Bulova is an American timepiece manufacturing company that was founded in 1875 and has been owned by Japanese multinational conglomerate Citizen Watch Co. since 2008. The company makes watches, clocks and accessories, and it is based in New York City.[2]
Bulova was founded and incorporated as the J. Bulova Company in 1875 by Bohemian immigrant Joseph Bulova.[3] It was reincorporated under the name Bulova Watch Company in 1923, became part of the Loews Corporation in 1979,[4] and was sold to Citizen at the end of 2007.[5]
Bulova started a small jewelry shop in New York City around 1875 on Maiden Lane, which specialized in jewelry and the repair of clocks and the occasional pocket watch. Around 1911, Bulova began producing table clocks and pocket watches.[6] In 1912, Joseph Bulova launched his first plant dedicated entirely to the production of watches[7] in Biel, Switzerland where he began a standardized mass production. The watches were popular with the American public. In 1927, Bulova set up an observatory on the roof of a skyscraper located at 580 Fifth Avenue to determine universal time precisely.[8]
Bulova established its operations in Woodside, New York, and Flushing, New York, where it made innovations in watchmaking, and developed a number of watchmaking tools.[4] Its horological innovations included the Accutron watch that used a resonating tuning fork as a means of regulating the time-keeping function.
During the 1920s and '30s, Bulova was noted for its art deco watches, typically either rectangular or square.[9] Models from this period included the Breton, the Banker, and the Commodore. All three of these models were modernized in 2020 as the Joseph Bulova Collection, utilizing swiss made Sellita mechanical movements.[10] From 1922 through 1930, Bulova marketed 350 different ladies’ Art Deco watches, with at least an equal number of models for men.[11]
The Westfield Watch Company, Inc. is listed as a Bulova subsidiary at least as early as 1931, but Bulova had trademarked the Westfield name in 1927. Westfields were considered the lower cost options in the Bulova line, since the movements typically had lower jewel counts than mainstream Bulovas, and cases and straps may also not have been of the same quality as other Bulova models. Like the regular Bulovas, the Westfield movements were Swiss made, but the two lines did not use the same movements. Westfield watches were produced at least through the 1950s, with the Caravelle line introduced in the early 1960s. The Bulova trademark of the Westfield name is reported as cancelled in 1989.[12]
Advertising milestones
December 1942 ad for Bulova watches from CanadaWomen working in the pinion department of Bulova Watch c.1937
Bulova became a renowned watch company in 1922, starting with an advertising campaign in the Saturday Evening Post.[13] Through the 1960s, Bulova led all American watchmakers in marketing expenditures, and it enhanced its distribution chains from jewelry stores and chains to general merchandising outlets, with over 20,000 U.S. distributors by 1968.[14]
Bulova produced the first advertisement broadcast on radio in 1926, announcing the first beep in history: ‘At the tone, it’s eight o’clock, Bulova Watch Time’, an announcement heard by millions of Americans.[15] In 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first solo pilot to cross the Atlantic nonstop. His crossing earned him a Bulova Watch and a check for $1000, and it became an emblem for the brand that created the model "Lone Eagle" in his likeness. Bulova claims to have been the first manufacturer to offer electric clocks beginning in 1931, but the Warren Telechron Company began selling electric clocks in 1912, 19 years prior to Bulova. In the 1930s and 1940s, the brand was a huge success with its rectangular plated watches whose case was strongly curved to better fit the curve of the wrist. In 1932, Bulova ran a "Name the Watch" contest for its new $24.75 timepiece, with a top prize of $1,000 and total prizes of $10,000.[16] By 1940, Bulova sponsored each of the top 20 radio shows in the US.[17]
Bulova produced the world's first television advertisement, on July 1, 1941 (the first day that commercial advertising was permitted on television), before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies over New York station WNBT (now WNBC).[18] The announcement, for which the company paid anywhere from $4.00 (equivalent to $83in 2023) to $9.00 (equivalent to $186in 2023), displayed a WNBT test card modified to look like a clock with the hands showing the time. The Bulova logo, with the phrase "Bulova Time", was shown in the lower right-hand quadrant of the test pattern while the second hand swept around the dial for one minute.[19][20]
In 1945, Arde Bulova, chairman of the board, founded the Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking to provide training for disabled veterans after the Second World War. The school later became a full-fledged rehabilitation facility, an advocate for disabled people nationwide, and one of the founders of wheelchair sports in the United States. The school closed in 1993.[22]
In 1949/50, Bulova entered into a contract with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the right to use the words "Academy Award" and "Oscar", along with the copyrighted image commonly known as the "Oscar".[23] In 1952, Bulova and the Academy accepted a Federal Trade Commission stipulation that allowed Bulova to continue its use of the trademarked words as long as the company made it clear that such usage was based on a licensing agreement rather than “representative of meritorious award made on the basis of comparative tests with other watches.”[24][25][26] From 1950 through 1954, Bulova issued over 25 ladies models and 14 men's models identified with the Academy Awards, paying $154,000 in licensing fees.[27]
In the mid-1950s, Bulova sponsored the televised Frank Sinatra Show, presenting Sinatra with numerous wristwatches which he, in turn, had engraved with personal notes and gifted to his friends. Bulova later supported the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts. The relationship continued through 2023, with Bulova's release of the Rat Pack model, an entry-level dress watch (limited edition of 5,000 pieces), along with a series of models named after Sinatra hits (e.g. Fly Me to the Moon, My Way, and others).[28]
The ad campaign for Bulova's Accutron watch was profiled in the 7th season of the television series Mad Men, in which a spokesman utters the line: "It's more than a timepiece, it's a conversation piece".[29]
In 1973, Gulf and Western Industries acquired a stake in the company, which it sold to Stelux Manufacturing Company, a Hong Kong-based watch components manufacturer, in 1976.
