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Bulova Rebuilt

FLwatchguy73

By FLwatchguy73
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

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FLwatchguy73 Super WRT Addict

FLwatchguy73

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Good evening everyone.  I'm in the middle of going through my recently acquired Bulova and during reassembly,  I noticed the dial has the word "REBUILT" stamped on it. A quick search on Google shows this is a fairly common theme.  Is anyone aware of the specifics of this? Was this a factory move to resell used or returned watches at a conceivably reduced price? Was there a 3rd party company that offered these?  The movement is a Bulova, in house 10BZAC that was initially produced from 1959 to 1964. I have no idea when this particular configuration was sold. Very intriguing Just the same. 

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yankeedog Distinguished Member

yankeedog

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Bulova was a premier name . I have seen watched advertised as being bulova rebuilt or bulova movement.  while bulova may have offered such things for sale, I dont think it would be in line with their status. after all would you expect to see new cars offered with rebuilt engines at the volvo dealership?probably not. most likely third party.

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FLwatchguy73 Super WRT Addict

FLwatchguy73

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9 hours ago, WatchMaker said:

There is an informative piece on this subject here: http://www.mybulova.com/forums/rebuilt-bulova-23

The image in the link you provided showed a prepackaged watch case kit. That retailer was Theodore Kagen of New York. My case is stamped with the exact same TK logo.  So it looks like this was a 3rd party thing.  A Google search reveals the Theodore Kagen company was sued in 1960 for falsely selling their watch cases as gold when in fact they were base metal. They ended up losing that judgement and had to clearly state on the packaging what the metal was actually composed of. These "rebuilt" watches were never authorized by Bulova. Fairly certain this wouldn't fly in today's world, unless you're in China,  lol.   Fascinating. 

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yankeedog Distinguished Member

yankeedog

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I don't  know..you can buy rebuilt chevy and ford motors all day long. There probably  just is no market  for  rebuilt watches today. It's  probably  a whole  lot cheaper  for a Robot  to assemble  one than it is for a skilled  human  to rebuild  one.

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