Bought this watch by mistake on ebay . I am putting it forward as Frankenbully of the year. Will Admin offer a prize ? :-)
Apparently they are real diamonds ! , its in the post so I will update the info when I receive it. I am blaming this purchase on my wife , I intended to bid on a listing next to this one on ebay and my wife came into my study and distracted me and I pressed an offer on the wrong listing. :-)
terry
Many of these "Frankenbully/Non-Conforming" watches will have flashy dials like yours, and they are not exclusive to just Bulova, I have a couple that are Benrus, and Gruen brands.
When you get it, you may want to test the "Diamonds", on the examples I have or have had, they are not real.
We tested a bunch of similar dials while in school, most were real diamonds. Diamond melee are not expensive, and I had one that was less than a grain, probably 20 pts, (If I remember correctly) and the cut and colour and clarity were non-remarkable. This was at the 12 O'clock position on a dial, and our Gem professeur estimated it to be worth less than $70. Keep in mind there is a considerable price difference even between a .99 carat diamond and a 1.00 carat diamond, and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference by just looking at it, regardless of experience in the industry. Authentic diamonds of low quality were often used.
You know it really doesn't look that bad. Depending on what movement... which seems to be a Bulova. There is a His Excellency case shaped like that one... might be a little off... but who knows. Maybe you just have a replacement dial? If so it wouldn't be that hard to find a dial to replace that one. There's quite a few of them will fit that model.
And yes.... if nothing else you have a Bulova movement and hands.
I actually kind of like it... it's got that "ghetto fabulous" thing going.
Have now received the watch and it does not look too bad apart from the holes drilled in the case and then filled with solder on the inside to try and hide it ! The case is called ELITE and is 10k rgp , the movement is a Bulova 8AE , 17 jewels dated 1947. There are 13 diamonds on the face. I do not think I will be keeping it , is there a simple way of checking whether the diamonds are real ? thanks
terry
I use my loope. If they look too "good" to be real, they probably are not real. I look for small inclusions/ poor clarity. They ususally don't show up in synthetics. The man-made look ...well....to good to be real. It's an eye one developes w/ time. I do see crystal and even paste in some cases, but small real diamonds of the grade which are used for these applications are pretty cheap to come by.
fifth i find the the duowind especially the tank style is rare...they don't come up to often..granted that one may come up and then like a few more. then you don't see them for awhile...everykind of watch come up for sale..just some more than others and some less then others...so yes i would say that it is rare..