Here I am again, ready or not.

A bit of background. The Bulova Watch Co. was incorporated in 1923, by Joseph Bulova. Bulova was one of the watch companies that helped unseat the American watch manufacturers in the 1920s by its clever and timely advertising. Joseph Bulova was replaced by his son Arde Bulova, at the time of Joseph’s death circa 1938. It was Arde Bulova that was largely responsible for building the Bulova Watch Co., into the power house it became.

My late father had a jewellery store from 1946 until he closed it in 1974. He carried Bulova watches. An early venture by Bulova in the inexpensive watch market was in the 1950s. The company was selling Bulova and Westfield watches, but they felt they were missing out by not having a watch line to compete with Timex. They introduced a brand of watch called ARDAY, named after Arde Bulova.

When the Arday was introduced, the Bulova Canada president was Robert Day! R Day for short. My father had the Arday line in his store. I recall a day when the area representative for Bulova, and Robert Day were in my father’s store. Robert Day jokingly mentioned that the Arday Watch was named after him.

Until recently, I had an Arday gent’s Watch. It had a Japanese copy of a popular Swiss movement in a chrome case, composition leather strap, and in the mid 1950s, it sold for $12.95. I happened to post an item on the Omega board, in 2017, and I told the story about Robert Day and the Arday Watch. In 2018, a young man in Ontario (Canada) happened to Google the name of his grandfather.......none other than Robert Day! He located the item I had uploaded to the Omega board. He sent me a PM. The story as I told it was totally new to him. He asked if I still had the watch. I did. He was soon to be married, and all his family would be there, and he wanted to buy the watch, if I would part with it. I sold it to him for $50.00. Here is the watch.

The first picture is the Arday, face up. The second picture is the Japanese copy of the Swiss FHF 72 (Font) movement in the Arday. The third picture is of Robert Day, former president of Bulova, Canada, after he retired, chatting with his son (father of the new owner of the watch), and the fourth picture is Robert Day’s grandson wearing his Arday Watch. He had a grand time regaling his relatives with this story, while wearing the watch on his wrist.

 

It was a good thread, but it appears it has met the fate of many threads. Tell me it isn’t true!

 

Out of interest, I Googled Winnipeg Paint & Glass Co. as mentioned in the story of this presentation watch, and found the following:

http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/business/winnipegpaintglass.shtml

 

Watch story time: Disclaimer: I sadly lack the Storyteller capabilities of the previous posters, so low expectations are a must.

The Watch in question was owned by my Grandad. He was a renowned historian and Professor at various Universities and President of our national Library. While playing chess or talking about history with him, I saw him wear different Watches, mostly some gold Longines and the Watch in question.

After he died in 2004, my Grandmother continued to live in the house they bought years before until 2016. After she sadly passed away, the family split the inheritance. During that process all of the Watches disappeared, probably stolen and sold by some dishonest part of the family. At that time I had already gotten the Watch bug and while everyone had received a piece reminding them of him, I was left out.

So you have to imagine the surprise and happiness when in 2018 one of my Uncle came with one of the lost Watches of my Grandad.

This Tissot landed once hard on the ground and this broke the feet holding the dial and shattered the glass. My Grandad just put it in a drawer and forgot about it. After my Uncle found it, years later in a pile of junk, he brought it to a Watchmaker who fixed it. He sadly had it relumed, changed the hands probably and polished the case a bit, but the value is anyway of emotional nature.
It is one of my most cherished watches and wearing it reminds me instantly of my Grandad.

After having the Watch for probably three months in my possession, I woke up during the night and realized that I had probably a correct Tissot buckle from a junk Band I got with an Omega. I searched like a madman in my Watch parts, found it and mounted the buckle on its current strap. And that was the story of how this Tissot Seastar came into my collection.

 

I showed my maternal grandfather’s 9 karat gold Waldemar chain, with English half sovereign, and 14-karat pocket knife, earlier in this thread. That chain was given to me by an aunt, about 30 years ago. At that time, she also gave me my maternal grandfather’s silver plated cornet........unfortunately not his original one that was with him in about 1890 when he was a member of the London Police Band, and probably in South Africa during the Boer War. What she didn’t give me was her father’s (my grandfather’s) pocket watch. That went to her son in law. The marriage didn’t last. So, wherever that watch is, I’d like I back.

