My feeling is that it's not as early as 1916. The few ASWCCo cases we have that start with a '3' are tricky to date with any certainty. Did they come before or after the '2' serials?
My gut is saying after and date to around 1918-1919.
Here are a few other similar Rubaiyat watches we have in the database, noting the dial design with the inner circular bevel.
- https://mybulova.com/watches/1918-rubaiyat-14943
- https://mybulova.com/watches/1918-rubaiyat-14860
- https://mybulova.com/watches/1919-rubaiyat-6350
- https://mybulova.com/watches/1920-rubaiyat-12103
- https://mybulova.com/watches/1920-rubaiyat-6302
Rubaiyat was first used in 1916 and it's hard to know the progression of stampings over the next 3-4 the years.
If it is anythinhg like Bulova movement stamping, BULOVA came before BULOVA W Co., so it might be fair to say RUBAIYAT W Co. came after RUBAIYAT.
I'm at 1918-19 at the earliest. We have your other '3" serial case which we have dated to 1918. For consistancy I'd be ok with that, but it is still a bit of a guessing game to determine the exact year. Again I don't think it's 1916 and certainly not the oldest watch we have seen.
Here's hoping one day we can unravel the "2xxxxxx", "3xxxxxx" and "1xxxxxx" serials.