Just bought this from a friend, who recently found it in an estate sale. It has 'M1' on the caseback, making it a 1961 production. I put the Geiger counter on it, and it was quite active for a dress watch... that makes it the latest production watch I've seen with radium... I snapped some iPhone pics this morning in the sunshine: ... and the seller's pic in the box: My friend, who knows Bulova much better than I do, says it's a variant of the 'Sea King'.
I've actually fallen hard for the Bulova flip watches of the 50s - just love the idea of a 1950s dude that carried around a pic of his sweetheart hidden in his watch. The manly locket!
I think I saw one of those with the whale a few months ago on Retrowatchguy... love the whale, great looking, but if I remember correctly, it was pretty small at around 32, so I passed... Saw this one listed as 36mm, so I bought it... but he was pretty far off, much to my chagrin, it’s only 33mm. To his credit though, he offered to return my money when I told him how far off he was!
Of course it is... Jacoby Bender Champion as worn by Gordon Cooper and Alan Shepard in this MA-9 training photo taken in 1963 .
@SpeedyPhill was too quick but yes a JB champion like the one used by the NASA astronauts, the on with corned lugs. I should put my 2018 wristlycalendar on it too!
Dues this band allow rapid size adjustment to let the wearer slip in on over the wrist cuff of a flight jacket?
A handsome watch.....1936-38 "President"? I have a '38 that I recently purchased at my watchmaker now replacing stem and crown. Regrettably, the dial's condition is a far, far cry from the condition of yours. I have a large wrist, so many watches pre-1960 look like postage stamps when I wear them. That said, the lug-to-lug size of these watches allows them to wear more like a modern watch. Wearing dive/tool watches more often than not the relative ligthness of a vintage watch like this is almost liberating. Get it out into the daylight more often. Cheers!
Indeed, look at this almost fully extended ( steel mesh just slides over the inner band ) JB Champion ( or earlier Komfir Forstner ? ) on the wrist of astronaut Virgil Grissom on launch day of Gemini III in March 1965... Grissom wore a Bulova Accutron Astronaut tuning fork watch on his right wrist and an Omega Speedmaster chronograph on his left wrist. Both timepieces on a JB Champion bracelet... as allowed by NASA More images in our March 2018 contribution at MoonwatchUniverse https://moonwatchuniverse.tumblr.com/archive .