Bulova 1969 Sea King

Submitted by Tullyboy80 on April 7, 2014 - 10:08am
DY
Manufacture Year
1969
Movement Model
11BLCD
Movement Jewels
17
Movement Serial No.
-
Case Serial No.
G473724
Case shape
Round
Case color
Yellow
Case Manufacturer
Bulova
Gender
Mens
Watch Description

I don't think the band is the original, because it says "Speidel USA" on each link, and some links are backwards?

Bulova watch
Bulova watch
Bulova watch
Bulova Watch
Bulova Watch
Bulova Watch
bobbee
Posted April 7, 2014 - 10:30am

Date King in 1967/68 ads, Sea King "DV" in 1969 ad. 

Nice, clean watch.

Tullyboy80
Posted April 7, 2014 - 1:10pm

Thank you. So, this is a hybrid kind of watch?

 

bobbee
Posted April 8, 2014 - 2:51am

No Sir, we just have conflicting ads for your lovely watch!

Best call it a Date King.

 

EDIT:- I have now found two 1969 ads calling this a Sea King, there is a big price difference between the two models, but no case metal description in either.

All pre-1969 ads call it a Date King, so as your watch is dated to 1969, it is a Sea King, and looking at the bands in the ads and the one on your watch, I would have to say that your band is original, and your variant would then be the "DY" in the bottom ad as the band matches yours.

BTW, Bulova often used Kreisler bands on their watches.

 

EDIT2:- Maybe the first letter in the variant stands for "Date"?

 

July 1969 Daily Time Herald.

 

May 1969 St. Joseph News Press.

1969 Bulova advert

Tullyboy80
Posted April 8, 2014 - 11:53am

Wow! Thanks for the info. Will have to check on this "DY."

mybulova_admin
Posted April 10, 2014 - 9:23am

Tully, can you confirm the date code on the movement an case? Symbol date codes stopped being used in 1946 so the 'T' that you see be something else. The should be a M9 or something similar.

Tullyboy80
Posted April 10, 2014 - 5:52pm

Date code on the case is "M9" - I must have placed a "T" in that box mistakenly. Thanks, I'll fix that.

Geoff Baker
Posted April 12, 2014 - 6:03am

Tully - can you also confirm that your watch is self winding? Date King and Sea King are both labeled 'Self Winding" on the dial, your's isn't marked as such and I wonder if it is.

mybulova_admin
Posted April 14, 2014 - 5:42am

Based on the whale symbol on the dial I'm going with Date King 'NP'.

Water resistant (Sea King)

Waterproof (Date King)

The whale for me implies certified waterproof.

bobbee
Posted April 15, 2014 - 4:03am

In reply to by mybulova_admin

These ads have watches with "whale" dials, yet are described "water resistant".

Looking through the database for all ads, we have Sea Kings, Presidents, Senators, different sorts of Clippers with "whale" dials, none earlier than 1969, and none marked or described as "waterproof"

I think "waterproof" became "water resistant" around 1969 for all watch brands, and the whale first appeared in this year too.

1972 ad.

 

1969 ad. This one has Sea Kings with whale dials.

Strangely, Rotary has recently started marking the backs of some of their water resistant watches "waterproof"!

Tullyboy80
Posted April 15, 2014 - 11:56am

Thanks. I took this to a jeweler who sent it to a Bulova repair. This was given to me by my Grandmother, when her husband passed. When I tried to set the time I pulled the stem out. When I took it to the jeweler he is the one who told me that it was self winding (removing the back verified no room for a battery.) I have been unable to find a picture of this exact watch (just the whale and no writing) however, I did notice today that under the Roman numeral "VI" there is this: "T SWISS T." I don't know if that is significant and not sure why I didn't notice it before...