An Accutron per day

Anyone interested in what an Accutron 218 (calendar model) looks like, taken apart? This one is being prepared for reconditioning. To anyone who has worked on mechanical watches, but not Accutrons.......they are very different,

From this, (above), to this, (below).

Tuesday, day # 15. This example is from the mid 1970s. This was the Bulova Accutron on its way out, along with the Bulova company that built it. By then, style innovation was out, and one gets the impression the firm was assembling watches out of leftovers. Emptying the shelves, so to speak. The Accutron simply was no longer competitive. They toyed with the early ‘70s trend to, first, the LED digital while still making Accutrons, then they toyed with the LCD digital. But they were late to the digital party, and they were losing market share to the Japanese. The digital (LED and LCD) watches were being touted as the death knell of the analog watch in the early 1970s. But the LED required two hands to use, they gobbled batteries, and you couldn’t read them in bright sunlight. Fashion was out with the LCD, because, whether you paid $2.99 for a gas station LCD, or even hundreds of dollars for a quality LCD model. the watches looked pretty much alike. The emergence of the Japanese quartz analog watch in the early 1970s (Seiko), devastated the Swiss watch industry. Swiss firms were dropping like flies. Digital watches continued on, but generally were the cheapest of the cheap. I have often wondered how Bulova avoided being absorbed by the Swatch group as so many venerable Swiss watch companies were. The Bulova firm that produced the tuning fork Accutron, died, never having produced an analog quartz watch to the best of my knowledge. The quartz analog Bulova first saw the light of day after Bulova sold out.

This is a model 218, and a good performer, but it sure wouldn’t win any points for style! If you had been a Bulova Accutron fan and were looking for a new watch when this Accutron was in the store, would you settle for this sort of style at too high a price, or would you check out the new Japanese quartz analog watches (cheaper, better looking, better service, novel, more accurate)? The Accutron name has survived the change of ownership several times, but it is no longer the Accutron of old. The company is now owned by Citizen.

Very different indeed.

Wednesday, day # 16. As mentioned in a previous post in this thread, Bulova was late to the party regarding quartz watches. I have only two quartz Bulovas in my collection. One analog, and one digital. This is the digital, from 1976, near the end for the original company. No tuning fork in this one. This one is called a Bulova Computron. It is an LED (light emitting diode) model, and it has a screen with an odd orientation. The readout is on the edge of the watch, not the front. LED watches were notoriously difficult to read in bright light, so whether this design was meant to make reading the watch easier, or whether is was different for the sake of being different, who knows? LED watches ate batteries! If you got two months out of the two cells the watch carried, you were doing well. I put new batteries in this one almost a year ago, and as you will see, those batteries are still operating the watch. The power was used when you pressed the button on the edge of the case, to read the time. This one gives the hours, minutes, seconds, day, and date.

Thursday, day # 17. A small correction to two statements I made in my immediately previous entry in this thread. I said I had two Bulova quartz watches. I actually have three! I also said I was unaware that Bulova produced a quartz analog watch during the era of the Accutron. Well, they did! It was called an Accuquartz, and today’s example is one of those.

Bulova became aware in the early 1970s that they were losing market share to quartz watches. The first quartz watch I ever saw was a Gruen LCD model, and that was in 1969. It was an awkward, bulky, crude looking thing, it was very thick, and very expensive compared to an average watch of the era. It was nearly $1,300.00! But the price of quartz watches fell very quickly toward 1972-73, and there was a titanic shift toward these innovative watches. The public loved them, and the Swiss watch industry was caught napping! They had nothing to compete with.

In about 1972, Bulova reacted by re-designing the Accutron, and fitting it with a quartz modulator, the result being the Accuquartz. To borrow a term from the automobile industry, it was a “hybrid!”. It was the wrong move in my opinion. The Accutron couldn’t compete with the new (then) quartz watch as it was too costly to produce compared to quartz watches. The Accuquartz was even costlier to produce than the Accutron, and it was not much more accurate that the regular Accutron.

