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Bulova 1967 Accutron Railroad

4/10 votes
Model ID rating explained.
3

Manufacture Year: 

1967

Movement Model: 

214H

Movement Jewels: 

17

Movement Serial No.: 

-

Case Serial No.: 

52042

Case shape: 

Round

Case Manufacturer: 

Bulova

Crystal Details: 

33.6mm

Additional Information

1967 Swiss made Accutron / chapter ring / double hour hand, Inside the rear cover is ink stamped 316-5 & metal stamped "Swiss" inside of a "box". 

Not For Sale
1967 Bulova watch
1967 Bulova watch
1967 Bulova watch
1967 Bulova watch
1967 Bulova watch
Bulova Watch advert
Astronaut M2's picture
Astronaut M2
Posted March 23, 2018 - 7:14pm

I found the last picture at Martin Marcus's website "Accutron214.com". 

mybulova_admin
Club 5000Panel Member
Posted March 24, 2018 - 6:29am

I have to ask....why???

It looks the hands are on the same stem, so it's technically one hand, just split to have two end points, but why? 

Astronaut M2's picture
Astronaut M2
Posted March 24, 2018 - 8:46am

mybulova_admin wrote:

I have to ask....why???

It looks the hands are on the same stem, so it's technically one hand, just split to have two end points, but why? 

You are right the hands are on the same stem and I don't get it either? The only thing I can figure is there is an outer ring of black numbers and an inner ring of red numbers and when it's let's say "1 o'clock" the black "1" and the red "13" fall between the double hour hands that are black and red and depending on if it's night or day you read the time as one of the two numbers that are in between the double hour hands? It's the only thing that comes to mind?

Reverend Rob's picture
Reverend Rob
Panel Member
Posted March 24, 2018 - 11:51am

It's an interval of some kind. 5 gradations for the hour hand is one hour, so the difference is a safety buffer? I originally thought it was a 5 minute warning, but this is the hour hand. If anyone out there is a RR worker that has worked with these, maybe they can chime in. 

mybulova_admin
Club 5000Panel Member
Posted March 24, 2018 - 8:55pm

Over at 'Old Father Time' website they have a similar one. They state:

'This dual hand model was used by Rail Workers and those who frequently traveled between time zones.'

This was my first impression as it makes sense with the US's 4 main time zones.

Here are a few other non Bulova examples:

Hamilton Dual hour hand pocket watch
Hamilton dual hand pocketwatch

Dual hand railroad watch

 

Astronaut M2's picture
Astronaut M2
Posted March 24, 2018 - 9:42pm

Time zones that were always one hour apart, That makes sense because there was no jet travel to jump across time zones.

What had me confused on my watch is the outer ring of numbers is black and the inner ring is red and the hour hand is half black and half red so I was thinking that was somehow related to each other... 

Astronaut M2's picture
Astronaut M2
Posted March 24, 2018 - 11:17pm

Over at 'Old Father Time' website they also have an astronaut described as "Bulova Accutron 214 ASTRONAUT Dress Dial" which as far as I can tell that "dress dial" is in fact for a day/night astronaut, I think but never say never with Bulova. lol