Bulova 1971 Jet Clipper

I have somehow wound up with four of this model, the Jet Clipper 'A', but this is the star of the bunch. It is a NOS 1971 example on the rare as hen's teeth bracelet with the paint on the center links still intact. Two of the others have the bracelet but like most the paint has completely worn off.  I love the applied facet-cut hour markers that catch the light and sparkle, on a slightly textured Arctic Blue or teal dial that matches the paint on the bracelet. It is one of those 1970's watches that still looks like it could be a contemporary design.

It came in the original box with the protective film on the caseback still intact (which came off during cleaning). The case gasket had melted to the point that even with a bench case opener I had a really hard time getting the caseback off and was sweating bullets worrying that it would slip and scratch the caseback. Removing the caseback showed the cleanest movement I've ever seen and it looked like this is the first time this watch had been opened. Not a speck of dirt or a scratch to be seen anywhere, every screw head was clean without any marring. These gold toned movements are really gorgeous, especially when they look brand new. 

This model came with both the 23 jewel 11ANACB, and like this one, the 11AOACB. Oddly, this one is dated 1973. In another watch I would have assumed that maybe the rotor or movement was replaced, but I don't see why that would have been done in a watch that had never been worn. One possibility could  be that it was purchased NOS without a movement, like my Ambassador, but it would have to have been done very early in its life and a NOS movement sourced, which seems somewhat unlikely. Or perhaps Bulova had stock on hand with the 11ANACB and when they decided to switch from the 11ANACB to the 11AOACB in this model, they swapped out the 11ANACB for the 11AOACB. It's a mystery. 

Interestingly, three of my watches have slightly different dials, not counting the presence or absence of the whale, and the other example in the database is different than those three, so at least four different dials. The differences are that some have just a '23' below the 'BULOVA', others have nothing below the 'BULOVA' and have '23 JEWELS' at the bottom of the dial below the 'AUTOMATIC'. I have one that has the Accutron logo above the 'BULOVA'. And at the bottom of the dial some have  -T SWISS MADE T-, this one has -T S-, and the other in the database has -T T-.