Bulova

Brand history

Founded 1875 in New York City by Joseph Bulova. A pioneer of precision timekeeping, mass production, and radio advertising. Now a Citizen Watch Co. subsidiary; the Lunar Pilot chronograph earned NASA certification for the Apollo missions.

Founded 1875 in New York City by Joseph Bulova, a Bohemian immigrant. Bulova established the first watch-assembly facility in the US (in 1911) and became the largest American watch company of the 20th century through the 1940s–60s, supplying military precision timepieces in both World Wars and producing the first American wristwatch advertisement in 1922. The Accutron tuning-fork watch (1960), powered by an electromagnetic tuning fork vibrating at 360 Hz invented by Max Hetzel, was the most accurate wristwatch commercially produced before the quartz crisis and was used in NASA space suits and Gemini missions. Bulova was acquired by Loews Corporation in 1979, then by Citizen in 2007; current production is quartz-dominant with a limited mechanical catalog. The collector market is almost entirely focused on the vintage Accutron series (Spaceview, Astronaut) from 1960–1977.