I believe this watch is a 1956 Bulova Royal Clipper. It was awarded to my grandfather, a State Farm agent, in recognition of his achievement in the 1955 State Farm Insurance sales incentive program known as Operation Flagship. The date code back is L6. The watch is original and has never been refurbished.
The watchband is a Speidel 10k gold plated design. I don't believe this is the original band.
All other photos of Bulova Clippers from 1956 that I can find use a "6" with a standard typeface, whereas my watch uses what I call a "curly 6". There is an example of a 1957 Royal Clipper on MyBulova that features the "curly 6," but it utilizes the new style case that appears to have been introduced on 1957 Clippers and Royal Clippers. My watch features what I believe are called horn-style lugs and a stepped bezel. I don't yet have tools to open the caseback and look at the movement, but it appears to run fine. I have a few questions:
- Was it unusual for a 1956 Royal Clipper to use a dial using the "curly 6"? Regular Clippers seem to use a standard 6 design.
- What movement would this likely have?
- Why did Bulova change from using the 10CSC movement to the newer 11ACAC movement? I'm assuming that the 11ACAC was improved in some way.
- Is it correct that both the 10CSC and the 11ACAC were both made in Switzerland?
Thanks in advance for your help!
My opinion on this one is that it is a standard Clipper case with perhaps a dial from another Clipper model (Royal Clipper had the two-tone dial and that open-ended 6 marker design). Hard to say for sure, but I don't find this dial design in any ads for this Clipper case.
Glad you have it as an heirloom.
Everything seems to match the Clipper except the two tone dial. I wonder if this was a variant option for this model.
In reply to Everything seems to match… by JimDon5822
My theory is that this is a factory frankenwatch. My grandfather died in 1967, and it would have been too early for a redial. As an insurance salesman, he had a job that was mostly indoors, and being somebody who lived through the depression, he was cautious with his belongings. My grandmother held onto this watch for another 20 years, and then it passed on to my dad, but he never wore it.
Qualification for Operation Flagship 1955 awards would have most likely ended on December 31, 1955. State Farm, by that time, was a large company, so I bet they purchased hundreds of watches to give to agents who met the contest sales quota for that year.
My theory is that the Bulova factory was scrambling to fulfill orders, as they were introducing a new case design in 1956, around the same time Operation Flagship was concluding. The economy was booming, so I bet they had plenty of other orders to fulfill. They may have had unused 1955 style cases that they fitted with the new style "X" shaded dials. (?)
The ads for the 1956 Royal Clipper show several variations. One ad showed a Royal Clipper with a traditionally oriented sector design (shaped like a shaded "+" sign). Another 1956 color ad shows an American Clipper and the Royal Clipper side by side, both with plain white dials. The Royal Clipper in the 1956 annual report shows the common "X" shaped sector design we are familiar with. I'll add the all the advertisement variations to this thread in the next day or so.
What you say could very well be the case. When it comes to Bulova, anything is possible, especially considering the sheer number of watches they were selling at their peak in the 1950s. So using various parts to fulfill orders would not surprise me...it wouldn't be the first time they had done this.
ID wise we tend to ID on the case rather than the dial. Thus, for the purpose of an ID here on myBulova.com, we'd ID as a 1956 Bulova Clipper.
Very much happy to be shown an advert or Bulova catalog showing this case and dial combination as something else....we will be the first to admit we are always learning here.
Here is my take. It's a factory produced combination of parts to fill the end of the order for State Farm. They started out with the Medal of Honor model in 1955, which appears to have been a special order not offered to the general public. They ran short of cases by late 1955 and assembled a unique watch (again) from random "close enough" stock to fulfill their commitment.
The MOH I linked to has the original presentation/contest literature included. I'm also inclined to ID your great heirloom as a generic
1956 Clipper for now.
In reply to Here is my take. It's a… by neetstuf-4-u
Oh wow! I would never have found that thread! Who would think there is a State Farm Operation Flagship-related post on MyBulova! Thanks so much. My dad still has the globe/ship trophy pictured in the thread you linked to. I also have grandpa's Operation Flagship lapel pin.
At first, I was disappointed to learn that my watch wasn't a standard 1955 or 1956 Clipper or Royal Clipper but after more research it makes the watch more special to me.
And it makes sense from Bulova's point of view. In 1956 this would have been a great way to utilize the old style case and sell whatever remaining stock they had. A hybrid watch like this would have been less desirable to any Bulova dealer because it wouldn't align with what was being promoted in Bulova's advertising material for 1956.
Regardless, I'm very pleased to have this unique watch. I love the over-the-top horn style lugs paired with the "x" shaped Royal Clipper dial design with the curly 6! It's what I'd imagine a watch would look like from the mid-1950s before the minimalistic watch design trend became popular in the late 1950's and 1960's.
In my opinion, your grandfather's watch is very special and likely a "unicorn". The original Operation Flagship watch was released in 1955, yours is a 1956. The only reference to MOH (State Farm) we have is dated 1955. It's impossible to give a positive ID on a watch we have never encountered with no ads or Bulova documentation to back it up. It is composed of identifiable Clipper parts, but is something else. It's entirely possible this is the
1956 Medal Of Honor. I doubt Bulova would have done a name change on watches already special ordered.
1956 Bulova Clipper is the best model match to me. Case, hands, markers and dial are all a match except for the two tone accent on the dial.
I think the dial is correct and original to the case. I don't think this was a one-off anything but regular production. HERE is my 1955 Clipper. While the dial has been repainted the original looked exactly like this watch (pre restoration photo below) We also have THIS watch which is presented as New Old Stock and it also has this exact same dial.
I'm willing to reconsider the Clipper ID on my watch that I linked but I really think these two watches are exactly the same and original.
So, I'm a little confused, are we calling this the Medal of Honor, based on the back engraving, or a generic 1956 Bulova Clipper?