Bulova's "Accutron" watches, first sold in October 1960,[30] use a 360 Hztuning fork instead of a balance wheel as the timekeeping element.[31] The inventor, Max Hetzel, was born in Basel, Switzerland, and joined the Bulova Watch Company in 1950.[31] The tuning fork was powered by a one-transistorelectronic oscillator circuit, so the Accutron qualifies as the second "electronic watch", following the Hamilton Electric released in 1957.[32] Instead of the ticking sound made by mechanical watches, the Accutron had a faint, high-pitched hum that came from the vibrating tuning fork. A forerunner of modern quartz watches that also keep time with a vibrating resonator, the Accutron was guaranteed to be accurate to one minute per month, or two seconds per day, considerably better than mechanical watches of the time.[31] The Accutron was widely advertised in the print media (including magazines like Life and Ebony) with the tagline "so revolutionary -- so accurate, it's the first timepiece in history that's guaranteed 99.9977 accurate on your wrist."[33] An Accutron was buried in a time capsule at New York's 1964-65 World's Fair.[34] By 1973, over four million Accutrons had been sold.[35]
The Apollo 15 watch
In the 1960s, the company was involved in a rivalry with Omega Watches to be selected as the 'first watch on the Moon'. In 1971, a Bulova chronograph was carried on board Apollo 15, the fourth mission to land men on the Moon, by mission commander David Scott. All twelve men who walked on the Moon wore standard Omega Speedmaster watches that had been officially issued by NASA. Those watches are deemed to be government property. Transcripts from the Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Journal attest to the fact that during Scott's second excursion on the Moon's surface, the crystal on his Omega watch had popped off.[36] So, during his third lunar walk, he used his backup Bulova watch. The Bulova Chronograph Model #88510/01 is the only privately owned watch to have been worn on the lunar surface. There are images of Scott wearing the watch, when he saluted the American flag on the Moon, with the Hadley Delta expanse in the background. The watch shows "significant wear from exposure while on the Moon, and from splashdown and recovery." In 2015, the watch sold for $1.625 million at RR Auction in Boston, which makes it one of the most expensive astronaut-owned artifacts ever sold at auction and one of the most expensive watches sold at auction.[37] The watch is also a unique timepiece as it seems to have been a prototype, only revealed by Scott to Bulova's fans in 2014.[38] Therefore, the company released an homage edition of the lunar watch in early 2016, using a modern high frequency quartz movement for the watch that took more than 40 years to make its way into production line.[39]
From 1958 to 1973 Omar Bradley was chairman of the board of Bulova and watch historians suggest it’s no coincidence that during his time at Bulova the Accutron was adopted by NASA resulting in approximately 2,000 Accutron timers and timing packages being used in 46 NASA missions.[40]
Computron
During the quartz crisis, Bulova followed the lead of other watchmakers creating electronic quartz watches by introducing the Computron watch in 1976. The Computron was Bulova's first watch with a LED display and first digital watch. It featured a distinctive trapezoidal steel case profile, with the display located on the side of the case rather than the main face. It was marketed as a beneficial design for drivers so that they could view the watch without needing to roll their wrists or release the steering wheel, but this was mitigated by the need to press a button on the side of the case to wake the display. In later versions, repeatedly pressing the button cycled the display to the seconds, date, day, and a second timezone. The success of the Computron was a significant factor in keeping Bulova financially viable through the next several years.[41][42]
Bulova designs, manufactures, and markets several different brands, including: the signature "Bulova", the stylish "Caravelle" (formerly "Caravelle New York"), the dressy/formal Swiss-made "Wittnauer Swiss", and the "Marine Star". In 2014 Bulova ceased the sale of watches under the "Accutron" and "Accutron by Bulova" brand, eliminating some Accutron models and subsuming others under the "Bulova" brand.
