Ooh Delicious Retro Goodness

Kintarō Hattori

Bulova Accutron

I was reading about Tourbillon movements which lead me onto reading about the Quartz Crisis which lead me to discover this beauty. I can imagine it'd be a dividing design but I love its retro design. Haven't looked up their value but I can imagine they go for a pretty penny.

Deep Thought

Was looking at them myself, they are a couple hundred euro and mostly from the 1960' s

Kintarō Hattori

Deep Thought wrote: »

Was looking at them myself, they are a couple hundred euro and mostly from the 1960' s

Hmmn that's not too shabby. I'd like one for the historical aspect and it's somewhat retro modern design.
Would there be anything to look out for in buying one?

paddyh117

That's a pretty cool looking watch - have never seen it before, and know zero about them but they do seem quite affordable

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1962-ACCUTRON-SPACEVIEW-214-BULOVA-GF-GF-SCREW-BACK-RARE-WATCH-w-HACK-MECH-/281290905178

Deep Thought

They were called the SpaceView

http://accutronspaceviewwatch.com/

Wibbs

I've a couple of tuning fork movement watches. One a Bulova and one a later update of the Bulova above. They're a very cool timepiece alright and cna be made run very accurately. The mechanism and the engineering behind are incredible for 1960's tech. The index wheel that drives the seconds hand is tiny. Under 3 mm across with 300 odd teeth on it. This makes them one of the smoothest second hands in watch history. Even the finest quality mechanical looks jerky by comparison. Check out this vid of the mechanism slowed down 300 + times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkNxkhODX6I

If you're looking to buy one especially the "Spaceview" like above, then do lots of research first. Because the Spaceview is so popular a lot of the ones for sale are later conversions from plain dialed watches. Bulova made a vast amount of tuning fork watches in different designs, only a few of which were Spaceviews in the first place.

They don't need as much maintenance as a mechanical and there are a few specialists out there. They go through batteries faster than quartz, a year, year and a half. Be careful too as the modern batteries may supply too high a current which can make them run fast, though again this can be sorted.

Wibbs

PS be careful if buying from the US as you'll be hurt by customs charges. Also factor in a service no matter what the seller claims, so add a 100 euro to the buy price for that. Don't buy a non runner. Be careful when sellers claim it runs but needs a battery, that's usually if not always a scam.

Kintarō Hattori

Thanks guys. I think I'll definitely get one in the future and before I do, I'll come on here and ask for your advice.

Wibbs

Since I'm overdue a meandering post of a Saturday night and to rejuve KH's thread on these hummers. Here's one of mine:


I swear there's an hour hand under there.

A 1975 Bulova Centenary model, the case being the shape of a tuning fork(well effin cool IMH), only made for the one year, more usually found in gold plate as an Accutron Spaceview(with caseback crown), or as an Accuquartz in steel(with crown at the usual position). This is the latter, an Italian market example, though an oddball. It's got all the right bits except for the dial. That's been swapped out for some reason. It should be a blue dial. I've been keeping my eye out on the Bay for a donor/replacement, but I can see a third party redial on the cards one day as an original would be very rare to find as a part.

It's a hefty bugger. Real wrist presence, even though it's "only" 42mm lug to lug, 37mm wide and 14mm thick, it's very chunky to wear.


The Accuquartz was the only type of early "WTF are we doing with this new fangled quartz guff" approach where a quartz module controlled the (now passive)tuning fork, using it as a stepping motor. Handy for Bulova as it was basically an existing movement(219?) that they could add the Quartz module to. They can also be regulated like most early quartz', though in this case, unlike a screw type regulator it's "tuned" by adding or removing teeny tiny screws which do something of a techie nature. I don't have a pic of my movement so here's a google special(from mybulova.com. Great site for the brand):

The teensy screws are on the left. Mine has all but one of the screws present, which to my amateur brain reckons it's in good enough order. It also has a little spring type plate to pop the back case off, which most seem to lose.

Accuracy? Most accurate watch I have, by a long way. Loses or gains pretty much nada. On the ball all the time. Though I do have my Longines Ultronic Diver on it's way back from a comprehensive titivation by the chap at Electric watches UK, so given his skill(I'd sooo recommend Paul if you have an "electric" type watch) it may soon have some competition.






Yes I know guys and gals; a NATO strap again. I've got weird wrists. I really do Most straps on larger watches(35mm +) won't fit or look really daft on me for some reason and some leathers can give me a rash. I've actually being wearing NATOish type straps since the 80's. Before I knew them as/they were called "NATO" straps. I have a few I left in my attic(hoarder I am). I must dig them out to compare. They're not the G10 spec, but a very similar kinda vibe with the second layer strap thing going on. I just found they fitted me and I loved the complication at the time. Now they're fashionable. I'm never fashionable.

Kintarō Hattori

Very nice Wibbs - amazing to think it's still so accurate to this day. It puts a lot of modern watches to shame.
I hope to join the club soon but it might be a few months. I've a car repair bill to fork out for herself and then need to look for a runaround for me

Wibbs

Kintar&#333 wrote: »

fork out

No pun intended.

I'd say that in this time period where quartz was "new" a lot of the early quartz if in good order would put many watches to shame today. They were originally very expensive being the "new thing". IIRC Seiko's first quartz offering was a limited edition costing the same as a brand new Toyota. Longines later UltraQuartz weren't as expensive, but they were way more expensive than their mechanical offerings. So much so that Longines offered free insurance for the watches at point of sale. That's not including Rolex's early quartz movements which are a work of art.

Before they settled down on the frequency that stays with us today, early quartz crystals could sometimes run really fast. Omega was a real pioneer in quartz. Omega megaquartz's etc Omega's Marine Chronometer was and still is probably one of the most accurate wrist timepieces ever made. One issue at this level of accuracy was battery life though. The above Marine chews through batteries in 9 months kinda thing.

The Swiss out of habit and history I suppose made their quartz' like mechanical watches with jewels and fancy plates etc. Thermoregulation and adjustability was another aspect to the Swiss. Here's a couple of Swiss movements as examples.

Rolex(nicely finished). An adjusted quartz. So no slouch then.

Longines(kinda tuning forkish in operation)The dial on these is gorge.

Omega.

Not a lot of cheap black plastic in evidence. The Longines is pure mad with all the handwiring. Looks more like a prototype than a market ready model.

While the Japanese did this in the early days, they also largely pioneered making the movements as easy and cheap to make as possible, though the Americans were at that leading edge too. The rest is history. Though it was actually a Swiss company Girard Perregaux who arguably set the modern standard in quartz layout design(and frequency rate). In the Quartz wars it was a close run thing at times, but in the end the Swiss couldnt keep up. If watches had remained analogue in design they might have been OK, but when LED and especially LCD dials became the fashion they were really left struggling.