This Accuquartz belonged to my late father. It is from 1973, toward the end of the Bulova firm. My late father had a jewellery store, and he carried Bulova. The company offered watches to retailers for personal use at a reduced price, and your initials were engraved on the back so you couldn’t re-sell the watch. This one is engraved with my father’s initials. My father replaced his original Accutron 214 with this one. It is an okay performer for a 47-year old watch. But no more accurate than the Accutron 218 I’m wearing today. Oh, that is a diamond in a white gold setting on the dial, just above the numeral 6. IIRC, all Accuquartz watches had a diamond on the dial. Innovative, but it didn’t save the company.

Friday 13th, day # 18. Back on day # 6, I showed an Accutron that was a typical model from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I mentioned that it was the gold dial version I was showing, but that the Accutron came in the same model with a white dial. Today’s example is the same model of Accutron 218, with a white dial. Circa 1967, this one came to me as part of an assemblage of Accutron parts and unfinished projects. The dial is exactly the same model that was on the watch when I acquired it, but the original one was badly stained and water damaged. I had a replacement dial, same model, much better condition. That dial is now on the watch. This one runs well, but it will soon be gone through as there are still signs that it had gone through rather a rough spell before a previous owner retired it.

As things were winding down with Bulova and with Accutron in the mid 1970s, Bulova made a lot of changes to the design of the Accutron movement. In particular, the 218 movement. The earlier 214 movement was spared major tinkering, because Bulova was still a relatively vital force in the 1960s when the 214 model was discontinued. But the changes that were made to the 218 model movement in the mid 1970s were clearly made to try to reduce the price of the watch, to be more competitive in a rapidly changing market. The replace rather than repair philosophy of the quartz watch meant that the skills required to service Accutrons were rapidly dying off. After the 218 movement was discontinued, there was a spell when ESA offered a quartz analog movement that was a reasonably good fit behind the dial of an Accutron 218 day/date model. I run into those conversions once in a while. What an ignominious end to what had been a bright light in the watch market!

Saturday, day #19. Here we have an Accutron 218 from 1967. Along about this time, the Accutron 214 (numerous shown in this thread, with no calendar), was likely about to be discontinued. It had approximately a five year run, and had been hugely successful. But the prices on The 218 models were about the same as the 214 models, they were slimmer, the calendar feature was a selling point, and the inconvenient “back-setting” procedure of the 214 model was no longer a valid selling feature. And the styling of the 218 models had evolved beyond the styling of the 214 models. The 218 models competed better in an evolving market in which the quartz watch was becoming a bigger challenge to the Accutron. Quartz watches were often cheaper, more accurate, more and more firms manufacturing quartz watches, and generally becoming more of a product that the watch buying public accepted as more modern than the Accutron. Quartz watches were produced by automated means, and the processes were becoming very refined. The Accutron which was produced the way Swiss watches had always been produced (largely by hand), simply couldn’t keep up.

This one came to me (not operating) as part of the bunch I acquired from a deceased collector’s estate. It needed work (as 90% of his stuff did), but today, it is a good performer and a reliable watch again. There were no complete, running watches in this accumulation from this estate. But there was great potential. A lot of Accutrons were retired before their time because of the acceptance of quartz watches. Often, you could buy a quartz watch for about the same price as you were quoted to service your Accutron. IF you could find someone to service it. That has meant a field day for lovers of Accutrons who were able to service them, themselves, or weren’t bothered by the expense of having them serviced by the diminishing ranks of those who can service them. Now onto today’s feature watch.

Sunday, day # 20. On Friday (13th), I was in a friend’s jewellery store. This store was founded by his late father, 74 years ago. The founder learned watchmaking at the Elgin School of Watchmaking, Elgin, Illinois, after a hitch as an instrument maker in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The director of the Elgin school at the time he was there, was the Dean of American watchmaking, William Samelius. The founder’s youngest son now runs the business. The founder was a long time railroad watch inspector, and prominent local jeweller until his death at age 92, in 2012.

