I'm guessing on the age here. This movement is early early. I picked up this watch because of the enamel. Bad news and good news... The case may not be Bulova as it's stamped 18K APEX. Good thing... 18K.
Beautiful watch. Glad you were able to pick this one up.
A very interesting watch. Given the signature on the movement, and the serial number, I would place it very early 1923. This was a time that American Standard did not produce enamel cases yet, so Bulova had to go somewhere else. Based on my research, I am almost certain that APEX was the one. It really must have been a try-out by Bulova. On Watchophilia is another one: https://www.watchophilia.com/photogallery/bulovas-1920-1929/a1924-unkno…. The try-out was probably not successful since so few are found. Only in 1928, Bulova would come with a wide range of enamel watches. Still not successful since most of them silently disappeared again in 1929.So for me, definitively a Bulova, albeit Unknown and from 1923.
So no date stamp on the movement? I imagine the earliest stamp would be an astrix (24), but would agree that it's more likely to be pre 24.
Regards the case, I wouldn't neccessarily discount it not being original, as we know Bulova used other 3rd party case companies to supply many of their solid gold and platinum cases.
Unknown for now.
Wow beautiful pick up and great that it is 18K and such an early model!
Unknown for now.
Sweet, but unknown...
1923 Bulova Unknown