The amazing Bulova Accutron watch filmed in microscopic slow motion
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2017
- I recently brought this old Accutron back to life after sitting in a box for yearly 40 years. This is quite an interesting watch and I am told it was quite the rage to own one of these since it was so "space age". The Accutron movement was also used in satellites, as clocks for the Apollo space program, and were worn by X-15 pilots. You can't get much cooler than that. This 1972 watch was my father's and he probably wore it a year or two - until the battery died and then stuck it in a drawer.
The "starting" price of an Accutron in 1960 was $125 (over $1000 in today's money)
Music information:
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Chronos high speed camera website:
www.krontech.ca/
Source of most of the factoids in this video:
members.iinet.net.au/~fotoplot...
Did you find the "Easter Egg of Wrongness?"
0:10 "21st century" (should be 20th century)
er... 20th century, but who notices our blatant errors? lol
I noticed. But you corrected quickly. ;-)
Ignore critics ,it seems that nobody can even make a slip of the tongue without someone jumping all over them . that monor error does not detract from the marvel of the video.
my eye twitched when you said that lol
I erased all my watch puns because by the time I got to the 3rd one I threw up in my mouth from the cringe.
This could be a great series of videos. "Amazing engineering" or something like that. Lots of interest for these types of videos. Do it Jeff....do it.
TAOFLEDERMAUS the magnifying Glass turns a telephoto lens into a Macro lens , I’ve done it myself .
My grandfather was given a gold Bulova Acutron by his employer, General Motors, on the 25th anniversary of his employment. That was in 1973. He wore the watch for over 30 years, replacing the battery whenever it stopped keeping time, until one day, 5 years ago, a jeweler broke it... Papa kept the watch in a drawer as a keepsake, despite it not being functional.
My Papa is no longer with me, he passed away in 2016.
Today I picked up his watch from my watchmaker, who happened, out of sheer luck, to be one of the last graduates of the Bulova school of watchmaking. It's like new.
The watch isn't worth much money, a few hundred dollars at best, and it's not especially fashionable. It is a horological oddity, this tuning fork movement, a relic of the past... not a mechanical swiss masterpiece, and it isn't going up in value... but it was His watch... and now here it is, humming away with that faint tuningfork buzz, on my wrist... It is my most cherished possession, and my all-time favorite watch.
I imagine that one of the most worrying thing for owning an Accutron is that if somehow the escapement broke, there's no place to buy the parts, and no watchmaker trained to repair it.
I'd be pissed if some watchmaker ruined it..
But it's amazing for how long it worked, that mechanism really was built to last for such a length of time.
@@maxie4937 Gotta find " that watchmaker " who has a passion specifically for these and has quite a stock of parts.
I happen to know one in my city, he is into the electronic/electrical watches from the 60s and 70s in general.
It's the kind of people you want to know even before buying a watch like that.
Amazing story! Oddly similar to mine - I have a 1974 Model 22505 Accutron that my grandfather got when he retired from Babcock and Wilcox. I ended up with it when he passed in the early 90s and managed to hang onto it. After researching the Accutron, I'm even more glad I have it. Hopefully I can find someone to get it working again for me.
@@wes11bravo, Orlando Watch Company in Winter Park Florida can work on it.
That micro toothed gear is unbelievable
The only clue we have is the gears were cut in stacks- many were cut at the same time.
Whatever metal they use to make it, they probably machined a rod of it, then cut it razor thin.
Hmm, sounds like broaching maybe. A stack would respond really well to that, and machining such small features consistently on a stack with and rotary cutter would be basically impossible even today. My money's on some whizbang super exotic alloy broach made to insane tolerances. Cut a thousand of them at once.
I can think of some ways how to do that, but that precise work drives me crazy even thinking about it :D
Probably used lasers to cut the teeth.
What's more amazing is you knowing all that info on this watch . How on earth they made that little tiny lever . That's crazy .
Edwin Sarkissian Probably lasers
TheTeehee11111 not sure if they had that technology then
Edwin Sarkissian the aliens did
well, currently the cutting edge of miniaturisation is in IC's, like CPU's, and given this has a transistor in it, I bet the method of making the gears was similar in principle, even now the most we can mass manufacture is between 12nm and 10nm, with 16nm and 14nm being the most popular.
