Fratello On Air: Balazs & Mike Talk Bulova

Another legendary brand with a wide array of favorites

May 24, 2022

comments 6

Fratello On Air is back with another brand-focused episode. This time, Balazs and Mike focus on Bulova. Finding six favorites from this legendary brand was a real task, but we’ve pulled out some winners. We hope you enjoy it!

Bulova, the brand founded in New York in 1875, is on the hot seat. We do our best to find six attractive models to help paint a picture of how varied this brand was during its heyday and even after the quartz crisis. Expect the unexpected — especially when it comes to Balazs’s picks!

Handgelenks Kontrolle

Before getting to Bulova, we take care of our Handgelenks Kontrolle. Balazs kicks things off with a new arrival, his “NOS” vintage Excelsior Park EP 4 chronograph. Congrats on the arrival of this long-awaited stunner!

Mike is doing his best Balazs impression with the late ’40s/early ’50s Siduna Commander. This is a Danish brand, but a Swiss watch with a 36.5mm “waterproof” stainless steel case and an ETA 1110.

Bulova

For the main part of our show, we discuss six of our favorite models from Bulova. Before doing so, though, we give a little bit of history and bring in some stories about how we were personally impacted by this brand. Then, it’s time to hit the watches. We discuss the following:

Bulova “Parking Meter” Chronograph ref. 7392 from 1973, a watch that Mike declares as his favorite bullhead
“Stars and Stripes” Chronograph C from 1970 with its incredible dial and mesh bracelet
Accuquartz “Woody,” a 1973 collection with wood-grain bezels and even a diamond!
The Accutron series, which debuted in 1960 with a focus on the Spaceview and Railroad-approved models.
Sea King, with its small whale on the dial and Seamaster-like looks
Bulova Sea Hunter chronograph, a weird child of the early ’80s with a Squale-like case and Valjoux 7736

We hope you enjoyed today’s show! As always, if there’s anything you’d like to discuss, feel free to let us know.

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Fratello On Air: Balazs & Mike Talk Bulova

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Jeff Clement says:

May 25, 2022 at 00:12

I have3 accutron watches ,gmt astronaut the 666 diver and a 214 accutron 36 mm dress watch

Reply
MarkII says:

May 25, 2022 at 00:50

For a moment I thought I saw Tudor BB Pro for the 100th time this month which left me traumatized. Bulova, what a welcome relief!

Reply
KD
Kim007 says:

May 25, 2022 at 05:57

Bulova has an amazing story full of great achievements while being the most squandered and neglected brand ever. Citizen has disrespected Bulova with endless, meaningless products. Bulova earned a spot to compete with Omega and others a long time ago and Citizen through it all away. Just mind boggling.

Perhaps Bulova will get lucky and get acquired by Swatch Group or another company with the brains to resurrect Bulova.

Reply
1. KL
  K L says:
  
  May 26, 2022 at 21:41
  
  Honestly i’m just glad it wasn’t picked up by Invicta group like Glycine was. If Swatch gets Bulova they’d probably slot it near Tissot and Hamilton. Those two brands have pretty clear identities, though. Bulova needs some focus for sure. Are they dressier with their Frank Sinatra collection? Or heritage with their A-11 and A-17 watches? Or are they tough with their skeleton Harley pieces? Not sure. Throw in the Latino Grammys to confuse things further.
  
  I feel like Bulova being a classic New York dressy brand would be really strong, but dress watches aren’t so hot right now. Tough IP, but such an amazing legacy to pull from.
  
  For a start can they please at least use 9 series Miyota movements across the board instead of mostly 8’s?
  
  Reply
  1. AS
    Alistaircase says:
    
    Jul 23, 2022 at 08:38
    
    Glycine honestly under Invicta has made some pretty great watches. They have a variety of Airman models, ranging from the 36mm Airman Vintage, the Airman SST World Timer (love that design) and bunch of other 24 hour models. The Glycine Combat series, including the Combat Sub and Combat GMTs, are very affordable swiss dive watches. I think they have quite poor marketing, as outside of enthusisats communities they are virtually unknown, but the brand has some very worthwhile pieces that have clear identity at least.
    
    I think though, Bulova’s known identity was heavily tied to the tuning fork movements that make up the Accutron brand and being the all-American beachhead. I think that Citizen has neglected till now very unique designs that Bulova offered in the past, and producing dress watches which look nice but haven’t carved out a good identity for it. Bulova’s successes, being the Bulova Lunar Pilot series, Bulova Parking Meter reissue, Bulova A-15 and Devil Diver have come from more so designs that aren’t as commonly shared, as in their dress watches. While these are admirable reissues, there needs to be an attempt to integrate these designs into higher end models. So, for an inevitable Bulova Astronaut, try and integrate two versions with the newer 9 Series True GMT movement in conjunction with a tuning fork version. As well, Miyota in the future should try more so using Sellita chronograph movement versions. This can maybe fit the lack of excitement of “oh, another quartz chronograph.” So, I agree that Citizen has mismanaged Bulova greatly but their direction should be to try and “upscale” their vintage reissues.
    
    Reply
SF
SteveF says:

May 25, 2022 at 14:15

This is a great list of Bulova oddities! Regarding the 2242 Accuquartz, from what I’ve read the movement worked by having a quartz crystal regulate the vibration of the tuning fork, which was used to drive the gear train of the movement. In a standard Accutron, it’s the vibration of the tuning fork itself that provides timing control for the movement in addition to driving the gear train. From what I’ve read, there was nothing wrong with the movement itself, but quartz movements were more accurate and rapidly became more durable and cheaper so the Accuquartz quickly became obsolete.

Here’s an article with more technical details and good pictures:
https://www.watches.com/blogs/news/bulova-accuquartz-the-link-between-two-electric-eras

That particular watch in the article has aged much more gracefully than the ‘Woody’ has, and I’d love to add something like it to my collection to go with my grandfather’s Bulova – alternately identified as a President or a Jet Clipper ‘E’ – which features a uniquely non-solid whale logo on the dial: https://mybulova.com/watches/1972-president-9793

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