My late father was a Depression era watchmaker. He learned his craft from a jeweller/watchmaker in north central Alberta when he apprenticed there from 1920 to 1924. His teacher, a Mr. Cartwright, was English, having been born in England in 1877. So I am certain my father would have been introduced to the “wonderful” world of working on English lever fusee watches which are a bitch to work on, and for which there were no parts.

My father worked in Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) as a watchmaker from 1924 until 1939. When he first started seeing my mother (late 1930s), her father had the watch I mentioned above. It was English. It wasn’t working, and he had been told nobody could fix it! When my grandfather found out my father was a watchmaker, my grandfather asked my father to fix it for him. My father fixed it for him. My father thereby earned the old man’s respect.

So, this is a story about a watch. Unfortunately a watch that I don’t own, but that exists somewhere, I’m certain. I don’t know where it is, and I sure wish I had it! Much and all as I don’t collect English lever fusee watches.

 

I thought for sure you had told all your best stories. But this is a grand story about a humble watch. I loved it.

 

I have been involved with watches and clocks since I was in grade school. That is 70 years. I have been involved as a watchmaker, a retailer, and a collector. I was a member of the National Ass’n of Watch & Clock Collectors for 33 years, and I authored approximately 30 articles for the NAWCC Bulletin. In addition to all this, I have gathered an appreciable library on watches and clocks, as well as close to 150 watches and clocks. I am not only interested in actual timekeepers, I am intrigued by how far they have come, and how they got here. And how man’s progress would not have been possible without timekeepers. As to adding more to this thread? I may have slowed down, but I haven’t stopped. As long as I see there is continued interest both in readers and other contributors in keeping this thread alive, you’ll find me not too far away. But I don’t want to wear out my welcome. (Don’t get me started talking about CLOCKS with stories, I have just as many of those stories to tell.)

 

Saturday night. Here’s one with a difference. Many years ago, I took the notion that I wanted a mechanical watch that runs sdrawkcab. How else but to modify an existing watch. Well, actually two watches. Achieving such a feat is not simply a matter of turning the mainspring the other way around.

While the mainspring has to be reversed in its barrel, the barrel arbor which turns when the watch is wound, has to turn in reverse to wind the mainspring. This was done by using the core from one mainspring barrel arbor, and removing the hub from a second barrel arbor, machining it, reversing the altered hub, and staking it onto the core of the modified one. Now the task is to modify the winding mechanism to wind the barrel arbor sdrawkcab. This was done by reducing the size of the winding gears, and introducing an idler gear. Then the escape wheel had to be removed from its arbor, flipped over, and staked on again. Same with the pallets. I had a dial finisher make a reverse dial for me. Once I began to show the watch around, many couldn’t believe it was a mechanical movement. Many suggested it might be a quartz movement modified to run sdrawkcab. So I cut a hole in the case back and fitted a mineral crystal. I have fun with it. Surprisingly, children are better at recognizing that the seconds hand travels sdrawkcab, than adults are.

 

I love it. What fun! I think I would have had the dial painter put Xelor on the dial for the brand.

 

When you are wearing it do you grow younger?

 

No. Not younger. In as much as there is a spread of 24-hours that will have elapsed between the readings on the two watches, you are really only marking time ageing wise, when you wear it. If only it was that easy.

 

My story starts many years ago, on my honeymoon. Mrs Barmy and I were in Switzerland on honeymoon when we walk by a jewelry store. I pointed out a Rolex Submariner in the window indicating that it was the watch of my dreams. She suggested we buy it on the spot, but, alas the store was closed and the opportunity lost.
Jump ahead a few years (almost 20 years) and she decided to get me a Rolex for my birthday. My brother was working at a pawn shop and she got and gave me a vintage Rolex Date. I loved it, and wore it daily, but, it wasn't the watch of my dreams (i really want a Submariner). But it brought to my attention that my brother has access to vintage Rolex. After visiting him daily for over a year he said the two were coming up for sale. He would take the new looking one (a Tudor) and I could have the older one. The cost would be $300. I jump at the chance. The only issue was the money. Single income family, two kids and already owning a Rolex, why would I need a second? To hide the purchase I bought on time ($25 a month wouldn't be missed by Mrs Barmy). When the purchase was complete, now how to get it into the house in an acceptable way. Luckily my birthday was approaching. I had my brother call my wife and to tell her that he had the perfect gift for my son to give me at a cost of $10. She took my 6 y.o. son to the shop, and with the money in hand and he came out with a wrapped gift to give his dad. To make a long story shorter my Submariner was accepted on my wrist.
I wore the Sub daily. It never camee off my wrist. Fishing. Auto repair. Painting. You name it, the Sub was with me. But after a few years the bracelet broke at a hinge.



