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...I think calling it a collection would be a bit much... Here are some of the watches I am currently calling my "collection" (if you insist)... My fathers Bulova Accutron Railroad Approved...unlike a lot of these floating around, this one actually lived a hard life on a real, live railroad (he retired after 36 years on first the Southern Railway, then Norfolk-Southern Railway...He retired in 1993, IIRC). The crystal is missing...where would be a good place to get a replacement? As I related in my intro post, my dad's original railroad watch was a Hamilton 992B that was stolen from his lunchbox by a short-lived employee...he always said he had intended to leave that watch to me one day, and he would occasionally curse the fellow's name...I think after the Accutron gave it up, he wore a couple of Seiko Railroad Approved watches, and by then, the railroad quit caring watch you wore and he just ran assorted quartz junk until he retired. My dad passed last November, age 81. I had a Seiko Railroad Approved that I purchased myself for awhile...it may or may not have survived the trip it took through the washing machine...we will never know...because the subsequent trip through the clothes dryer, it most certainly did NOT survive..I was picking watch bits out of my underwear for a week... The watch that I have personally had possession of the longest...my uncle Lloyd's Bulova A-11 that he was issued in World War 2...he flew B-17s out of southern England, and fortunately, arrived on the scene late enough (around February of '45) that he didn't have to deal with the Luftwaffe too much. Aside from one harrowing day over Schweinfurt, he had a fairly easy time of it, and spent much of the middle of 1945 dropping food on starving civilians rather than high explosives on German factories. The only casualty on his tour was the base fire truck, which he (the story goes) stole while intoxicated on V-E Day and crashed it into a fountain in town...the deal struck: while everybody else got to go home, he had to stay flying VIPs and food around occupied Europe until December. As plan B was a court martial, he eagerly accepted... And this was the same uncle's Longines, as seen in the intro post, Im guessing 1940s-50s vintage...it is of rather small calibere, about the same as the Bulova he was issued during the war. Lovely watch, only loses about five seconds a day...I was told it was worth something on the order of $275-300, owing to its small calibere, and was quoted about the same to have it CLAed...it sits until I either gather up the money or the expertise to have it done. Some quartz cheapies from my dad and my wife's Pulsar, all in need of batteries... Another pair of what I believe to be cheapies, an Accro and an Orvis, probably from my grandfather, circa 1920s-30s... And now, some Russian Vostoks...this one was apparently imported in the '90s badged as a Cardi Vostok... A Kommanderske and a man's dress watch, which may become one my everyday wearers...I just like the looks of it... And now, a few more Vostoks that I was too lazy to take my own pics of, so these came from eBay... A "rare" Cornavin Olympic commemorative, with Vostok movement, for the princely sum of $.99 delivered from Ukraine... Just another Kommanderske... And, I have more of these things on order than I care to admit, either as complete watches or as stripped movements...I mean, I went a bit nuts there last month, and while most of the stuff out of Ukraine has arrived, the stuff from Russia is just now starting to show up... :-/ Anyway, I hope this has provided some amusement... >>>BULLET>>> AKA -Tom

(sunny it is, even in February, though its a bit chilly this AM, just under 0 centigrade...) Hi, I am Tom, and I live in South Carolina, USA, and after years of dabbling about with watches, the bug has finally bit in earnest. By background, I have been many things...I worked in the printing industry to start with, then went back and got degrees in business education, then I taught US History at the high school level for a few years, and have worked mostly as an IT person since then. Now, I run my own little IT consulting business and do work mostly for private non-profit organizations here in the state capitol, Columbia. Interspersed with all of that, I also worked as a licensed gunsmith specializing in centerfire long range target rifles and was a competitive shooter, and became a pretty fair machinist, doing a lot of custom barrel and chambering work. I will probably be cranking that operation back up fairly soon... The watch thing started with two watches I inherited from my uncle via my father...the first was his Bulova A-11 that was issued to him back in World War 2, when he flew B-17s out of England. I got this one perhaps 25 years ago and had it professionally serviced at the time. I will probably go into it for another service sometimes soon when I get better at this stuff. Then, just this year, from my fathers estate I received my uncles 1940s vintage Longens, a simply beautiful old watch. I also have my father's Bulova Accutron Railroad Approved (he was a railroad man for 36 years) that is due for a major overhaul...alas, his Hamilton 992B was stolen by a disreputable coworker on the job, which lead to his buying the Accutron in the early '70s... So, now I want to learn to work on these things, and being fairly methodical about this sort of operation, decided to standardise on just a few movements at first, ones that I can get plenty of cheap parts and donors to go with. Owning and liking several of the Vostok Amphibias and Kommanderskes, and spying that I can get a seemingly limitless supply of parts and scrap movements out of Russia and the Ukraine on eBay, I bought up a basic set of tools, some fifty 2409, 2416, 2209 and 2214 movements out of Kiev for about $1.50 each, and started buying up Vostok watches in various states of disrepair to match. I am not much of a watchmaker at this point, but I am having fun! Thanks; -Tom

