I have a pack of 15 advertising cards for the early Accutron watches. Each card measures 5 1/2 x 3 inches. Each one has a four-color picture of a watch on the front, and a description of the watch on the reverse. There is also some boilerplate on the reverse (e.g. "Only the Accutron is guaranteed 99.9977% accurate on your wrist (not just in a test laboratory).") that is the same on all these cards. The descriptions of the watches are different on each card. For example, the card for what we usually call the Accutron "Alpha" Spaceview says: "Accutron "Spaceview D" - The most unusual timepiece ever created. Transparent dial lets you see the space-age movement. 14K gold case and alligator strap. Waterproof*, shock-resistant. Also with conventional dial in 14K yellow or white gold. $200.00" The cards are contained in an envelope with the words "World's only electronic wrist timepiece" printed on it, and with an embossed tuning fork logo and the word "ACCUTRON".
I was told that these sets of cards were sent to Bulova dealers when the Accutron was first introduced. Unfortunately, neither the cards nor the envelope have a date. Other nuggets of information indicate that the Railroad Approved model is an Accutron "202". (All the watches have a three-digit designation except the Astronaut and two Spaceviews.) The movement is never mentioned, but it is obvious from the pictures that they are all 214s.
Now my question: would pictures of these cards be of value to anyone? I understand that advertisements won't be accepted unless they are dated, and understandably so. Are these cards already in the database and I'm just not aware of them? I would be happy to share them if they would be of value.
Hi Joe
These cards would indeed be of value, even if we don't have a specific date, as they show Accutron Point of Sale (POS) models/configurations. We often have a watch up for ID'ing, and we may not be sure if its an original POS model, or a one-off or marriage, or if it has been customized by the owner over time. If the watch has been modified since POS, we may never find a model name/number etc as one doesn't exist.
Having these cards, we can at minimum say "Well, we may not know the exact date, but at least we can see that Bulova advertised and sold this model configuration". We can also give a date range to the cards by the movement, and may be able to come up with dates of some cards from other ads for same models we do have on site which have dates.
So we do accept and use ads which are not dated, we just assign them a date range, and hope we are close on that range based on above.
It would be fantastic if you can share them with us. They would probably end up in the Bulova information sharing Forum, under the New ACCUTRON watch ads section, where there are also other undated ads. Admin also has a section under Information where he places high resolution information which can be downloaded or viewed by members.
Thanks so much for offering to share this great info!!
Now for mechanics of getting your high res files to Admin. If you have an FTP site, that would work. Or you could load them on your Google Drive and then set the Share permissions to include MyBulova admin, and he can download them from there in high resolution.
They sound fantastic!
Joe by all means send them our way. Things like these all add up to creating a bigger picture and whilst they may or may not be helpful by themselves they may help fill in a piece of the puzzle somewhere. Feel free to either upload them to the site or email them my way at [email protected]
Stephen
In reply to Joe by all means send them by mybulova_admin