The Bulova 11 AERC movement was unique to Bulova and easily could have been used by Gubelin for an alarm watch. I think that you overestimate the quality of Gubelin watches and underestimate the quality of Bulova watches & movements. However, if you feel it is a Gubelin, I feel certain you can own it for a fraction of its original price.
Gubelin is Europe's Cartier, and I doubt they were selling refaced Bulovas in their shops for literally thousands more. In my view, the prospect that Gubelin and Bulova were buying the exact same movements AND cases on the open market is very unlikely. As to valuation, Gubelins have a substantial (perhaps order of magnitude?) multiple over Bulovas.Īlso, when using other manufacturer's movements, such as a Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox alarm movement, Gubelin often added custom refinements - the pedestrian Bulova movement in the 'Gubelin' is entirely off the shelf. To my eye, it's a simple template, and, upon close inspection, the bridge material is unexceptional.Īs to cost, I'd think the bridge fabrication would be minimal expense in time and materials, and a competent redial can be had for $25-$50. I would personally speculate that a new bridge may have been cut. I suspect it's rather like finding a Timex movement in a Cartier. I believe the bottom line is that Gubelin components are well beyond the scope - from a cost and quality perspective - of anything Bulova would use in its watches. I note that the crowns are different.ĭo you suspect (or can see) that the bridge marked "Gubelin" has been ground down (to eliminate the Bulova designation), re-jeweled, re-engraved, and re-plated? Or a new bridge fabricated? This seems unlikely and the work involved in doing this (as well as a re-dial) would seem to negate the profit in the fake.īottom line: Exactly how do you know that the watch is a fake? Often watch manufacturers used the same cases particularly on low volume products like alarm watches. This case was not manufactured by Bulova either but rather for Bulova. The cases are from the same case manufacturer, CB, but this does not necessarily mean that the "Gubelin" watch is not from Gubelin. Since the movement in the "Gubelin" watch is marked Gubelin how do you know that this movement was not obtained by Gubelin from Bulova for use in this alarm watch? Gubelin certainly used the A Schild 1475 alarm movement in some of their alarm watches (as well as others I believe). Gubelin did not manufacture any movements themselves but rather bought movements from other manufacturers. Is the watch on the right the one you purchased and the one on the left a Bulova Alarm using the Bulova 11 AERC movement? I thought I had purchased a rare Gubelin alarm watch that is, in reality, a made-over Bulova. I consider this a valuable learning experience, and share it with you below. Thanks to Zaf's exceptional horological expertise, I was notified of a fake watch.
Classicwatch discussion fora: Anatomy of a fake
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