Bulova
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- For the defunct Hong Kong football club , see Bulova (Hong Kong).
Bulova is a New York based corporation making watches and clocks.
Bulova was founded and incorporated as the J. Bulova Company in 1875 by Joseph Bulova (1851-1936), an immigrant from Bohemia. It was reincorporated under the name Bulova Watch Company in 1923, and became part of the Loews Corporation in 1979.[1].
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[1]. Its horological innovations included the Accutron watch which used resonating tuning forks as a means of regulating the time keeping function. In July 1941 Bulova paid $9 for the first television commercial, a 10-second spot on WNBT during a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.
The Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking was founded in 1945 by Arde Bulova, Chairman of the Board, initially to provide training for disabled veterans after the Second World War.
"Accutron"[2] tuning fork watches, first sold in October 1960 by Bulova, use a 360 hertz tuning fork to drive a mechanical gear train. The inventor, Max Hetzel, was born in Basel, Switzerland, and joined the Bulova Watch Company of Bienne, Switzerland, in 1948. This outstanding engineer was the first one to use an electronic device, a transistor, in a wrist watch. Thus, Max Hetzel developed the first watch in the world that truly deserved the qualification "electronic": the world-famous "Bulova Accutron". More than 4 million were sold until production stopped in 1977.
They also were subjects of the other famous space era rivalry with Omega Watches for being the first watch on the moon. Ultimately, the Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph wristwatch (known as the "Moon watch") was designated by NASA for use by the astronauts in all manned space missions, becoming the first watch on the moon on the wrist of Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin.
However, all instrument panel clocks and time-keeping mechanisms in the spacecraft on those missions were Bulova Accutrons with tuning fork movements, because at the time, NASA did not know how well a mechanical movement would work in zero gravity conditions. The Bulova company currently manufactures a limited edition "Astronaut" model under its Accutron line of watches. The back of the watch case is autographed by Buzz Aldrin. The tuning fork movement has been discontinued by Bulova, and the current Astronaut model features automatic ETA SA movement, making it similar to the rival Omega.
In 2008 a Bulova Automatic wristwatch, lost overboard by a sailor in 1941, was found after 67 years on the seabed and returned to its owner. It still works today.[3]
On October 5, 2007 Citizen Holdings Company announced it would purchase Bulova Corp. for $247 million.[4] On January 10th 2008 Citizen bought the Bulova Watch Company. Together they are the world's largest watchmaker.
Currently Bulova designs, manufactures, and markets several different brands, including: the signature "Bulova", the affordable "Caravelle", the dressy/formal swiss-made "Wittnauer Swiss", and the sportier swiss-made "Accutron".
[edit] References
- ^ a b Kenneth T. Jackson: The Encyclopedia of New York City: The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. P. 168.
- ^ Watch-Wiki Accutron
- ^ "Watch that's back from the seabed... And it's still working, after 67 years", Mail Online, June 9, 2008.
- ^ "Japan: Watchmaker To Acquire Bulova", New York Times, October 5, 2007.
