange that unlike Hamilton and Waltman (and I guess many other well known brands) there just didn't seem to be the proper proportion of information considering Bulova's size and dominance in the US market place (especially for a 50 year period)

What I believed was needed was a website that would allow the people with the knowledge, those that had any, to be able to share that knowledge in one single place that would one day hopefully become the primary home of vintage Bulova watch information. Thus myBulova was born.

The strength of this site is with out a shadow of a doubt due to its members and people like Plains, Wayne, Gary,  Mark, Geoff, Scott, Bob, Bourg and now Jay (and many others)  that take the time to do the research and have the passion, be it old or new, to help on a daily basis to  expand the now ever growing bucket of information about this amazing brand of watch.

Its a real shame that the powers of the Bulova Corporation don't have half of the passion members of this site have. If they did they would do a lot more to help.

We still have a long way to go and a lot of fun work ahead of us. Just imagine a day were every vintage Bulova watch is identified....hmmmm....

Thank you gentlemen.

plainsmen
Posted January 18, 2011 - 9:42am

Good to know how it started out Stephen.  I for one am glad I found it and I'm happy to give as much help as I can in tracking down all these time pieces.

We're getting there, but still have a bit to go.    I love the dynamic of debate on this site.  Everyone has some good information and hashing identifications and mysteries is pretty fun.

Wayne Hanley
Posted January 18, 2011 - 1:31pm

Cheers to You Stephen, your leadership has kept us on the right track. Keep up the Great Work!

Wayne