Finaly, the Giorgio Tsoukalos's fake account. Found it!
It's weird how the greatest technical achievement of the 21st century happened during the 20th century
***** makes sense
titaniumlibra nano robots are existing, they can heal almost everything and do everything ;-)
WaschyNumber1 not yet but we are close to that break through. We do have nano scale medication that is mechanically inert.
Joseph Ferguson the break true is not in before use it is beyond that longer that you believe it.
Ain't you ever herd of a time musheen.
The index wheels were stacked and hobbed, the hobbing machine was very large and was
similar to a 1 to N reducing arm such as was used in a New Hermes engraving machine, the information is known and is in the public domain and has been for many years although the actual device is rumored to have been destroyed at the order of Bulova some time after the end of production. Almost a predecessor to the DaVinci surgical robot without the computer and servo system. There is no secret as to how the pawl jewels were manufactured! Also the transistors were hand assembled Germanium point contact devices made by ATT or P.R. Mallory in the first model 214 as I recall. There are something like a dozen of these movements in residence on the moon. Great work with the high speed and the magnification! Hope the info is useful.
Not saying it was aliens... BUT IT WAS ALIENS!!!
alien engineering from a human planet
Undocumented immigrants
Borat O'Bomba, non-muslim immigrant from Bohemia (Czech Republic)
revtune probably though lol
I used to fix this tipe of watches and went to the North Seattle University to study how to fix all the movements . I still have one like the 218 and still working since 1977.
In my last life, I was a field service technician. I used to have an account on the east coast that was a high end watch maker with a vault just for the jewels added to the watches. In one room were long benches and skilled tradesmen assembling the watches by hand. using micro sized files and tweezers.I would just stand there for what felt like hours watching them build. Such talent. But I didn't see any aliens. They were probably just the engineers.
Once had an engineer tell me that the indexing jewel is what cut the teeth.
The wheel is heated to a temp where it starts to get soft.
The indexing jewel pushes against the wheel, making a toothy impression.
Bump the index jewel again, another tooth, next thing you know, teeth all around.
Micro-scale forging.
Then again, he had no idea how the jewels were made/affixed.
Fun tech.
BTW,
I bought one of these in the late 60's because my job required precise timing on a electronic military device. It was accurate enough that I really did not need to listen to every time signal that was transmitted from the bureau of standards time clock. Thanks for giving us fans of this watch an inside look. By the way it cost me about a third of a months pay to buy it.
My Dad has one of these.
I'm so impressed with it.
The cool thing is the noise it makes.
It doesn't tick.
It hums.
SO cool.
Luv and Peace.
My Dad got one of those in the late 60's as I recall, good watch, the humming sound was very unique. He wore it til he died in 1976.
i am watchmaker, i was working at official seiko service, few wears ago...we reapair al kind of watches, quartz, mechanical, digital.... but this is mindblow! also for me, one of craziest watches was Quartz tissot with som kind of electro mechanical compass made inside stanlies steel shell. That watch is made for mr. mrs. smith mowie some years ago.
I prefer mechanical watches over battery powered watches. (I hate changing batteries) I collect Benrus jump hour watches from the 50's.
I've had a Speedmaster Professional on my wrist for a dozen years now, my only Swiss watch. I started out with Japanese mechanicals because they are often affordable and I particularly like Seiko mechanical dive watches.
Awesome video, thank you.
TAOFLEDERMAUS I've been wanting to get my hands on an old mechanical pocket watch, I love how they work.
It's a Tissot T-Touch. It wasn't made for the movie. It's called product placement - advertisement. In Tomb Raider, another movie with Angelina Jolie, she wore the same watch but in a different color scheme.
It's a very precise watch, called a chronometer. Mine is only about 3s off in a year.