Thanks Timothy , About 3 weeks ago this same swap meet vender pulled a baggie out of a bag he had and showed me 3 watches and 1 pocket-watch he had . He quoted $120 for all four . The pocket-watch was beat-up and I don't collect them any way , one watch looked OK , but it was a quartz and I wasn't interested . I asked how much for the other 2 . One was an accutron 218 not running and one was a Vintage Seiko Sportsman . Running , but dirty , the case and crystal were scratched , the stem and crown came out and the crown was so worn you couldn't use it to wind the watch anyway . I picked up the 2 watches for $40 . The accutron will need some work so I put it away for later . I took the Seiko apart and cleaned and serviced it . The yoke had come off of the clutch so you couldn't get the stem in properly . I polished the crystal and lightly polished the case and case back . I have an assortment of vintage crowns so I got one that fit the stem and had to file down a tube on the case and a bit of the bottom of the crown to make it fit and work . I installed a nice NOS Lizard Leather watchband I got a few weeks ago . I went back to the swap meet a week later and showed the vender the watch . He couldn't believe it was the same watch . especially the new crown . He said he was glad that someone could bring it back to life again and make it look good .

What about this one. http://www.watchalyzer.com/bulova-accutron-watches/gemini/bulova-accutron-gemini-gmt-watch/

Hello Stuart, A lot of the Accutron PDFs refer to two major oils, OL207 which is now Moebius 8201 and OL219 which is now Moebius 9020. Which model Accutron are you going to repair. Cheers, Vic

My worst nightmare keyless works fix is on an Accutron 2182 day date. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Hi Joe , glad to here that you put your studies first , and working on watches is a good way to relax your mind and body . I have the cousin to your Bulova Oceanographer 666 diver ,.....An Accutron Deep Sea 666 diver I had picked up at the swapmeet . It looked good when I got it but found out when I opened it up that the movement was incomplete and the winder for the inner rotating bezel was stuck ....looked like rust but was happy to find out that the winder gear was made of brass. So some ultra sonic cleaning and both baking soda and also vinegar treatments freed everything up . I bought some donor Accutron parts and that puppy is working good now. This watch was my introduction to Accutrons .

One of our problems for this discussion is the name Accutron. To us it has a very clear definition of mechanical tuning fork watches. The Bulova later on it was something nifty to put on the dials of quartz watches. They could use it on the grounds that the quartz crystal was in a tuning fork shape. So I've had people asked me about their tuning fork watch and have to explain that it's not a real tuning fork watch even if Bulova claimed it was. Then the website below the entire website is very interesting the page that I have below as something you probably haven't seen before. http://www.decadecounter.com/accutron/clones.htm

Parts on sale on the Bay and I have posted the PDF covering the repair Vintage ORIGINAL Bulova Accutron 2185 Part 648 Hour Setting Stem Pair w/ Info Bulova-Accutron-2185- Pages 58 to 71 Supplement for Hour and Date Settings Manual.pdf though you will still need to get a button. Good luck, Cheers, Vic

Camera books? I have a few, and on old watches, and electronic (like accutron) BUT, " I hate electronics". cheers, vin

Aloha Vic , lowcountry and All . I have started studying the Accutron tech manual for the 218 movements...there's a lot of ground to cover . I have a movement that I just received and the fork hums ,but the gears do not continuously spin when I push in the crown to the run position . The index wheel does start but stops every time I pull the crown out and back in . I checked the troubleshooting section and it states that the index wheel may be dirty . But , I played very sightly with positioning the crown and there's a place where the gears all turn as normal . that position is neither in or out of the setting or run positions . I also read that there is a hack adjustment on page 20 . SO , I think that I need to either adjust the hack , or [God I hope not ,...not yet anyway ] , replace the hack . I am also thinking that the pilot part of the stem that engages the hack may be worn ...or too long . I do have a couple of new accutron stems coming my way and hope that they are for the 218's . What comes after step #2 ? My pdf jumps from page to page.... Can anyone please give me your thoughts and input on the hack adjustment ? ......... Thanks , Louis

