Bulova 1948 -Unknown

Submitted by tomprobkins on January 6, 2015 - 4:17pm
Manufacture Year
1948
Movement Model
8AE
Movement Date Code
48 (A8)
Movement Jewels
21
Movement Serial No.
-
Case Serial No.
8938806
Case shape
Rectangle
Case color
Yellow
Case Manufacturer
Bulova
Gender
Mens
Watch Description

I have a beautiful rare 21 Jewel 1948 8AE Bulova 10k GF Gold watch. It is running but needs a cleaning. All of the gears turn and the watch will tick for minutes or hours then stop. The case is in good shape, it has the band. The crystal has a couple of very small scuffs.  the numerals are painted gold with a thin black outline. I am guessing it is a Dewey, Douglas, or His Excellency from the late 40s.

FOR SALE
1948 Bulova watch
1948 Bulova watch
1948 Bulova watch
1948 Bulova watch
bourg01
Posted January 15, 2015 - 8:39pm

In reply to by 1955mercury

Actually, from what I can see, the movement is 1949 but it looks like the case Ser.# dates it 1949

Andersok
Posted January 9, 2015 - 8:49pm

Similar dial issue where the Engineer ad from 1946 shows Roman numerals and squares...not numbers; Unknown

Geoff Baker
Posted January 10, 2015 - 6:03am

Panel - we discussed this watch, http://www.mybulova.com/watches/1946-unknown-6903 in November last year and decided it was not an Engineer because we though the Engineer had a roman dial. We have two Engineers in the dB from this era, they both have roman dials. If we decide this is the Engineer, we should reconsider at least the watch linked above.

 

jabs
Posted January 10, 2015 - 6:50am

I think Unknown for both watches

bobbee
Posted January 10, 2015 - 9:39am

Here is the best I could do with the Engineer ad.

It can be clearly seen to have roman numerals III, IX, XII at 3, 9, and 12. Also square markers for the rest of the hours.

I hope this "clears" things up!

 

Geoff Baker
Posted January 11, 2015 - 5:20am

Unknown - John P, Jaroslav, WIll, Ken, Geoff

Engineer - Shawn, Admin

tomprobkins
Posted January 14, 2015 - 12:15pm

My understanding is that there are 52 different His Ex models per year (A - Z x 2). Can anyone confirm this? Could it be a His Ex given the jewel count? Are there other distinctions of the His Ex line? Has anyone every seen a 1947 Dewey ? 

Geoff Baker
Posted January 15, 2015 - 7:44am

Tom, I'm not sure we have any accurate way to tell how many variants there were of His Excellency. I'm not certain the double letter variants were used consecutive. We have Dewey from '45 and '48 but both have a different dial than your watch.

bobbee
Posted January 15, 2015 - 10:21am

The Dewey case is different to yours too.

tomprobkins
Posted January 15, 2015 - 10:35am

The 1945/48 Dewey face is the closest I have seen to this watch on an identified model. As you can see the 45 had no numbers around the sub dial, while the 48 does. That is why I am curious to see a 46 or 47 dewey face. Either way it is probably a form of a His Excellency SS or such. The problem with that theory is that most of the His Exc's I have seen have applied gold numbers not painted. 

If it weren't for seeing two of the same on this site I would chaulk it up to a custom job.