I noticed today’s subject watch in a show case. I told him I was interested in buying it. He removed it from the showcase, and I gave a quick looksee. I liked it. I took out my interac card, and asked him his price. $75.00 (Canadian), was his reply. We haggled. I told him I wouldn’t pay that for it. I asked him how much it would be to anyone else. He he bought it from the widow of a deceased railroader customer, and he said he had a price of $120.00 (Canadian) on it. So that is what I paid. It was worth it to me.

I am not certain of when Bulova quit producing the 218 model Accutron, and exactly when the company was sold to Asian interests, but this watch fitted in there, somewhere, after production stopped, and Bulova watches were fitted with outsourced Swiss movements. This watch is one of those. The date code on the case back tells me 1980 was the year it was produced. It is quartz (I now have four quartz Accutrons), and the 24-hour Canadian dial is pristine. The gold plated case shows a bit of wear, but after all, this was a railroader’s working watch, so it is fairly good. The movement is an Eta 9362 which is obsolete now, but it is a good runner. So I’m happy with it. Especially at the price, who says Friday the 13th is an unlucky day?

Monday, day # 21. In this thread, there have been 4 railroad standard Accutron wrist watches shown, and one quartz Bulova railroad approved watch. Thanks to @wagudc for showing his sharp Accutron 214 railroader. These watches have spanned the years from the early 1960s to 1980. All of them have 24-hour dials, all of the dials have been printed (no separate applied index markers on any of them), and none of them have luminous material on either the dial or the hands. I suppose Bulova may have produced 12-hour dials for Accutron and Bulova quartz railroad models as well. In Canada, the 24-hour dial was preferred for railroad use.

For day # 21, we have an example of a Bulova railroad approved model from 1998. This one is powered by the venerable Eta 955 Q quartz movement. You may have noticed that Bulova used the Accutron name on all the model 214 and 218 (tuning fork) models in this thread. The two quartz models are Bulovas, not Accutrons. There is another significant difference with this RR955Q model from 1998. By now, railroad time service rules with many railroads had changed to permit luminous material on the hands! There had long been a fear that luminous material might come loose, and stop the watch. Likewise, there was a fear that a separate applied dial marker might come loose.

Time service rules with most railroads have been in constant evolution. If the Accutron and Bulova railroad models in this thread are similar in appearance, this is because they mimic the earlier railroad standard pocket watches that have always had white dials, black Roman numerals (on many earlier railroad standard pocket watches), or black Arabic numerals on later ones, and bold black hands. Again, no applied dial index markers, and no luminous material on the railroad standard pocket watch.

In the nearly 40 years from the earliest Accutron 214 model in this thread, to the latest Bulova quartz railroader, there has been another major change. Railroad time service rules generally only have three essential features about railroad standard watches permitted for railroad use, today. They must be accurate to within 30 seconds per week, reliable, and tell 24-hour time. A young person on the railroad today, may be wearing a Timex Iron Man or a G-Shock, or any one of a number of other quartz watches available from Costco, Walmart, Target, Amazon, or other sources. Bulova no longer produces specific models dedicated to railroad use.

Another strange anomaly to be considered. Bulova did eventually return to using the Accutron name, on QUARTZ watches! Now that Bulova is owned by Citizen, there is not much similarity between the current Bulova, and the Bulova and Accutron of old. Among the names you will find on Bulova watches by Citizen today is the name PRECISIONIST. These watches have a quartz movement, and the sweep seconds had mimics the Accutron sweep second hand on the Accutron. The PRECISIONIST sweep hand sweeps. It doesn’t pulse like a typical quartz sweep hand. The standard of accuracy touted for PRECISIONIST watches I believe, is calculated in seconds per year. Now onto the submission for today.

On the Bulova of old (before Citizen ownership), is it correct to say that the Accutron name was only used on tuning forks? Are any quartz watches from "old Bulova" also considered as "Accutrons" ?

Before Citizen ownership, Bulova did produce a premium line of quartz watches on which they did use the Accutron name. But to the best of my knowledge, the Accutron name has not been used on railroad standard quartz watches by Bulova. See the two BULOVA railroad standard quartz watches in this thread.

