Quartz watches would later replace the mainspring with a battery and the balance wheel with a vibrating quartz crystal. The 1960s was a sort of in-between, exploratory era for watch technology, and the Accutron was an important player.Ĭenturies-old mechanical watchmaking was still the norm at this time: a slowly uncoiling spring (the mainspring) is used for power, and an oscillating wheel (the balance wheel), for regulation. It wouldn’t be until almost ten years later, in 1969, that Seiko would fully break the traditional watch industry with the first timepiece regulated by a quartz crystal - the technology that would eventually prevail by virtue of its robustness, affordability, and extreme accuracy. It was only three years before, in 1957, that the Hamilton Ventura had introduced the first battery-powered, electric watch. Bulova was ahead of its time stylistically as well as technologically. Today, many brands produce dial-less and “skeletonized” watches in order to display their fascinating and prestigious mechanical movements - but this approach was nearly unheard-of at the time of the Spaceview. Thus the Spaceview was born - at least, that’s how the story goes. Then, retailers were calling Bulova to say that people wanted the display model. Most people had only ever seen mechanical watches before, so a display model was sent to retailers that replaced the dial with a raw view of its electronic innards. The first Accutron models, released in 1960, had traditional watch dials, and it was the highly accurate, groundbreaking technology inside that was the selling point - but this can be difficult to explain to consumers. In its most interesting form, called the Spaceview, it also happens to visually represent the experimental, space-age mindset of the era.īulova didn’t initially intend to make the Spaceview.
It was incredibly accurate, using a tuning fork that accounted for the humming referenced in the brand’s slogan. Introduced in 1960, the Bulova Accutron looked, sounded, and functioned unlike any other watch.
In retrospect, “The Watch That Hums” represented a pioneering link between the first battery-powered watches and the eventual tsunami of inexpensive quartz watches. This week: the Bulova Accutron Spaceview. Welcome to Watches You Should Know, a biweekly column highlighting little-known watches with interesting backstories and unexpected influence.
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