In 2010, Bulova introduced the Precisionist, a new type of quartz watch with a higher frequency crystal (262144Hz, eight times the industry standard 32768Hz) which is claimed to be accurate to ±10 seconds per year (0.32ppm) and has a smooth sweeping seconds hand like automatic watches rather than the typical quartz watch seconds hand that jumps each second.[44]
From 2012 to 2015, Bulova produced a line of Swiss-Made watches known as Accu•Swiss, which took the place of the previously discontinued Accutron line.[45] Accu•Swiss itself was discontinued in 2015 at the direction of Citizen.
In 2019, Bulova reissued the Computron brand, preserving the size and appearance of the originals, but updating the internal electronics. The new Computrons were made available in chrome, gold, and black, the first two colors being what had been used for the originals.[41][42]
In 2020, the Citizen Group split Accutron off from Bulova and launched it as its own stand-alone brand,[46] highlighting its new electrostatic movement technology and re-introducing vintage inspired "Legacy" models.[47] This continued in 2023 with the re-introduction of the Accutron "Astronaut T".[48] Accutron has stated its intention to continue to develop a new version of the tuning-fork technology, even though industrial equipment used in the 1960s and 1970s to produce the technology no longer exists.[49]
Use by Jewish cantors
The Accutron, along with other tuning fork watches, have recently become popular with Orthodox Chazzanim (Jewish cantors).[50] Most rabbis rule against the use of a conventional tuning fork on Shabbat, due to its similarity to a musical instrument.[51] Tuning fork watches are therefore useful as they produce a constant note (360hz being a slightly flat F#) that can be easily heard without breaking the laws of Shabbat, particularly as producing the note is not the primary function of the watch (that being telling the time).
A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or other type of bracelet, including metal bands, leather straps, or any other kind of bracelet. A pocket watch is designed for a person to carry in a pocket, often attached to a chain. A stopwatch is a watch that measures intervals of time.
The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 through the merger of ASUAG and SSIH, moving to manufacturing quartz-crystal watches to resolve the quartz crisis threatening the traditional Swiss watchmaking industry.
Seiko Group Corporation, commonly known as Seiko, is a Japanese maker of watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelry, and optical products. Founded in 1881 by Kintarō Hattori in Tokyo, Seiko introduced the world's first commercial quartz wristwatch in 1969.
Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848, the company formerly operated as La Generale Watch Co. until incorporating the name Omega in 1903, becoming Louis Brandt et Frère-Omega Watch & Co. In 1984, the company officially changed its name to Omega SA and opened its museum in Biel/Bienne to the public. Omega is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group.
Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer, located in the Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Established in 1839, it is named after two of its founders, Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe. Since 1932, the company has been owned by the Stern family in Switzerland and remains the last family-owned independent watch manufacturer in Geneva. Patek Philippe is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its founding. It designs and manufactures timepieces as well as movements, including some of the most complicated mechanical watches. The company maintains over 400 retail locations globally and over a dozen distribution centers across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. In 2001, it opened the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has hour and minute hands on the main dial to tell the time, a small seconds hand to tell that the watch is running, and a seconds hand on the main dial usually equipped with a sweeping movement for precision accompanied by a minutes sub dial for the stopwatch. Another sub dial to measure the hours of the stopwatch may also be included on a chronograph. The stopwatch can be started, stopped, and reset to zero at any time by the user by operating pushers usually placed adjacent to the crown. More complex chronographs often use additional complications and can have multiple sub-dials to measure more aspects of the stopwatch such as fractions of a second as well as other helpful things such as the moon phase and the local 24-hour time. In addition, many modern chronographs include tachymeters on the bezels for rapid calculations of speed or distance. Louis Moinet invented the chronograph in 1816 for use in tracking astronomical objects. Chronographs soon found a widespread use in artillery fire in the mid to late 1800s. Over time, the chronograph found its use to be in several different fields, such as aircraft piloting, auto racing, diving and submarine maneuvering.
Vacheron Constantin SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded in 1755. Since 1996, it has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group. Vacheron Constantin is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its foundation in 1755. It employs around 1,200 people worldwide as of 2018, most of whom are based in the company's manufacturing plants in the Canton of Geneva and Vallée de Joux in Switzerland.
A. Lange & Söhne is a trademark of Lange Uhren GmbH, a German manufacturer of luxury and prestige watches. The company was originally founded by Ferdinand Adolph Lange in Glashütte, Kingdom of Saxony in 1845. The original A. Lange & Söhne was nationalized and ceased to exist in 1948, following the occupation by the Soviet Union after World War II. The current A. Lange & Söhne trademark was re-registered when Lange Uhren GmbH was founded in 1990 by Walter Lange, the great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange.
