1971 Bulova Accutron Spaceview 214

[ManSkirtBrew]

Just got this guy from the eBay. Purchased as "for repair." First thing I notice is the contact spring in the battery hatch is missing. My dad recently asked me to repair his non-running Spaceview and it turned out that was the entire problem with his, so I put the world's tiniest ball of tin foil in there and what do you know.

Looks like a good service is all it needs!

 

One more quick note: according to the list from myBulova, this is a factory Spaceview. Nice!

Edited October 2, 2023 by ManSkirtBrew
Pressed the wrong button

[ManSkirtBrew]

While cleaning up the case, I polished out the crystal, then gave it a wipe with a paper towel.

And that's how I learned that despite being on the inside of the crystal, the Accutron logo wipes right off with a little soap and water I should have been more careful, but live and learn.

I'm not too heartbroken, as the crystal has some pretty bad cracks and deep scratches, and I was planning to replace it anyway.

I have to say, I still love the results of a quick polish on the wheel with red rouge. Here's a before and after of two Accutron crystals. This was all of 5 minutes' work.

Cleaned up and back together. Unfortunately, the lugs measure 17,mm, while all the straps I have are 18mm.

I have a suspicion this watch was treated roughly and the lugs may be bent, but I'm not brave enough to try bending them back.

[ManSkirtBrew]

When I was buying straps for the Oberon I recently refurbished, I got a 1-piece black leather strap, but it didn't work with the chunky Oberon case.

Turns out it fits between the lugs of the Spaceview and looks pretty sweet.

What I'd really like is a rally style strap, but they're impossible to find in 17mm.

I also noticed the watch is gaining 20-30 minutes a day. So I'll have to address that at some point.

[wudce]

Got say I never seen one of them before very interesting and good luck getting the rate down.

[nickelsilver]

The 218 can pretty much always be phased to work with 1.55v batteries, but the 214 is trickier. Some of the forks just have too much amplitude and no amount of adjusting will keep it from picking up extra teeth. There, the old solution was to change the fork, but those days are long gone. Now there are reduced voltage batteries with a tiny added circuit to bring the voltage down to the original 1.35v. Accucell   There's a little drop in run time since the battery itself is smaller than original to accommodate the circuit. You don't want to use a zinc-air 1.35v cell, these vent and I don't remember the specifics but they aren't good for watches.

[markr]

Thanks for the hint on not washing the inside of the crystal.  I have one coming and might have ruined it.

[markr]

I found a display case at a yard sale for $30.  He said he would call me if he ever found the watch.

Plastic is clear the lighting makes it look pink.

[ManSkirtBrew]

The watch wasn't keeping time well. It hums, but I noticed the second hand hanging up and it looked like the second hand was hitting the inside of the crystal. I opened it up and sure enough the second hand is sitting at a weird angle. It looks like it worked its way up off the center pivot.

 

So a question for those experienced with the 214:

On the 218/219 you can engage the hack to make it less likely to hurt the index wheel by inadvertently turning the hands during installation. Is there anything I should do on the 214 other than be extra careful? This is not the railroad approved version so I don't think there's a hack, but I'm still very new to 214s so I figured I'd ask.

The repair manual helpfully suggests:

Edited April 11 by ManSkirtBrew
Typing is hard

[HectorLooi]

If you really want to be careful, turn both the index and pawl fingers away from the jndex wheel, then fit on the second hand. Now it'll be absolutely safe to adjust the second hand to clear the minute hand and the crystal.

Then comes the painful part of phasing the watch again. 

[ManSkirtBrew]

1 hour ago, HectorLooi said:

Then comes the painful part of phasing the watch again.

hah the part I was hoping to avoid

[ManSkirtBrew]

I EXTREMELY carefully pressed the seconds hand firmly back on, so fingers crossed.

While I had it apart, I took the opportunity to press the Spaceview crystal back in, and I have a vintage Caravelle rally strap on its way to me.

I do not get tired of how beautiful this watch is.

[ManSkirtBrew]

Just to wrap it up, here are some shots with that vintage Caravelle strap.