The Bulova Accutron Astronaut Edition
On flight, patina, and heritage
Colin here. I’m a sucker for watches that might not have the mega badge value or overt glitz, but have a lot of history or gravitas. Just as the Khanjar-dial watches I recently wrote about have that of Omani royal panache, I also love watches that were bought or commissioned for certain roles.
In the case of the Bulova Astronaut, it was a watch issued to A-12 pilots. The aircraft was a predecessor to the famous SR-71 Blackbird, and flew at three times the speed of sound. It was first worn by the X-15 test pilots, and given it held up, was then issued to pilots of the new aircraft.
Why is this interesting?
Aside from the looks and functionality, there was a movement innovation inside that helped with hyper accurate timekeeping in difficult contexts (like flying that fast, at high altitude!)
The Accutron has no balance or balance spring. Instead, it uses a tuning fork oscillator, driven by a transistor controlled circuit. The Accutron's tuning fork (in the Accutron 214 movement) vibrates at 360 Hz and uses a button-cell battery. Attached to one limb of the tuning fork is a minute pawl tipped with a nearly invisible ruby jewel. As the tuning fork vibrates the pawl moves back and forth and this drives an index wheel with 360 teeth. The index wheel especially was at the time a wonder of miniaturization and micro-engineering, with teeth so fine that they are invisible to the naked eye. The mechanism has its advantages and disadvantages just like any other piece of engineering, but the high frequency meant that Accutron wristwatches, clocks, and timing mechanisms offered unprecedented reliability, often better than 1 sec/day. The fact that they would run on electric power with no requirement for a mainspring also made them highly suitable for use in aerospace applications.
The watch was also able to function under such incredible g-forces, that a test pilot wrote a letter to the company, singing its praises:
According to Analog shift: “In a written letter by Lieutenant Colonel Frank Murray (see it here), the pilot said, “Ordinary wristwatches worn by pilots on the outside of their pressure suits were not holding up to these temperatures. The Bulova Accutron Astronaut model held up to testing, so the CIA decided to furnish the Bulova watch to the CIA pilots flying the A-12.”
The original letter is here:
It’s a bit harder to trace the provenance of these watches, of who wore what. And when you can be sure the backstory certainly adds to the price! But it is fun to think that one of these that occasionally appears on eBay or shows up on watch enthusiast sites was worn in the cockpit on missions of geopolitical importance. (CJN)
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Thanks for reading,
Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN)
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Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) with editing help from Louis Cheslaw about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing.