I usually had a Timex. It would be reliable, and tell me the time for five or six years, until I wanted a new, unscratched one. But usually just one at a time.
Somewhere in the mid-eighties I won a watch. A jewellery store was having a promotion where if you added the numbers in your birthday, and it totalled the price of a watch in the window, you won that watch. I added the numbers in my birthday--23 + 6 + 55 = 84, and sure enough, there was an $84 watch in the window. I thought it couldn't possibly be that easy, I went into the store, showed my driver's licence, and they gave me the watch. I tried the birthdays of my wife, my family, her family, heck, everybody whose birthday I knew, and nobody else won a watch. Anyway, eighty-four dollars was way, way more than I would have ever spent on a watch in my life, but I didn't have to pay for it. I still have it today. It's a Lorus, with an analogue dial and an electronic day/date/alarm and time. It requires two batteries that have to be put in by a jeweller so it will go for years, not working, and eventually I have it serviced and it works again for a couple of years.
When we're at the mall Victoria gravitates towards the jewellery stores and department, and watches. So I started looking too, and decided I really liked the look of Bulova watches. And they're reasonably affordable, at least compared to the Rolexes that my daughter is looking at. I guess she heard me admire a couple, and guess what I got for Christmas? Yep, a Bulova watch.
A few months later I was on eBay, and happened to punch in Bulova. OMG, hundreds of watches for sale, everything from a few bucks to thousands. I browsed for hours, and put in some bids.
First one I got was a 1951 Academy Award model. After doing my history I discovered that in 1950 Bulova signed a deal with AMPAS (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science), licensing the name and images of the Oscars for a line of watches. Two years later AMPAS took them to court, saying the ads made it look too much like Bulova had "won" an Academy Award, and the licence was taken away. So there's a lot of them out there, but not as many as there should be. I paid $60 for it, and it keeps perfect time, as long as you keep it wound up.
Man, men's watches were SO MUCH SMALLER in the 50's. When I'm wearing it, and go to the jewellery counter, it's pretty much the same size as the modern women's watches. Women's watches, in those days, were TINY!
The next one I got was a self-winding watch from 1966. It came with the cheapest strap I have ever seen in my life--I swear it comes from the dollar store. It wouldn't have lasted a week, so I went to the mall to have a real strap put on. While I was at it, I got a metal strap for the Academy Award model, so it looks more like it would have when it was new. It's pretty inaccurate--it'll gain a minute every hour, then suddenly start losing minutes instead. It's a little hard to trust. I could probably take it to Bulova and have it serviced, cleaned, oiled--whatever they do to old watches. But I only paid $29 for it so I'm not sure how much I want to invest in it.
Besides, I want an Accutron now. One of the original ones with the tuning fork in it. In 1960 Bulova put a tuning fork, and a bunch of electronics inside their Accutron watch. The world's most accurate watch, they were manufactured until 1977. A few years earlier another company discovered that quartz was just about as accurate, and a heck of a lot cheaper to manufacture. Bulova eventually started using quartz as well, and the tuning fork was gone. If you put a working 1960 - 1977 Accutron to your ear, you don't hear ticking, you hear the hum of the tuning fork.
I've got one on the way. Unfortunately it is not working. Original tuning fork Accutrons go for stupid money on eBay. The exceptions are ones that need repair, are ugly, or have company names or engraving on them. The one I got says it is not running, and it needs a new battery. I am assuming that, if I put a new battery in it, then it will run. I hope. This one is coming from Knoxville, Tennessee, via Nashville and today, apparently is in Miami. Interesting route to Canada, if you ask me. Anyway, it's a nice looking watch and I hope it works when it gets here. $70.
I gotta stop now. I really don't have the money to have a huge watch collection. But I'll probably check every once in a while and see what's available and, who knows, I may buy more in the future!
Hmm. Bulova also makes wall clocks. And my kitchen clock is a... Sterling & Noble? Who are they?
Michael.
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