Part 1 - Bulova Vintage Ladies Academy Award Watch Collection

In Part 1, I will be highlighting the Academy Award models, "A", "J", "B", and "H".

I have been collecting ladies Bulova Academy Award watches for a few years and thought it would be fun to highlight each model in the line. The line launched in 1950 and most were sold between 1950-1952. All Academy Award watches come with a 21 jewel movement.

A little background: Bulova entered into a licensing agreement with the Academy Awards in 1949. The contract was said to be a 4 year agreement for Bulova to use the Academy Award name and Oscar emblem in a line of watches and in their advertising. However, the agreement was cut short when the Academy apparently didn't like some of the terminology Bulova was using. As a result Bulova stopped making ads in 1952, although some jewelers continued to advertise the Academy Award watches in their store ads. In the 1953 Bulova price guide, the Academy Award line is not listed as a current watch line but listed in the accumulated watch list indicating they discontinued the line in 1953. The Academy Award watches continued to be sold as Academy Award watches by some jewelers, probably until their stock was gone. Some models were renamed and advertised in the fall of 1953. This information has been gathered by reviewing the evidence available in newspaper articles, Bulova's 1950 annual report, magazine advertisements, Bulova price guides, and information gathered on the myBulova.com website.