I collect Accutrons and have 8 that work and 6 that stopped working because people put modern batteries in them all modern watches run on 1.5 volts or 3 volts but the Accutron runs on 1.35 volts so a modern watch battery will fry it , when I was younger and got my first "Space View" my hearing was much better and it would drive me nuts with the ringing ( squeal ) it would make I could find it anyplace in the house just from the noise it would make ( they all have a tuning fork inside ) , not my hearing is shot and they don't tick but also they stopped bothering me . I love the sweep of the second hand no one second jerk but a smooth movement . They are one awesome watch , I collect rare old watches and Accutrons are at the top of my favorite watches ( they also made a desk clock ) . Great video , Thank you . 2 thumbs up
hats off to the guy that made this.. ive always loved small things.. the smaller and more working parts the better.. the swiss mini gun is amazing i want one so bad but theyre banned in the u.s. for being so small i guess.. but it was made by a watch maker. i should try something like that.
When the 214 and 218 movement was introduced, Bulova held regional schools to teach watchmakers how to repair them. The excellent microscope, as part of the tool kit, made all the difference. Without it, it's impossible to properly adjust the index and pawl jewels.
I missed this the first time around. Incredible. Awesome vid
thanks!
Truly amazing, especially since those tiny index wheels were made in the 1960's.
I... didn't expect to have my mind blown by an old watch... but it's definitely a mind blow.
Very cool! You should start a series
Don't even get him started, the Patreon demands would be astronomical for even a "low-end" Rolex, LOL!
+shotgunfetus Agree!!
I second that! (No pun intended) More! More!
This was amazing. Both the presentation and the explanation. I had no idea this type of technology even existed. Thank you!
thank you!
Thanks for the nice reminder. This was my dad's watch (I still have it) and I grew up intrigued by the noise, but it drifted out of my mind over the 37 years since he passed away, until this morning.
I have 3 of these watches .They all have the open face design.My father( who worked at the Kennedy Space Center at the time) bought one of these in the early 1960's .I still have it.
Not at all what I expected when I clicked on it. Thanks for taking the time to make this! I've seen a few things about this watch before but never a slow motion video of it in action. Thanks man!!
I've seen a few good videos just showing the index wheel zipping along, filmed using a microscope.
Such a curious sound it makes and what a nifty mechanism!
You can feel the vibration when you hold the watch. It isn't TOO loud.
TAOFLEDERMAUS shoot bluetack out of the 12 gauge
I'm wearing one right now. As you said you really don't notice the sound, but if you take the watch off at night and put it say on a bedside table you can hear it vibrating the table when the room is quiet.
TAOFLEDERMAUS so that whine isn't noticeable off the video? That's good. Found it really annoying.
Watching this in 2024 wearing my 1965 Accutron, what a wonderful video, makes me like the watch even more.
thanks Adam
Grandpa bought one as soon as they hit the market. Listening to the tuning fork was fascinating.
That was a really cool video! You should make more videos like this one where you just talk about random cool things that have intricate parts! Favorite channel on TH-cam for sure!
man that was sick as, what a piece of engineering
thanks Jacob!
thank you so much for appreciating this work of art. As an aspiring watchmaker it always makes me extremely happy to see other people interested in such amazing movements such as this one. This is one of my dream watches.
I owned one back in the 60s. It made a very soft humming sound. I still have it, although I stopped wearing it long ago. While going through a closet, I found it and took it to a jeweler for inspection. Of course, the battery was dead. He put a new battery in and the watch came to life. It works as well as when it was new. Compare that to my father's Rolex of equal vintage. It wasn't working so we sent it to Rolex in NY. We got a letter saying it was unrepairable due to the unavailability of parts.
Cool video! But how is it as a slug?
More accurate than an iwatch
Bullova accutron slug - MOST ACCURATE SLUG EVER TESTED TO DATE!!
James Anderson lol
You stuff it in a shot gun! Ha!
James Anderson Hahaha!
"Pawl Finger". That's the name of my new Simon & Garfunkel tribute string quartet.
haha... I wish it would stop raining for a couple days.
that's insane. you would never think that much is going on in just a watch. trillions of movements! cray cray
Accutron’s are my big big love... have my Bulova Accutron Astronaut GMT on my wrist at the moment, what a beautiful humming beast 🔥
Wow Jeff, what a marvel of engineering. I'm always amazed at how advanced some technologies were even as far back as the sixties. I don't think the average person realizes (and me included) how incredible human innovation in the modern age really is.
It's kind of a recurring pattern for humans living in an age beyond prior ages. Even today, we keep finding more and more evidence that people in ancient times were much smarter than we give them credit for. I mean, the Ancient Greeks were crazy-good plumbers, given how much less resources they had compared to us.