I went to the clock & watch fair at the Motorcycle Museum in Solihull on 12/7 and enjoyed an extended walk around. My impressions are that some of the stall holders had lost touch with reality on their pricing. I would have thought that they would of at least matched the prices on the Bay but I found only two watch stalls where the pricing was what could be described,in my opinion, as fair. One guy was trying to sell 3 accutron 218x movements for £25.00 each but could not say whether the coils were working or not and on one the battery strap and screw with insulator were gone. He confessed he did not know much about them but thought the price was fair for parts. I passed on that one, the coils were a big question for me and I would have needed to test them plus whether the fork was still magnetic and again the index wheel and pawl fingers would need inspection with a scope - too many ifs and buts and not enough guarantee for a £75.00 shot to nothing, if he had wanted £35 for the three I may have had a punt. Another had a spaceview conversion (poorly defined chapter markings on glass) for which he wanted £300 and guess what, it was not working ! I did see a nice Favre Leuba (twin barrel) and 9ct gold Marvin but resisted. It looked like I was just going to leave empty handed but saw one stall with two big piles of watches and asked the guy how he came by them and they were apparently from an auction. They appeared to be so called designer watches mainly quartz but he said there were wind up watches in the lot. The price being £10.00 a watch. I scoured around looking for old leather straps first then screw on backs and older styled crowns but was finding nothing of great interest. Finally I found a watch that ticked the boxes, old smelly leather strap, dirty case, dome head crown and screw back. The case is filthy but no dings or deep scratches. The glass is a mess and cracked but the dial appears ok so I asked for his best price and he said £8.00 so I got it. Really I just wanted to get something I suppose. Not an astounding watch but really clean inside though the movement looks a bit mass produced. The pic makes the screw heads look a bit chewed but that is just the shading / lighting as they are all untouched and I doubt whether the back has been off. It is working and the date moves over without problem. I had hoped it would be a Bulova Caravelle but now have doubts though the Accutron Back remover (L) fits perfectly. The gasket is still sound and I like the Crown. It will go in the queue for total clean and service. If anyone recognises the actual movement it would be nice to know. The glass may be a problem but as I am taking it off anyway I should be able to size it, quite a high dome with a magnifyer looking like it is stuck on the underside. Cheers, Vic

Whew!!....I got the humming accutron going again by following the advice I found on an accutron blog ..."Give it a gentle rap on the side at the 3 or 9 O'clock position to help the capacitor get the movement going "...That's it ,I'm not going to mess around with that watch again . One thing I've found to be true with 3 accutrons I worked on this last 2 weeks is to follow the tech manuals advice [ or admonition ] , to remove the stem and crown in the pulled out setting position . And VERY carefully replace the stem in that position....DO NOT push the stem in past that point to reinstall it . I disengaged the yoke from the clutch groove 3 times and had to dissemble the calendar works each time to fix that problem . These use a screw type setting lever . The hacking affects some very tiny index and pawl jewels . I just ordered an electronic microscope [ from China ] to see them so I can adjust them .....I hope .

Aloha All , Well the good news is that I finally got my swap-meet Bulova Accutron 2182 Deep Sea watch working and keeping good time . The other good news is that Man , did I learn a lot about Accutron movements using my original broken movement , 2 donor movements ,....1 working and 1 spare for another project to get it working , 2 pdf tech manuals...1 downloaded from some watch forum and 1 purchased on Ebay and downloaded , and Youtube videos . After getting the stem off and removing the movement I was able to press out the hefty acrylic crystal . The inner rotating brass bezel came out easily and cleaned up well . The crown and gear that turned the bezel was frozen in place with crud and a little rust . I kept it covered with penetrating oil for a few days with no results . Then I used some paste made of Alum and hot water for about 12 hours...I kept adding drops of hot water every few hours as the paste started to dry out . After putting the movement in my ultra sonic cleaner after the Alum , the gear and crown started to wiggle a bit . Next I soaked the gear in vinegar for about 12 hours and the gear and crown finally started to turn freely . I next installed the working donor movement , but either the crown and stem would not stay in , or the calendar would not work correctly . The coils on the tuning fork are magnetized and every tiny screw and spring would be drawn to the coils . If a part pinged off , especially the springs for the calendar indents ,....check the coils and 50% of the time they would be stuck there . I decided to put the project to rest for about a week and started to study the tech manuals I downloaded , I finally took the project watch out again and very meticulously lubed and installed the setting mechanism and calendar works using the tech manual as my guide . installed the movement into the case with the crystal and rotating bezel , and BINGO , it all came together....at last . I've attached a few pics showing various parts of the watch....