Swatch is a Swiss watchmaker founded in 1983 by Ernst Thomke, Elmar Mock, and Jacques Müller. It is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the "quartz crisis" of the 1970s and 1980s, in which inexpensive, battery-powered, quartz-regulated watches were competing against more established European watchmakers focused on artisanal craftsmanship producing mostly mechanical watches.
Zenith SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker. The company was started in 1865 by Georges Favre-Jacot in Le Locle in the canton of Neuchâtel and is one of the oldest continuously operating watchmakers. Favre-Jacot invented the concept of "in house movements", believing that only through control of the entire watchmaking process could the highest quality be achieved. Zenith was purchased by LVMH in November 1999, becoming one of several brands in its watch and jewelry division, which includes TAG Heuer and Hublot. Benoit de Clerck is the company's current president and CEO.
Baume & Mercier is a Swiss luxury watchmaker founded in 1830. It is a subsidiary of the Swiss luxury conglomerate Richemont.
In horology, a complication is any feature of a timepiece beyond the display of hours, minutes and seconds. A timepiece indicating only hours, minutes and seconds is known as a simple movement. Common complications include date or day-of-the-week indicators, alarms, chronographs (stopwatches), and automatic winding mechanisms. Complications may be found in any clock, but they are most notable in mechanical watches where the small size makes them difficult to design and assemble. A typical date-display chronograph may have up to 250 parts, while a particularly complex watch may have a thousand or more parts. Watches with several complications are referred to as grandes complications.
Girard-Perregaux SA is a luxury Swiss watch manufacture with its origins dating back to 1791. In 2022, then-owner French luxury group Kering sold its stake in Sowind Group SA, the parent company of Girard-Perregaux, via management buyout. Headquartered in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the company opened the Girard-Perregaux Museum near its headquarters in Villa Marguerite in 1999. It is best known for the historic Tourbillon with three gold bridges, which was awarded a gold medal at the 1889 International Exposition in Paris soon after the launch of the watch. Other notable models from the company include the collection 1966, Vintage 1945, and models such as Tri-Axial Tourbillon and Laureato, an icon inspired from the 1970s.
Compagnie des Montres Longines, Francillon S.A., or simply Longines, is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832, the company has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group and its predecessors since 1983. Its winged hourglass logo, registered in 1889, is the oldest unchanged active trademark registered with WIPO.
Audemars Piguet Holding SA is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury watches, headquartered in Le Brassus, Switzerland. The company was founded by Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet in the Vallée de Joux in 1875, acquiring the name Audemars Piguet & Cie in 1881. The company has been family-owned since its founding.
Omega Speedmaster is a line of chronograph wristwatches produced by Omega SA. While chronographs have existed since the late 1800s, Omega first introduced this line of chronographs in 1957. Since then, many different chronograph movements have been marketed under the Speedmaster name. Astronaut Walter Schirra was the first person to wear one in space in 1962 during his Mercury-Atlas 8 mission. The manual winding Speedmaster Professional or "Moonwatch" is the best-known and longest-produced; it was worn during the first American spacewalk as part of NASA's Gemini 4 mission, and was the first watch worn by an astronaut walking on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. The Speedmaster Professional remains one of several watches qualified by NASA for spaceflight, and is still the only one so qualified for EVA. The Speedmaster line also includes other models, including analog-digital and automatic mechanical watches.
Ikepod is a wristwatch manufacturer specializing in conceptual timepieces. Originally Swiss made, the watches are currently made in Hong Kong with Miyota quartz movements.
The quartz crisis (Swiss) or quartz revolution was the advancement in the watchmaking industry caused by the advent of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s, that largely replaced mechanical watches around the world. It caused a significant decline of the Swiss watchmaking industry, which chose to remain focused on traditional mechanical watches, while the majority of the world's watch production shifted to Japanese companies such as Seiko, Citizen and Casio which embraced the new electronic technology. The strategy employed by Swiss makers was to call this revolution a 'crisis' thereby downgrading the advancement from Japanese brands.
Harry B. Henshel was an American businessman and the last member of the Bulova family to head the Bulova Watch Company, as president, chairman and chief executive officer.
Universal Genève SA is a Swiss luxury watch company, founded in 1894 as Universal Watch. It is a subsidiary of Breitling SA. Since its beginnings, the company has produced complete watches with in-house movements. Along with neighboring Geneva companies Audemars Piguet, Girard-Perregaux, Patek Philippe and Rolex, Universal is internationally regarded for its style of craftsmanship as a manufacture d'horlogerie. Universal Genève is known for creating the first-ever chronograph in 1917.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