If you can send a picture to anyone, you should be able to post it here on the message board. Make sure you have the image in your photo files on a computer. Return to this thread, scroll to the last entry, and look for the new message screen. At the bottom of the new message screen, you’ll see prompt ADD PHOTOS. Click on it, and your photo files should open. Scroll to the picture of your Accutron, and click on it. If there is a prompt asking you for the photo size, choose a size and click on it. Look for the prompt RETURN TO PHOTOs, and click on it. Look for a prompt DONE, and click on it. The photo should have uploaded to the message board. Click on SENDin the new message board prompt. Looking forward to seeing your watch.

Just thought I'd add a big thank you to Rob Berkavicius in Thailand who has returned my Astronaut from the grave . It was only purchased as it was attached to a lovely coffin bracelet but felt it deserved a service .

He had to replace coils ,replace missing jewels on index finger and pawl finger and also relumed hands to match dial.

Looks fantastic and a fair price .

Love all your posts in this thread

Re-attaching pawl and index jewels! WOW! That is a task I wouldn’t think of trying. Those jewels are 10\1000s of an inch long, and 4\1000 of an inch wide! And they are glued onto the pawl and index springs? Commendable effort! And a great job on the dial. Indeed a fine Accutron Astronaut.

I didn't appreciate how small the jewels are. I think I must have mis read his email

"In addition to the coils, both the index finger and pawl finger had lost their jewels and needed to be replaced - ie the pawl bridge and tuning fork"

I guess even he is not that good !

Would highly recommend anyone in Europe or further afield looking for an honest service of Accutron watch using him. Don't be put of my fact that he is based in Thailand.
My usual go to in UK , Paul at Electric Watches , has stopped serving 214's .

His website is http://members.iinet.net.au/~fotoplot/acc.htm

I have often wondered how Bulova would go about gluing those microscopic jewels to their beryllium springs. The usual solution to missing index and pawl jewels is to simply replace the tuning fork, and the pawl jewel assembly. Sounds to me as though that is what he did. My situation right now is that I have lots of Accutron 214 and 218 parts movements, and lots of tuning forks and pawl jewel assembles. But none of my tuning forks or pawl jewel assemblies have the jewels in place. I’m also short of donor cases. So it looks as though my Accutron collection will be static for a while.

On another note. At the outset of this thread, I mentioned that two of us had pooled our Accutron collections for an exhibit we were planning. The show has been CANCELLED! I have shown my 21 Accutron and Accuquartz watches in this thread. And since I still have 13 Accutrons that belong to my friend in my safe, I may as well continue this thread and show some of his more unusual Accutrons. Tune in on Tuesday.

Tuesday, day # 22. I have covered my stash of 21 Accutrons, but my friend’s assortment is waiting in the wings. I said he had 13 Accutrons, but I see his herd comprises 11 Accutrons, and one Seiko quartz railroader, and a Rodania railroader. Since this thread is about Bulova and Accutron, I’ll stay with them. In order to quicken the pace, I’ll show his herd in groups.

Today’s submission is showing 2 quartz model railroaders with dials marked Bulova, and one tuning fork model marked Accutron. One thing I have learned over this exercise is that the dials on Bulova railroad models are marked in a number of different ways, seemingly depending on the era, and whether the watch is quartz, or Accutron 214 or 218.

The one on the left has a gold plated case, is marked Bulova RR 963 Q, it is from 1986, and it is quartz. The one in the middle is in a gold plated steel case with little plating left, is marked Bulova RR963.114Q, it is quartz, and is from 1985. The calibre 936 (see example in day # 20), and 963 (these two) look to me to be the same movement! The one on the right is marked Accutron RR 218, it is in a steel case, it is a tuning fork model, and is from 1972.

Over this thread, of the 24 watches shown thus far, 9 of them are railroad models, with more railroad models to come over the next few days. Among railroaders, Bulova and Accutron watches were a force to be reckoned with from the early 1960s, until changing time service rules rendered the dedicated railroad standard watch obsolete, early in the 21st century.