General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

AllThingsMustPass848
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by AllThingsMustPass848 » January 29th 2020, 6:33pm

I have another one of these! I am the owner of the watch another user posted from the mybulova.com forum. It belonged to my grandfather, who was a bomber pilot in WW2 and the president of Southern Cross Mattress in the late 1960s. It sat on my dad's dresser from 2012 until early 2019, when it caught my eye while I visited home to be with my grandmother while she was in hospice. She died just a couple days later, and wasn't able to tell me anything about the watch. So, we know nothing about how he got it! His initials are engraved on the back, though. I've gone through many of their belongings, and have found no documentation or letters related to the watch. I wish I knew more, but I feel so incredible grateful to have this piece of his legacy. And so glad I found this forum! I have some much higher resolution photos now, but am having some trouble figuring out how to post them here. Here is one from the mybulova forum Image
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bobbee
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by bobbee » January 30th 2020, 12:27am

Hi there, new member. Great story of your watch, and I hope you read page one of this thread to see another great Bradley Accutron posted by Jpt. I have sent him an email just now, asking for more photos of his watch, as like yours it appears to be the real thing with patina and original finish as well as the 'tight' star formation, unlike the one on Hodinkee, which has a badly refinished dial and incorrect N9 for 1979 date. There have been no replies or corrections on Hodinkee, except for that dimwit Accutronitis stating the obvious...
I contacted Stephen at myBulova with regards to the other genuine model here, and he agreed with my take on the Hodinkee example. I am surprised he hasn't added them to your thread over there.

To post photos, you should try using postimage.cc to upload, or another similar third party app.

And welcome to Watchlords, have fun!
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koimaster
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by koimaster » December 28th 2020, 11:10pm

Jcptom wrote:
December 28th 2020, 10:48pm
Do to covid having killed my business I am thinking of selling my watch any suggestions
Thanks
Tom
I have no idea of the value of these but 18ct gold and the Provenance of it could fetch between 2k to 15k. I would contact an auction house to get an estimate.
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by koimaster » December 29th 2020, 3:28pm

Jcptom wrote:
December 29th 2020, 2:19pm
Doses any one have a recommended auction house
https://www.phillips.com/watches


https://www.antiquorum.swiss/#

Send them good photos to gauge interest
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1946-2006

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With the lilt of Irish laughter

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Now forever and ever after."
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by 3Flushes » December 29th 2020, 3:31pm

koimaster wrote:
December 29th 2020, 3:28pm
Jcptom wrote:
December 29th 2020, 2:19pm
Doses any one have a recommended auction house
https://www.phillips.com/watches


https://www.antiquorum.swiss/#

Send them good photos to gauge interest
^^^That- and all the provenance you have that it actually belonged to Bradley- I suspect that there might be even stronger interest from militaria collectors than in the watch market.
^^^Copyright ©️ 2023 3flushes Media.^^^
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by USAF1 » November 12th 2021, 2:07pm

I am the owner of the watch featured on Hodinkee. To clear it up, it says M9 on the back. The watch was my grandfather's who was the President and CEO of the Allen Bradley company company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1967-1970. I was told it was given to him by General Bradley, who was then Chairman. As family stories get embellished over time, I provided this watch to Andrew Hildreth for the review who took it to Bulova and they verified its authenticity. In fact, they wanted it for their collection.

How did the star get scratched? I don't know, but when I received the watch about 15 years ago after he passed away, it had a cheap quartz movement in it and was in rough shape. Someone had replaced the original movement, and I do not know why. It is possible the dial was scratched when the movement was replaced. When Bulova was examining it, they replaced the quartz movement with the proper movement which is shown in the photos in the Hodinkee article.

The initials on the case back, A.W.P., stand for Arloe W. Paul, here's his obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sa ... d=26030562.
Happy to clear up any other questions on it.
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by bobbee » November 14th 2021, 5:35am

Thanks USAF1, It's just that the star formation being different, there being peeling areas on the dial (a star, and above the 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock markers), and the date mark looking like an N not an M that I thought this was not an original. Let's face it, Hodinkee aren't the best source sometimes...
Anyway, thanks for clearing that up for us.
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by MKTheVintageBloke » November 14th 2021, 7:48am

Good that the doubts have been clarified. With Hodinkee, it's not even the case that they aren't the best source - they're absolutely notorious for their lack of expertise and plenty of misinformation. Around these parts, they've got about as many fans as chlamydia does.
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by valdis_l » March 2nd 2025, 5:05pm

Hi all,

New member here, greetings from Latvia ! Have a question - yesterday was lucky and acquired this five star M9 Bulova Accutron Calendar "O", with K.Y. initials engraved on case back. From what I have read so far this should to be one of few watches that was gifted by Omar Bradley.

Wondering who K.Y. might be, any thoughts ?

Valdis

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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by gerdson » March 2nd 2025, 8:03pm

Nice watch, btw, and welcome to the forum.
I had to read a lot of shit on hodinkee, in order to find out that - if genuine - these should be rare, and that there is a company museum which may be interested.
The issue is, hodinkee's story may lure arseholes into fabricating such a dial, just for the purpose of extorting good people's money. Frankly speaking, even from hodinkee I wouldn't buy everything, neither watch nor story.
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Re: General Omar Bradley's Special Bulova Accutron

Post by valdis_l » March 4th 2025, 1:39pm

gerdson wrote:
March 2nd 2025, 8:03pm
Nice watch, btw, and welcome to the forum.
I had to read a lot of shit on hodinkee, in order to find out that - if genuine - these should be rare, and that there is a company museum which may be interested.
The issue is, hodinkee's story may lure arseholes into fabricating such a dial, just for the purpose of extorting good people's money. Frankly speaking, even from hodinkee I wouldn't buy everything, neither watch nor story.
Thank you ! Yes, i always take any Hodinkee story with grain of salt ... or two. I'v sent message to museum director Carl Rossen, hope he answers and sheds some light on authenticity of this watch. Will post some more pictures when have watch on hands.
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