Bulova Accutron

For your information, I do not repair this type of watch

In 1950, Max Hetzel, a Swiss engineer joined the Bulova Watch Company in Basel, Switzerland.

Ardé Bulova, who was then president of the Bulova Watch Company, asked Max Hetzel to research these new watches. Mr Bulova was concerned that he would lose market share if he was unable to produce watches powered by an electric battery. A fairly straightforward report by Max Hetzel in 1952 ruled that these new electric watches, which still used a conventional balance wheel, did not provide a significant gain in accuracy over conventional mechanical watches. However, his report predicted that the development of the brand new transistor could be the key component of electronic watches of the future.

Bulova began the development of the 'Accutron' watch in 1952. Accutron is short for 'precision' and 'electronic' (Accuracy Electronic). The Accutron was to be an electronic watch that could guarantee an accuracy of two seconds per day or one minute per month. The secret behind this precision is a small tuning fork calibrated at 360Hz which, thanks to its much higher frequency, can achieve a degree of precision previously unknown in a wristwatch.
The tuning fork divides each second into hundreds of equal parts. It drives the hands of the watch by means of an ingenious system.
In 1953, Max Hetzel received the first low-current transistor (Raytheon CK 722) and in 1959, the development of the Accutron 214 became effective in the research and development unit in New York.
The patent was registered in Switzerland on 19 June 1953 under No. 312290.
Mass production of the Model 214 began in November 1960 and the introduction to the public was made in 1961, the last 214s being manufactured in 1977.
On October 10, 1960, the new president of the Bulova Watch Company, General Omar N. Bradley, former chief of staff to General D. Eisenhower and known for his commitment to the watch industry, announced that the 214 would be introduced to the public in 1961. Eisenhower's Chief of Staff and known for his participation in the Normandy offensive, announced the Bulova Accustron calibre 214, the world's first electronic watch.
When it was introduced to the public in 1960, dealers were given a display model called the 'Spaceview' for their windows.
The watch did not have a dial so that potential buyers could see through the watch's transparent glass to the electronic mechanism and the tuning fork. This model became so popular that on many of the other more classic Accutron models the dials were removed to reveal the interior of the watch.
On July 20, 1959, a Bulova Accutron shipboard clock was used for the first time in a spacecraft, the Explorer VI.
In 1960 NASA asked Bulova to incorporate the Accutron technology into its space programme equipment. At the time, the head of the Bulova company was retired 5-star US Army General Omar Bradley, a World War II veteran. macos/deepLFree.translatedWithDeepL.text

During these early years Accutron mechanisms were used in 46 US space missions. One Accutron movement remains on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. It is in a seismograph instrument placed there in 1969 by the Apollo 11 astronauts, the first men to walk on the Moon.
Although the official watch chosen by NASA for the astronauts was the Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph, all the other watch instruments on board the rockets and space modules were Accutrons. Indeed, at that time, NASA did not know how a traditional mechanical watch would perform under very low gravity.

In 1962, the Accutron 214 became the first watch certified for use by US railroad personnel (Southern Pacific Railroad Co) to keep trains on time. 75 other railroads around the world would follow suit.

Accutron watches were given as an 'official gift' to the world's leading personalities including several US Presidents, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. In 1964 President Lynden Johnson declared the Accutron official watch a 'Gift of State'.

It was then that the President of Bulova Europe, Ludovico Fecia di Cossato, launched the Accutron on the Italian market. As part of a television show, five examples of the watch were judiciously offered to Italian personalities: Pope Paul VI, the President of the Italian Republic, the President of alitalia, the Dean of the University of Milan, and finally Enzo Ferrari. The latter appointed it the official watch of his racing team. The Accutron was the fussy companion of John Sturtes, Lorenzo Bandini, and Nini Vaccarella, among others. Car racers Graham Hill and Jim Clark described its performance as that of a split-second timer. Finally, the airline pilots of the Alltalia Company also officially adopted it. By this time, more than one hundred thousand Accutrons had been sold and the brand had made its way into the everyday lives of Americans, selling in nearly fifty-nine different countries by 1963.

Until 1967, Accutron clocks were the only clocks on board the presidential aircraft 'Air Force One' and many Accutron instruments were used on board ships and aircraft of the US military.

To surprise the future customer of the Accutron watch, Bulova will eliminate the winder, on models equipped with the calibre 214 "Space View", which is usually on the right side of the watch. The idea was to make a statement that the battery-powered watch is so accurate that it needs neither a winder nor a reset. In fact an ingenious time setting system will be developed and installed on the back of the watch, right next to the battery compartment. This system was undoubtedly borrowed from Lip who had already marketed its very first electric watch (R27) with this time setting system on December 7, 1958.
Another particular and distinctive sign of this watch, the seconds hand moves in a regular and continuous movement just like the ATO clocks found in train stations.
But what is most surprising is the sound of the tuning fork when the watch is worn to the ear. Here, there is no 'ticking', but a slight humming sound, known as 'hums'.

Prestigious Swiss companies built their future on the Accutron movement: market leader Bulova was the first American watch manufacturer to give its approval for the production of watch movements to one of the biggest Swiss names in this field, Ebauches S.A., which paid Bulova royalties for each movement sold. Among these companies were Omega, Longines, I.W.C., Baume & Mercier...

While Bulova was preoccupied with its tuning fork technology, another watchmaking revolution was in the making: quartz. Hamilton had taken its revenge! Restructured, the company, which was losing momentum, set out once again in the 1970s to conquer the market: proving that it cared as much about the technological innovation of its watches as about their design, Bulova created the Accuquartz.

Extract from the text by Elizabeth Teall

Extract from the text written by Alain Chauvel

https://www.alainchauvelaccordeurdepianos.fr/LA-MO...

Caliber 214 Spaceview

Caliber 218 

Caliber 224 Accuquartz 

Caliber 230 women