Just purchased my 1st vintage Bulova gents watch. Came with the Bulova 1940's ivory colored presentation box & on the top outside is the same naked lady as in the banner of this website. Who is she & why did they choose her? How long has she been associated with Bulova marketing? Thanks! BTW my 1st post & I did search "naked lady".
I'm remembering something along the lines:
first- Cole Phillips artwork of the period
second- A painting either commissioned for Bulova, or later purchased by Bulova - not done by Phillips, but influenced by Phillips artwork
third- The Goddess of time Illistration done as a copy/representation of this intermediary non-Phillips painting
Don't know how that explains the snippet Bobbee provides...

...and I'm thinking it was a newspaper article or some snippet of a jewelers period rag (Jewelers Circular perhaps???) which didn't have any information on a Bulova watch model, so it didn't warrant a place in the ad database. I think it mentions the Goddess of Time Illustration (not by Phillips), AND a painting almost identical to that Illistration (not by Phillips either) and a reference to some Cole Phillips illustration(s) on which both the Bulova Lady Painting and subsequent illistration were (albeit possibly loosly) based. ....heck, it may even have said who did this intermediat painting/illistration...
I fear the article is lost on my hards drive somewhere.....but I'm searching now....
to many Bulova...to little time....and poor research archiving on my part :( so for now, what I've said is little more than a myth or failed memory.
In reply to LOL! Gotta laugh at that one by bobbee
In reply to Any time, dude. The fun is in by bobbee
So, the contacted Bulova people who said the "Naked Lady" pic is the "Goddess Of Time" got it wrong, as did the "expert" on C. Coles Phillips artwork, who claimed this picture was not by him. Another expert who has written many books and articles on American artists, Mr. Norman Platnick was "delighted" with this information, whilst Mr. Vadeboncoeuer has yet to reply to the email I sent him with all the evidence! Here is a couple of snippets from the October 4th. 1922 issue of the Jewelers' Circular, naming the watercolour painting as an original interpretation of "TIME". - DennisVA, you were right!

A good pal sent me this:
"Coles Phillips lived and worked in New Rochelle, New York, a popular residential community for illustrators including JC Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell. He died in 1927 at the age of 47. The day he died, his good friend and neighbor in New Rochelle, JC Leyendecker took the four Phillips children into Manhattan to see the Charles Lindbergh Parade on Fifth Avenue."
Strange coincidence.
In reply to Could the dancer model have by LewisDandC@gmail.com
reading through this old thread it never ceases to amaze Me how argumentative people can be on the internet, one going as far as to deny the Artist credit for the image based on 'expert' testimony.
Of coarse Mr Phillips could not take credit, He had been commissioned by Bulova (paid) for the work therefore giving up His rights to the image.
I suspect that at the initial exhibit, Bulova named the painting simply "Time". Then, as interest rapidly spread, it was renamed "Goddess of Time", from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Bulova's first ladies watch, the Rubaiyat, introduced in 1917. She certainly made for excellent marketing and added a sense of elegance to the watches she represented.
While Anna Pavlova was a contemporary and famous ballet dancer, if Coles Phillips' inspiration came from a dancer, my money would be on Isadora Duncan, another contemporary and world renowned modern dancer, who emphasized natural movement while wearing Greek-styled costumes.
In reply to I suspect that at the… by sinatra
In reply to Wow that's so similar to the… by mybulova_admin
Yes, there are many more similar images of Isadora. They were both renowned artists of similar age, so surely their paths crossed. We'll likely never know with certainty, but it wouldn't be a stretch for her to have been his inspiration or maybe even posed for the painting, since she did also wear risqué costumes.

In reply to I suspect that at the… by sinatra







