Back in the 1960s – in the heyday of the quartz watch era – one brand reigned supreme; Bulova and it’s highly-technical Accutron.
It looked fantastic, told perfect time, and in a world now obsessed with technology (thanks to the rise of colour television and the Space Race) became a regular fixture on the wrists of well-to-do gentleman.
Fast forward about 20 years, and quartz watches are a little less popular. But a brand such as Belova has so much heritage behind it, that Citizen Group picked up the brand and is now releasing its most popular watch line as a standalone brand.
It has just unveiled its Spaceview 2020; a fantastic nod to the original quartz watch that proved so popluar back in the 1960s.
Here’s seven reasons why the Accutron Spaceview 2020 is the ultimate geek watch:
- The original creator of the Accutron was Bulova, which was one of the first brands to use electricity to tell the time. The original 1960s model used tiny tuning forks (which you can still see in part of the brand’s logo today.
- Bulova’s technology made it pretty much the ‘Apple’ of the watch world. Its products became wildly popular and made enough of an impact in culture that even today period films and series (such as HBO’s Mad Men) regularly put the watch on its leading men.
- The original Accutron was all about its highly technical movement; hence its designers wanted the wear to be able to appreciate as much of it as possible. In doing so, Bulova may have accidentally made skeleton watches popular (a trend that continues to this day).
- The Accutron doesn’t actually have a tick of a mechanical movement. The original had a constant and high-pitched whine that provided the seconds hand its smooth, sweeping movement.
- As Quartz technology became less than popular, Citizen bought Bulova in 2008. As of now, it has established Accutron as its very own brand.
- The new 2020 Accutron Spaceview isn’t a retro-inspired nod to the past. Instead, it makes use of new micro-electronic turbines to help tell the time. By using an entirely new type of technological timekeeping, in many ways the Spaceview is the ultimate celebration of the original quartz timepiece.
- The Accutron Spaceview comes with a skeleton black or green dial. It rocks a sapphire crystal front, along with a 43.50 millimetre stainless steel case.
The Accutron Spaceview 2020 is available right now. It costs US$3,000 for the regular skeleton version with a black dial, and US$4,000 for its special Heritage DNA model.
Esquire now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit ‘Like’ on our Esquire Facebook page and ‘Follow’ on our @esquiremiddleeast Instagram and Twitter account.
