I recently found this Bulova Accuquartz in a box in my home. The watch belonged to my grandfather. My father acquired the watch and presented it to my grandfather as a 70th birthday present. That was in 1975. My father was a physician, and he acquired the watch as a trade for services from a patient who was a jeweler. By this timeline, my father would have received a 3 year old watch, since the date stamp indicates it was made in 1972. It's possible it was new old stock that the jeweler had on hand. I remember when the watch was presented to my grandfather. He was pleased, and it told me that the watch did not tick, but it hummed and he held it up to my ear. I remember hearing the humming sound. My father died in 1983, and his father died a few years after. I think that since my father purchased the watch for him, that my grandmother gave it to my mother. My mom must have given it to me years later. I think my grandfather wore it on a flexible metal band. He was a fairly large man, and I'm not sure it the original lizard band fit his wrist. I think my dad bought him the flexible metal band that was popular at the time. The last time I looked at the watch must have been 20 years ago. I think I removed the metal band and placed the watch in a box.
I have grown fond of watches in the last 25 years or so. It started with a Tag Heuer that I bought myself in NYC with an early paycheck from my first job. I've owned several stainless steel Rolex sports watches, and mostly wear a 39 mm Explorer MkII as my daily watch.
So when I rediscovered the watch recently, I looked at it with a different perspective than the day I placed it in the box. First of all, it's stainless steel. Most of the watches that I have purchased, that spent the most time on my wrist have been stainless steel. As much as I admire other materials, I just think stainless is the best fit for me. This watch also has some nice design touches. It's got a nice cushion shape to the case. The front of the case has a sunburst brushed finish, and the sides of the case are polished. This particular model is a time only watch, just like my Explorer. Though I own and appreciate watches with more complications, I like wearing a simple watch that only tells me the time. The face of this watch fairly simple with just two lines of text. The hands and markers are straight forward, and the tritium on the hands still produce a nice lume when charged. I like the blue crescent on the 9 o'clock side of the face. I looks sky blue to me. Both my grandfather and father were aviators. The blue on the face reminds me a bit of an artificial horizon instrument, though it appears to be showing a 90 degree bank. This might have made perfect sense to my grandfather who was a barn stormer and I'm sure executed plenty of 90 degree banks in his day. So I wonder if consciously or subconsciously my father was drawn to this particular watch because he saw something similar. So seeing this watch in a new light, I went to my box of straps, and found a 20 mm grey strap that fix. I wore the watch for a few days but thought I could do better that what I had on hand, so I ordered a nice royal blue strap with a stainless steel deployant clasp. I realize the Bulova calls for a 3/4" strap, but the 20 mm strap that I had fit, so I ordered a 20 mm. The strap came, and I had to squeeze it a bit, and swap out the bars to get it installed, but I was very pleased with the result. I love the look of the watch now. It looks totally different than when my grandfather has it on his flexible metal band. The case size is on the small side of today's men's watches, but other than that, I think when people see it, they won't guess that it is a 50 year old design. To me it looks appropriate and classic. I've really enjoyed wearing it since replacing the band.
I discovered this site when researching my watch and thought it would be nice to share with this group. When I was looking for pictures of this model, I didn't see any that had this shade of sky blue. The ones I have seen, have a greyish blue crescent instead. Does anyone know if those started out a sky blue and faded over the years? I was thinking that was possible, since this watch has spent most of it's life in a dark box.
