#BULOVA WATCH BATTERY REPLACEMENT CHART SERIES#

The Accutron truly was a product no other company could match. The company sold over 100,000 units in two years, increasing this to 250,000 more in the next two years. The Basel Fair in 1961 featured production Bulova Accutron watches, and sales started later in the year. 214 debuted to much fanfare at a press conference on October 25, 1960. Accutron timers and watches would later be used on satellites (Telstar, Tiros, Syncom, Pegasus, and LES), in spacecraft (Explorer, Mercury, Gemini, Agena, and Apollo), and on the wrists of astronauts. An Accutron timer was placed in the Explorer VI and Explorer VII unmanned orbiters in 1959 and another was used to switch transmission of data aboard Explorer XI on April 27, 1961. The design of the original Accutron movement was finalized in the latter half of the 1950s, with Bulova placing tuning fork timers on early spacecraft and satellites.

#BULOVA WATCH BATTERY REPLACEMENT CHART SERIES#

After a series of difficulties, Hetzel was offered a position William Bennett’s group in New York to help complete the movement. By 1955, eight watch-sized prototypes were being tested inside the company and Bulova transferred the project to New York. He completed a working model of the movement in 1953 and his department created a number of prototypes as well. The tuning fork concept was developed by Swiss engineer, Max Hetzel, who went to work for Bulova in 1950. 2185, with an independently-adjustable hour hand, had a second crown at 2:00. Note that most Accutron watches placed the crown at 4:00 rather than 3:00. The electronic design is similar, though a Silicon NPN transistor is always used and a resistor is added. Although the tuning fork still vibrates at 360 Hz, the index wheel now has 320 teeth rather than 300 and the wheel train is different. 218 measures 29.7 mm diameter like its predecessor, but is thinner at 4.9 mm. These were the most widely-produced Accutron movements and remain the most common today.Ĭal. Some versions feature a day and date, a second timezone, a 24 hour hand, and an independently-adjustable hour hand. Introduced in 1967, it incorporated many updates to the original, notably the addition of a calendar complication. 218 was the second-generation Accutron movement from Bulova.

Bulova watch battery replacement chart