Customer Products: A Bulova Engineer Working On Final Adjustments To An
Accutron Movement (1965)

For years, Bulova has continued to use the Accutron name, even though it no longer produced tuning fork-based watch movements. Bulova offered a range of models, mostly sold in department stores until recently, when Mr. Thumm began a longer campaign to refocus Bulova, aiming to recall past historic designs and a culture of wrist watch accuracy and utility. A few years ago, around 2010 or 2011, Bulova released a new movement family known as Precisionist (originally reviewed here). Bulova Precisionist was an exciting new type of quartz movement that heralded much of what people loved about the original Accutron tuning fork movements. Precisionist, in an affordable package, increased the accuracy of traditional quartz movements, while implementing a sweeping seconds hands – similar to those on mechanical movements.

Faces Of Time: The Accutron Master Timer That Would Be Placed In The Moon’s Sea of Tranquility During The First Moon Landing (Apollo 11, Which Reached The Moon On July 20, 1969) Being Programmed By Bulova Technicians

Joseph Bulova: Portrait Of The Founder Of The Bulova Company (1851-1933)

Precisionist movements were originally available exclusively in larger, sporty watch cases, but Thumm decided that the technology should be implemented more widely into a range of timepiece models ranging from sporty to conservatively dressy. Many of those recall popular models from Bulova’s history. Furthermore, Precisionist was to be re-spun into Accutron II, a more historically sound name, given that it was Bulova’s intent to cast Accutron II as the thematic follow-up to the original Accutron watches. Moving forward, all Accutron II watches (one has been reviewed here) will contain Precisionist movements, while other product families, such as Bulova Accu Swiss models, will focus on Swiss mechanical movements. Having said that, Bulova will continue to focus on many price points, ranging from very accessible timepieces to mechanical models. Bulova recently released the $42,000 forged 18k gold Accu Swiss Percheron model, which I believe is currently the brand’s most expensive watch.

Space: Photograph Taken By A U.S. Navy Frogman Of The Gemini 6 Spacecraft Capsule After Splashdown In The Atlantic, With Specially Designed 24-Hour-Dial Accutron Electronic Clock On The Control Panel

Watch vs. Accutron: Advertisement For Railroad Approved Accutron Timepieces, Noted For Their Superior Accuracy

At the same time, while helping Bulova to discover its brand identity by looking at its history, Greg Thumm is using the brand as a design and technological playground. Items like the forged gold Percheron are just one example. At the helm of the company, Thumm has a series of exciting watches planned for the mainstream public and watch collectors alike. It is actually quite rare for such a dedicated watch guy to be in charge of a company like Bulova. Though, with the right direction, a company like Bulova has a huge amount to work with, given its history.

Greg Thumm has a number of important challenges ahead of him. Not only will the lower-priced wrist watch market increasingly face competition from smartwatches, but it requires a lot of work to alter consumers’ perception of a brand once it has segmented itself into a particular area. Bulova wants to recapture not only the essence of its past, but also recapture some of the glory of the original Accutron watches with the Accutron II family of watches. Many of these ads and images offer a unique view into the past of not only a brand, but of an entire industry that has changed incredibly over the last few generations. bulova.com