Very cool indeed! My only concern is that's it's electronic; and being such, there's the problem with the circuit and coils issues ... how on earth would you ever get replacements :huh: This is the sad truth of quartz, they are an item with a finite life span; and not heirloom items :( Possibility the only exception to this would be the Accutron movement, as they appear to be point-to-point component, instead of surface mount circuit boards. But since I have never owned a Accutron, nor seen one dismantled, I could be wrong.

As much as I hate to admit it ,....I got the fever and picked up this working Accutron. As I was searching Accutrons lately . since my swap-meet find , I was surprised how these watches seem to hold there value ,...working or not . After saying all that , I'm through with Accutron purchases .....Honest .

I think this movement are very hard to work on . If you don't have very much experience in this tuning fork movements ? I don't have any Accutron watches but i have a few Omega F300 watches .Which are similar movements . They have some very small index wheels with very very small teeth on . With a diameter of 1 cm they have over 300 small teeth . If you brake one of this teeth the watch won't work . I send all my F300 and some Esa 9150 watches to http://electric-watches.co.uk/. You can read a lot about the different movements also . I would like to own a Bulova accutron some time in the future .

No idea about the 10 1/2 F either unless it's the size in ligne that the dial fits. Something on the order of 23.68 mm. Sadly, you're probably correct about the need to hide the Jewish identity of the recipient. Bulova was at one time a US manufacturer that utilized Swiss movements. Currently the brand is owned by Citizen Watch of Japan and split into two lines. Bulova which utilizes Japanese movements and Bulova Accu-Swiss which was formerly known as Bulova Accutron. The Accu-Swiss line is supposedly Swiss made.

id like to find a cheep mvt. for my collection of emty accutron cases. vin

Hi All I've an 11 jewel 1879 Waltham pocket watch with very old and pitted jewels, particularly 4th and escape wheel. They've caused a bit of uneven wear on the pivots so I'm getting wavey traces on the timegrapher. I've polished the pivots and this has improved the situation a fair bit, but would really like to replace the old jewels. Now, as they are held in chatons, is there any way of purchasing replacement jewels complete in the chatons? I had assumed since Waltham made bajillions of watches that spares for the jewels in chatons would be simple to find, but I'm buggered if I can! Am just I going to have to try and put replacement jewels in the existing chatons? I'm just a hobbyist, but am a bit of a perfectionist so would like to get the watch running as well as I can. She's a lovely heavy size 18. Next watch I'm on to is an accutron space view... A bit of a different beast! Cheers in advance guys.

I was trawling the net and found this lot for sale:- A pre 1970 Bulova Accutron gentleman's battery operated wristwatch, circular champagne dial with date aperture, on an expandable bracelet, a Rotary gentleman's gold plated wristwatch, circa 2002, the rectangular dial bearing Roman numerals, both boxed with certification a Ronson lighter, and a compact. (4) Est £60 - 80. Now the question will be will the gamble pay off as the charges from the saleroom plus postage go on top. I decided to have a punt at the lower end and got the lot for £60, plus charges and post brings it to £88.80. However both watches come with boxes and certification. The Accutron easily covers the total charge ( if I can bear to part with it ) and the Rotary does not look too bad which is a bonus. I am banking on the fact that the owner kept the Boxes and certification as someone that does take that sort of care may have looked after their watches. I remember my father having one of those lighters which were really common in the day but heaven knows what I will do with a womans compact - hold back on the comments George. Off to hospital shortly today for my pacemaker replacement op, as a bit like the Accutrons my battery has died - hope i don't need rephasing :D , but on my return I will eagerly await my parcel. Cheers, Vic

Hi , ..Nice Hamilton . Looks like my X-Wind . As far as the Accutron running fast , you are talking about phasing the watch to run on higher voltage batteries . At 1.5 instead of 1.3 volts . You may want to try an accu-cell made for this . You can try one ,...as they are more expensive , to see the outcome .

I just got one of those Accutron astronauts as well and I love it. It runs a little fast, but I understand that it just means it needs to be adjusted for the higher voltage off modern batteries. Maybe I'll find someone to do that this spring. This is my current daily though: Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

could i be just a sales pitch? much like the railroad watches, designated RR on the case,BUT not certified.? accutron soled a wrist watch with it on the dial. vin

Given at least some similarity to the Accutron, I wonder if someone who works primarily on those would be willing to take this one? Oldfathertime.com and accutrons.com are the two places I know of. Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk