This website looks to be an amazing resource. Many thanks for allowing me to join.
I am one of the authors of the recent book about the Polerouter and I would be extremely grateful if the Bulova experts could help me solve a question about a type of bezel occasionally seen on the Polerouter Sub models.
There is no evidence in Universal Geneve literature or advertising that this particular bezel type was one of the available options at the time and they are very different in appearance to the other known bezel options. My working theory is that the bezels have been replaced over the years and that the replacement bezels might be Bulova or perhaps generic widely available replacement parts.
These Polerouter Sub models were produced from 1969 through to the mid 1970s. I attach some photos below of two examples with the bezel type in question. Does anyone recognise this as a Bulova bezel type? I've been able to find many similar bezels but nothing identical.
Many thanks for your help.
I think there are a number of Bulova (and Bulova Accutron) Snorkels with what appears to be the same plastic bezel insert (see below - there are others).
They are not all the same - some have the slightly different triangle as highlighted above and some have a 4 with a flat top rather than pointed - but some appear to be identical to the versions seen on the Polerouters.
Does anyone know if these are Bulova bezels with a known part reference number?
In reply to I think there are a number… by Mazoue
What a coincidence, I'm wearing this watch today. Interestingly, my copy (1974, case reference 7202-4) has the flat-topped '4'. What is quite different in both my bezel and the one you show above vs. the Polerouter Sub's you showed is that the flutes on the bezel are rectangular vs. the Polerouter where it has a very different shape.
The bezel part number for case reference 7202-4 is B208. There is one currently on ebay (for a rather optimistic $849) which purports to be for case reference 7202-4 but the coloring around the triangular lume pip is different. There were several 7202 variations with different bezels, see the attached from the ABC catalog showing the different bezels with part numbers, 4th column from the right.
This is a good post that shows a number of NOS Bulova bezel's. The author has a Facebook group for Bulova dive watches, you may want to touch base with him.
In reply to WAIT A MINUTE DAVE - how did… by Geoff Baker
Haha, yep. I think someone added a Ferrari decal at some point. It looks pretty clean to the eye but under a scope you can see the edges of the decal. It came from Lisa's collection when it all sold at an estate sale back in 2022. You can see it in the 'Case 1' photo. It was an amazing collection with a bunch of incredible pieces. I picked up 4 watches from that sale but I didn't actually buy this one at the time. If I remember correctly all of the watches in Case 1 were priced at $800, but that probably isn't correct as some of those on the bottom row would be worth quite a bit more than that. Over the next few months I saw a number of them show up on ebay and other auction sites. I ended up purchasing this one along with 9 or 10 other watches from that collection about 3 months later at an auction in Florida. In fact, I just started working on one of those this morning :)