Accutron astronaut Limited Edition

There once was a time when the name “Accutron” meant something very significant to people. When it was introduced on October 25, 1960, it was the most significant technological leap in timekeeping since the invention of the clock…the world’s first electronic watch that keep time to the precise vibration of a tuning fork. There was nothing else like it when it came out and it had the effect of rendering watches like the Hamilton Electric, as well as all mechanical watches obsolete in the dust from an accuracy standpoint.

For ten years, it dominated the watch scene and was “the” watch to have. Even when quartz came along at the end of the 1960’s, the Accutron tuning fork movement soldiered on for another seven years or so, finally giving in to the realities of the market, which quartz would, somewhat violently, reshape. Bulova would continue to use the Accutron name on a variety of watches including both quartz and mechanical, all the while squandering seventeen years of hard-earned brand equity in the process.

A significant attempt to revitalize the Accutron name occurred around 1989 when Bulova begin to market Accutron as a high-end, Swiss-Made division of Bulova but there was nothing innovative or unique about them and legions of original Accutron fans cried foul. It was considered heresy for a watch which which had broken the mold by not being a conventional, mainspring-driven watch to have its name ascribed to the very watches Accutron was created to outperform in every way. These watches, while very well made and worthy of the “Swiss Made” title were never considered to be the logical successor to the original Accutron…that honor went to the Bulova Precisionist when it came out in 2010. The Precisionist was the first quartz based watch whose second hand did not hack but which flowed with the smooth motion of “a satellite in orbit”, the most noticeable attribute of an original Accutron.

If the Precisionist had the technology DNA of a true Accutron, it never had the appealing design and looks of one, going mostly for oversized, overly designed cases that turned off many would-be buyers. It also left many asking the question: why didn’t Bulova utilize this revolutionary new movement to completely relaunch Accutron instead of creating an entirely new line under a different name? Fast forward to 2014.

Bulova announced in March of 2014 that Accutron would be relaunched as a line of vintage inspired watches borrowing designs from the original Accutrons and featuring a new Precisionist-based “UHF” or “Ultra High Frequency” movement that would allow the use of more conventionally sized watches. Dubbed “Accutron II”, these watches are now the only Bulova product that carries the Accutron name. Several months before the introduction of the Accutron II, Bulova quietly began removing the name from its Swiss line of watches and replacing it with a new branding called “Bulova Accu-Swiss”. I’ll leave that particular name alone for this review.