Glad I found this site as the info here is exactly what a noob needs.I'm somewhat new to watch collecting and will have numerous questions.I recall many years ago a jeweler telling me that if Bulova could not repair a 218 they would replace it with a quartz mvt.?I recently acquired a N8 with what appears to be a "plug" where the winding stem would normally be at the 4:o'clock position and is now at the 3:0'clock position.
I also recall reading somewhere that the Accutrons almost put Bulova out of business? probably due to high failure rate? Any info is appreciated and thanks in advance to any help you may give me.
Interesting watch in several respects. You say it's a 1978 but, as far as I know, the last tuning fork Accutron was the 1977 model. You never know I guess. Supposedly 1965 was the first year for the 218 but I have a 1964 one.
As to the 218 movement being replaced with a Quartz movement, I don't think it was unusual for a 218 to be replaced with a 224 Accuquartz but that's sure not what you've got. One must wonder if , in 1978, they had some cases left over and put modern quartz movements into them.
I don't think it can be said that the tuning fork Accutrons had a high failure rate at all. I have had a 218 since 1974 that has been serviced once and works very well. The 214, 218, 219 and 224 were about bulletproof. The 221 movement was junk and the 230 not a lot better but they were used mostly in lady's watches and not a lot of them were sold.
The death of Bulova nd most of the American watch makers was Seiko and their cheap but great Quartz
I read somewhere that the quartz conversion kit was created because the original batteries for the Accutrons ceased to be available, and the new, higher voltage batteries did not allow the watches to run accurately. Now, we have new batteries made specifically for the Accutrons (particularly the 214s), but that's a fairly recent invention.
Not sure if that's true, but it's what I read, so thought I'd toss it out there for further discussion.
Another thing I read. . . about "the Accutrons almost putting Bulova out of business". . . the reason for that was not due to quality issues with the Accutron but rather because Bulova was hanging on to the Accutron too long after quartz became the new thing. Times change, and Bulova was reluctant to change with them. The Accutron was generally considered superior, state-of-the-art technology until quartz came along, and Bulova didn't want to let go and move on. (That could also, by the way, explain the reason for the quartz conversion--trying to get old inventory on board with new technology and not go out of business.)
It is true that the original batteries, which were 1.35 v silver oxide were made unavailable by government decree but I run all of mine on modern 1.55 volt batteries with no problems. It is my understanding that some, expecially the 214's, had to be adjusted or they would run fast with the 1.55 volt batteries. It was called double indexing. I've never used one of the modern batteries made for Accutrons, I get mine at the local True Value store.
It may be true that Bulova held onto the tuning fork too long and they tried to prolong it with the quartz controlled 224 but the other American watchmakers like Elgin, Gruen, etc all went down at about the same time. Seiko just passed everybody up. I'd bet that at least half the people I know wear a Seiko.
It could've been 219, the only way to tell them apart of which I know is to open them up and see if there are one or two coils.
When you post it for sale will you be including a picture of the back ? I'd sure like to be able to read the back cover. I'm fascinated by the offset crown in a 1978 watch.
From the picture where you are looking directly at the crown, and can see the "push button" at 4 o'clock, I would say that this watch is one of the early quartz movements with a feature Bulova called Accuset spelling?). With the Accuset feature you pulled out the normal crown when the second hand was exactly at 12 o'clock; it was best to do this at a minute or two in the future. You then pushed in the button which essentially "trained" the watch to know where 12 o'clock was located with respect to the second hand. As the time got to your setting, as indicated by some "master" source, you pushed the crown in which started the watch. OK, the watch is now set to some "master" time and the movement knows the position of 12 o'clock. Let's say 2 months later, you notice the watch is 15 seconds fast. You hit the button again at 00 seconds based on the "master", and the watch would temporarily stop until it caught up. If the watch was 15 seconds slow as compared to the master when you hit the button, it would double step until it caught up. It was a quick and easy way to synch the watch to a master time source. The only relationship to the tuning fork Accutron was the word on the dial. It was fully a quartz movement from day one.
Bulova made these watches with college logos, company names, etc. on rather fancy dials, as well as plain dials. I happen to have one from one of the service academies that I attended. When the original movement died, Bulova dropped in a replacement without the accuset feature. I have seen them, with special dial, go for $50 to $75 on eBay. Without any special dial, perhaps $35 to $50 depending on condition.
John from PA