Off to the local Rolex dealer to see how much to have it fixed. $900!!!! I only paid $300 for the watch. Took it back and got home with a broken watch trying to decide what to do next, The internet was still new at that time,but, I turned to it looking for a cheaper solution. I found a Vintage Rolex forum and joined asking them for help. I describe my problem and they offered solutions. Finally one guy asked me to post a picture. When they saw the watch offers started to arrive to buy it. I started to panic. How did I not know the value of my watch. Ended up selling it for cash and a Rolex 5513.

So here is the watch I had purchased for $300 cdn.








Helped pay off the mortgage!!!!!

 

@barmy , indeed a story worth the telling. A picture of the 5513 is forthcoming, hopefully?

About 45 years ago, I was managing a jewellery store in a major local shopping mall. We carried Rolex. There was a Rolex dealer in the mall as well. One day, a guy comes in, and he has a Rolex Submariner he wants serviced. He’s a geologist, and he does a lot of diving off the west coast of Canada (salt water, of course). I suggest the watch go to
Rolex, and I give him a ballpark on what the cost might be. He takes the watch with him, and makes a beeline for the Rolex dealer who has an in-store watchmaker.

Fast forward Several months. Comes the guy into my store carrying a plastic bag with salt water and. Rolex Submariner in it! He tells me that he should have taken my advice. Back then, I had access to Rolex parts. I make him an offer. Taking into account what a Rolex repair might have cost him, add my offer to the equation, and he walked out of the store that day with a new Rolex Submariner. I fixed the Submariner up and wore it for years. Then sold it!

 

Sunday afternoon. Time for another watch story. These photos were taken in the early 1980s, and aren’t great. But you’ll get the idea.

In about 1983, I was managing a jewellery store. I hired a young fellow that was experienced in gems, though he’d never worked in a jewellery store. When he found out I was a watchmaker, he told me about a watch he had inherited from his grandfather in the early 1970s. The watch had been through a house fire and was a basket case. I asked him to bring the watch. It indeed WAS a basket case!

The story is his grandfather had been a railroader. He had a Keystone Howard series 5, 19-jewel pocket watch. I don’t recall the details of how the fire started, and whether he was home. But next day, after the fire was out, he managed to get into what was left of his house to search for important items such as his pocket watch. He found it on the floor beneath what had been a bedside table.

When I had a look at the watch, I recognized that it was too far gone. The answer would have to be a donor watch. We put out the word in the watch collector community which bore fruit. Several months later, a series 5 movement came our way. Crappy dial, no case, but those were not problems.

I have numbered the pictures to give a bit of sequence, but I am not certain they will be in sequence when you see the pictures.

#1 is the rusted Howard movement.
#2 is the pillar place when the watch was stripped.
#3 is the mainspring barrel bridge, mainspring barrel, and mainspring.
#4 is the bridge over the train wheels, and the train wheels.
#5 there is no #5
#6 is the donor Howard series 5 movement, the serial number is 22 numbers away from the ruined one,
#7 is the restored Howard when I finished it. New hands & crystal, enamel dial cleaned, case polished.
#8 is the donor movement in the original case when I was done.

s.

 

My father died twenty years ago. He was a careful, rather conservative man who had looked upon my various life excursions and resultant tribulations with astonishment, but who never offered criticism disguised as advice, for which I was most grateful. (My mother made up for it though, as they sometimes do).

I decided to use part of what he passed on to me to buy a daily wear watch that would be a constant reminder of him. Travelling through Singapore not long after, I rather rashly pounced on this Rolex, which was being offered at a significant discount by the AD. I had owned Rolexes before but somehow had never been so entranced that they could not be traded off for something else.

We were hardly awash with spare funds on that trip so I did not even look at the more expensive Rolex options, but you will see as this story unfolds that it would not matter what I had bought.



