The history that I know of is that it came from a business that closed in the 1990's when the owner retired. I have attached my photos. For some unknown reason to me at least, the front picture is sideways and I can not turn it?
Thank you.
In reply to Wow, it looked white to me… by neetstuf-4-u
In reply to Finally found an ad listing… by neetstuf-4-u
I am thinking this might be a replaced dial also. Definitely a Conqueror case. The removal of the gold mark on the inner case and sanding of the monogram leads me to believe this might be a refurbished watch. Honestly I prefer this dial over the original one. It gives it a great look. Unless an ad confirms this dial I am good with a 1928 Conqueror noting a possible replaced dial and hands. I have used several members for service and used ebay services. A service can be in a very wide range starting about $95 and up from there depending upon parts needed. Great watch and well worth having it serviced.
In reply to I am thinking this might be… by JimDon5822
I had a problem logging in for a couple days, so I must apologize for being late with my response to your messages. The case back has not been sanded. I placed a sticker on the photo from a 3D print program on my PC. Speaking of service, is there a common problem with this particular movement? What would be the maximum $ that I should place on having it repaired. My intention is to sell the watch eventually so maybe selling it for repair-only- as-is may be an option for a person to repair themselves? Any ideas to help me decide. It is not that I do not like Bulova watch's as I always ware the sub brand, Caravel devil 666! out on my field work and I love it.
Thank you to all. Stay safe.
RJ
In reply to I had a problem logging in… by RJR
The 10AN was the workhorse of Bulova watches in the 20s and early 30s. There are still parts to be found on eBay and alike.
I've been working on these movements for many many years and love them.
Like most early manual wind watch movements, there is usually three things that go wrong: 1) broken mainspring (won't wind up) 2) broken balance wheel shaft (wobbly wheel and won't tick) and 3) a dirty gummed-up movement (winds and the balance wheel swings freely, but won't tick or stops after a while).
I'm not sure of prices in the US for services, but here Australia I typically charge between $100 and $150 AUD for a complete breakdown, clean, oil and polish + parts (if needed).
In reply to I had a problem logging in… by RJR
Watches of this age are usually VERY worn out, and I don't recommend getting them serviced as the results will be pretty poor most of the time. Even with a new mainspring and full service, the modulus of elasticity of the hairspring will be dramatically weaker, making them very 'rubbery,' and the wear to the pivots makes the timekeeping vary dramatically as the watch is moved between positions.
I'm not saying it can't be done, but the average charge here around the GTA will be around $200. The watch's value is mainly in the gold content.
In reply to Watches of this age are… by Reverend Rob
Rob I tend to disagree (in a sense). A good majority of the 10AN's I've serviced, and I would say about 50+ over 13 years, usually keep good time. They are not precision timepieces by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not that hard to get them to run within +- 2 minutes a day (if not better), and if you don't mind tweaking the time every day or so they can be a reliable timepiece. However it does very much depend on the starting condition of the watch. If it's been run long and hard with little to no love over the years, then absolutely these can be a bugger to service to a point where you cannot count on them as a reliable timepiece.
Over the years I've worn many 10AN watches as my daily wearer and am happy to trade off the not so perfect timekeeping for the fact that I'm wearing a watch from the 20s and 30s. If my watch was a minute or so out I'd just wind and adjust each morning....but again that's just me.
Horses for courses I guess.
Note to all, I'm not a professional watchmaker like Rob and I cannot state enough that his skill level, experience and qualifications far outweighs that of mine. I would also acknowledge that a professional watchmaker/repairer will strive for near perfect timekeeping.
In reply to Rob I tend to disagree (in a… by mybulova_admin
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Stephen!
I should clarify- When I say I don't recommend it, I mean when someone comes into my shop, that is what I usually say. Most of the old ones (20's & 30's) that I see fall into the 'run hard and long with no love' or service, so basically if they were cars they'd be held together with rust, and blowing blue smoke if they were running at all.
The deltas I observe after servicing run into like 130 seconds, which is absolutely appalling. That means that the watch can be running say plus 5 second laying flat, but dive-bombs to minus 120 when on the side. In a modern watch, this is usually caused by a poising error, but on these old ones, poising does not help much, the hairspring simply cannot hold the amplitude steady when the watch is turned. This can be corrected with a new hairspring, but unless the watchmaker has hundreds of different ones in old stock, it's not something that most Mat Houses stock. It's quite a bit of extra work, and to address the wear and tear properly would entail re-jewelling and pivot polishing, which just isn't done unless the watch is really valuable. (In Watchmaking school we did re-bush some of these old movements, and also re-jewel some, more as an exercise than anything, and the results were really good. We also replaced things like the escape wheel with an NOS one, so that helps big time. )
Now that does translate into being off several minutes a day in some cases, and despite telling the customer to expect this, I still hear complaints after the fact. Another issue is that the really old ones have no shock protection, and I see too many of them come back with broken staffs from rough handling, even after, as I have said, I have warned about it. With notable exceptions, they are also notoriously NON water resistant, and many are barely dust resistant.
Now having said all that, I myself also wear my old cut corner Conqueror from time to time, just because it is such a survivor.
In reply to Another thing, the marks on… by RJR