Horological Meandering

When Accutron debuted on October 25, 1960 it was the most accurate timing mechanism available and the first personal timekeeping advancement in 300 years. The world's first electronic watch without springs or an escapement, it was operated by an electronically activated tuning fork, instead of ticking, it hummed.

Bulova Accutron had an important place in history as an integral part of 46 missions of the US space program.
Before the technology was available commercially, NASA requested its use in the development of the United States' greatest single engineering achievement, man's first landing on the moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin placed an Accutron timer in the Sea of Tranquility to control transmissions of data to earth and it still lies there today to be recovered by a future mission.

After it's proven use in space flight, the Accutron 214 was declared an American "Gift of State" by President Lyndon Johnson and, for over a decade, they were given to hundreds of visiting dignitaries. The 214 was made into panel mount clocks, and installed in the instrument panels of thousands of military ship and aircraft including "Air Force One". 

The story goes that the open movement watches later called Spaceviews were initially given to dealers to showcase the tuning fork technology to customers but when customers started asking dealers to sell them ones like that with the naked view, Bulova saw an oppourtunity and came up with the Alpha case Spaceview followed by other Spaceviews in varying case designs. The Spaceviews were also the most popular graduation gift of their time.

To commemorate it's past history, this collector set was  made by Bulova in 2010 in a limited once off run of 1000 watches. The movement was built from the ground up faithfully  recreating the tuning fork movement in a larger 42mm case to go with todays standards.The vintage equivalents were much smaller cases with very few variants in bigger cases. The wrist presence of this watch is phenomenal, owing to it's unique naked looks and I have caught quite a few strangers trying to have a  closer look. Plus the humming is a great conversation starter. Place it to your ear and you can hear it humming in a pleasant tone and some musicans back in the day even used it to tune their musical instruments. 

No other timepiece has had a greater impact on the way we keep time today and can be considered the precursor of thr current quartz movement which uses a quartz tuning fork instead of a steel one like this one.  I loved it so much that I have three sets of these, one for me, one as my sons birth year(2010) watch and one more just because, are a must have. Luckily if you would like to pick one up, though they are sold out,  they still do appear on Ebay once in a while and at below list of 4000USD that they initially sold for, presumably from stock that dealers hoarded.

 

The last picture is of Richard Branson, the Ambassador for Bulova, sporting a 2010 Spaceview, Enjoy the pics!

 

This message has been edited by cruvon on 2012-10-24 00:13:58 This message has been edited by cruvon on 2012-10-24 00:16:52 This message has been edited by cruvon on 2012-10-24 00:25:35

It suits the wrist much better than a vintage model does.
As i said before i had about 40 tuning forks at one time and loved them, but times change, servicing is now expensive if you want someone trained properly so i let them go bit by bit.

If i ever found one of these at a price i could afford i would be tempted to buy it mainly due to its size. I rarely wore the vintage ones, but this is perfectly wearable.

A very nice piece to have in your collection and a piece you obviously enjoy which is the most important part of collecting.

Best
Graham

Thanks Graham, it sure does,is a looker!Actually, though I initially wanted the vintage Apha M0/M1 that looks like this albeit smaller, I was more worried about the spaceview conversions and frankens out there more than servicing them(Plus I wouldn't have 40 anyways so servicing costs wouldn't be an issue) so this 2010 50th Anniversary was the best of both worlds for me. Well, until  I came across a full set Swiss 100th Anniversary Spaceview, more on that one in another thread. You should pick up one of these, is a must have!

 I would love to see pics of your 40 tuning forks, if you managed to take some before letting them go.

 

Hi Cruvon,

I've got pics of perhaps 30% of them. Sadly i was very late to the digital photographic age so most of my pics are later ones taken by sellers or by myself. It wasnt until i joined this forum in 2007 that i realised how important photographing the watches was.
The very last hummer to sell was an m0 alpha in 14kt gold, not a spaceview, but had the original production run dial which was only used twice. First run and 1969 last run of the 214 alpha.
My spaceview was an original, but as you rightly say they were too small for regular wear. I should have kept some of my omega f300's like the seamaster diver, speedsonic and constellation. They are a size more wearable today.

Anyway, they are in the past and its best to dwell on the future and only look back on the past fondly.

There was another post about tuning forks a couple of years ago and i posted pics then so if you try to learn your way around the search system and have a few days to spare you will find it with my pics on it.
I cant give you the link as i have no idea when it was.

Best
G

well,pics of  30% is  still awesome, I can imagine entering a room with that many Accutrons humming, that might have been really audible. Inspite of having only 4 spaceviews, they are quite audible when togather without having to touch my ear to them. eeh one vintage one I have is louder than the 2010 one. Btw were all Alphas in white and yellow gold or were there also steel versions?Offcourse they wouldn't do the 2010 one in white gold or that would have been even more expensive.  Will try to find your post here with the pics,

 

Thanks

 

 

I 'think' they did the Alpha in steel, but not in 1960.

When i moved in 2004, i had in excess of 200 watches and had to transport them myself. I boxed all the hummers up in 1 box and you could hear the box humming in the back of the car. It kept my dogs interested all the way :)

am sure  you enjoyed them humming en mass

 I think the Alpha case design was around only in 1960 and 1961, maybe the later  case design spaceviews had steel cases. My 100th Anniv 1975 Spaceview isin steel.

And I'm glad that they made with 42mm.

This excludes my daughter, that is an active Accutron collector but with a tiny wrist.

If I bump on one of those, finally I may catch an Accutron that I can keep (instead of being "kidnapped" by my daughter as all others that I acquired).

Cheers,

Nilo

true, am sure your daughter won't fancy wearing this sized one and is one you can keep for yourself. Offcourse that won't stop her from admiring it!

 

 

NT

well reproduced. About the price, am sure Bulova wouldn't have made a huge profit on it considering they made only 1000, redesigning the movement from the ground up, handmade  and with beautiful plexi case and box. It was more a advertising thing for them to show their place in history so I think is still good value for something this unique. Plus if you are lucky, you can get them for way below list.

Place it inside a glass

Kong

it already comes in a glass case else I would have

in the larger size it has great presence. Really like the unusual case as well, is that modeled on the originals too?

the case design is the same as was in the first version of the Spaceview in 1960/61. Here's a picture I got off the web for you of the 1961 version with the same "Alpha" case called so for the obvious Alpha like shape, is in 14kt white gold. The only difference, those were available in white and yellow gold (not sure if they were made in stainless steel)and were  33mm  cases whereas these are in SS and 42mm.

 

 

 I was looking through some magazines this weekend and saw this advert.

do you have a collection of vintage watch magazines and flyers?

14kt yellow Gold from 1961 here