It is a lousy image, but all that I have.

A year or so later we set off on a small group tour in Italy. By then I had become so accustomed to wearing the watch every day that I gave its security no thought. I just enjoyed having it as a reminder of my Dad.

When we arrived in Naples we were regularly warned by locals of all kinds of risks, from pickpockets to ATM robberies. Indeed, we saw it for ourselves - on one public bus trip one of our people got off the bus to find all the buttons on his shirt undone. He had felt nothing, but fortunately his valuables were under his armpit in a security holster. A local travelling on the seat opposite me also flicked his eyes towards a man moving quietly down the crowded bus, warning me of danger.

So you would think I would take more care, especially when my wife suggested that I leave the Rolex in the hotel safe. I was not convinced however about the hotel security so elected to keep wearing it.

We were walking down a wide street on the edge of the Spanish Quarter. Without any warning, a man coming from my side rear burst diagonally through the group, seized my watch and wrenched it off my wrist, snapping the stainless steel band in the process. He quickly headed up a crowded side alley, accompanied by another guy who was looking behind to see what we would do.

I took off after him with another member of our group alongside, a burly London Metropolitan cop. I am tall and was still very fit then: having played a lot of rugby in my youth I was ready to tackle the bastard if I could get my hands on him.

And I almost did - but reaching out with both arms for the tackle, my feet suddenly went from under me. My copper mate also hit the ground at the same time. When we picked ourselves up the two men were getting on a Vespa at the far end of the alley. We realised that there must have been accomplices in that crowded alley whose job was to trip or hinder any pursuit.

Having smacked my head hard enough on a kerbstone to open a nice wound on my head, the police insisted that I be taken off to hospital by ambulance. That was the scariest thing that happened that day - the ambulance careered around corners, over kerbs and bounced off cobblestones with such abandon that I had to grimly hang on.

To cap this story, I remember lying on the ambulance trolley in the ED waiting to be cleaned off and stitched up, when I became aware that the man lying on the adjacent trolley also waiting for attention was clearly in real pain and much worse off than I.

When a doctor came up to look me over he asked what had happened. When I explained about chasing the thieves, he looked me in the eye and said "You were crazy - that man beside you has knife wounds to his stomach. You could easily have suffered the same thing, especially in the Spanish Quarter."

On international holidays since then I have never taken a good watch - just a timekeeper.

 

Hard lesson to learn but a good reminder to everyone. Don't wear anything worth anything when you're not at home, and sometimes not even then.

Tom

 

Doubly sad story. A very nice watch, GONE. A reminder of your father. That hurts. The watch could be replaced, but not the sentiment. Sorry to hear of your loss.

In the early 1980s, I had an attempted robbery in a jewellery store that I managed. One of my staff was being held at knife point. I was in an adjacent room when I was advised of what was going down. I dialled 911, and was put on hold. I waited maybe 30 seconds, hung up the phone, and walked out onto the sales floor, walked up to the girl, and took a 10-inch Gerber Legendary carving knife from her. I then booted her in the rear, and all 225 pounds of me landed on top of her. My staff called the police. It took three of them to handcuff the girl! I told the officer I would not have tried that stunt had she been carrying a gun! He advised me that his bullet proof vest would stop a bullet, but not a knife. If I ever was in that position again, to do as I was told! Shudder! Never had to do that again. The kid had been in court for fraud, six weeks before. The crown attorney recommended this kid be sent for treatment as she was a threat to the public. The judge said he didn’t feel it was necessary. I understand she was institutionalize after this gambit!

 

Good for you. The fight or flight instinct is something we act on in the spur of the moment, rather than taking time to work out a well considered response. Despite the dangers inherent in such situations, there is something deeply satisfying about tackling the threat head on.

 

I hope this comment does not offend, it not intended. To me this seems a fitting story for Easter, as this watch has risen from the dead.

 

As I approached the knife wielding girl from her right side, I noticed she had the knife in her left hand, I reached across in front of her with my right hand to grab her left wrist , then quickly put my left arm around her and grabbed her right wrist with my left hand so she couldn’t switch hands. My staffer actually took the knife away from her. By the time I gathered my wits and got the door locked, a newspaper reporter was knocking at the door. I told hm to flock off. The last thing I wanted was to be riding the train to work the next day, and find my picture on the front page of the local rag!