Joshua Madoc also romans built the colosseum and other splendid structures that are intact to this very day, roughly 2000 years later, i bet our modern skyscrapers won't last that much
That is what amazes me.
The Colosseum is all but intact. Have you seen it? There are no 2000 y/o structures not needing repairs.
We made it to the moon using 8-bit microprocessors; sextant, slide-rule and log-tables as backup.
This is an engineer's wet dream
Loved that watch ,I have my father's spaceview ,it's all worn out and I keep it because it was my dad's .one day I will restore it if I can afford to
Dude! Thanks for the educational video! We definitely owe you a beer. My first Accutron was in 1962 but I lost it during my Vietnam tour. Recently obtained one via eBay and it is in excellent condition. Best of luck!
Love your vids but this even though different was beautiful in its own way. I love precision and mechanics and anything autonomous. thanks for this Jeff🎩
Thanks!
Man, RIP headphone users. I thought my tinnitus was getting worse.
Fascinating watch though.
Tinnitus is fun eh?
@@dietznutz1 So fun. Sleeping with the ceiling fan on low helps.
@@ILEFTCAPS0N fair it sometimes becomes white noise at night somehow otherwise I just deal with it
@@dietznutz1 try putting the palms of your hands over your ears and using your fingers to strum on the back of your head, about 50 times will make it stop for an hour or two, but your mileage may vary
You might have to try Googling "strumming on your head for tinnitus" to understand it better.
As a diagnostic tech and a mechanical engineer at heart, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen on TH-cam, maybe ever. Thanks for doing this video.
Thanks for this amazing share. My Dad used to repair watches. Good memories surfaced watching this. Amazing design and mechanics on this baby.
That's awesome! :D Really cool video! Liked!
thank you very much Jesse and Mike!
I have a Bulova precisionist. I believe it is the most accurate now.
Chad Jordan I have one too. Love it and it has rekindled my respect for Bulova again.
That is a really cool watch it amazes me how someone came up with the idea for it and got it to work so well with such tiny parts... watch makers are different breed...
Amazing video, very informative. It shocking how under appreciated this technology and craftsmanship is these days. Watch collectors are so snobby about any watch that is not a mechanical watch when the simple quartz watch and the accutron watch technology was just so amazing.
thanks Sam!
I love your enthusiasm but a trillion is a big number! Even if this watch lasted 40 years non stop it would only vibrate the mechanism 454,118,400,000 (Four hundred fifty four billion,
One hundred eighteen million,
Four hundred thousand) times. Still incredibly impressive though.
360*60*60*24*365*40
Definitely not possible to run that long. Mainly because the battery runs out so quickly. I have my grandfathers and it only last 2-3 months on a fresh battery lol.
AnarchistAaron
Who taught you math???
Ross Mennie 360*60*60*24*365*40= 454,118,400,000 correct me if I’m wrong
anpefleyable My batteries 🔋 last over a year. This is consistent across 4 of my Accutrons 👍🏻
AnarchistAaron I have a new one which hasn’t Vibrated once as a battery has never been fitted 😌
Who were the 5 people who disliked, swatch people?
MoreAmerican probably people who use their phone to tell the time.
they are apple watch users
"they are apple watch users" and judging from the number of dislikes, must be ALL the apple watch users
I think it makes people feel important.
Emilio Santos S.
hey! I resemble that remark!
😎
If you told me earlier today that I was going to watch a TH-cam video about a 1960's watch and it's movement and be completely fascinated..I wouldn't believe it.
That is the most incredible things I've seen, and just to think it's from the 60's. Thanx for posting it.
How can something be boring and fascinating at the same time
Hmmm...Maybe we really did go to the moon!
Yep just like the great pyramids were built by man.
My Dad had one of those, he bought it from a friend who had a jewelry store in the early 70's, we still have it in the family.
This was my dad's. When he died I found it in some of his stuff.
I own a Bulova Accutron from the mid 70s and that watch still keeps perfect time. I do not wear it much anymore since it tends to eat batteries, but it still functions as well as the day it was made. About once a year or so I will have a new battery installed and wear it until the battery dies.
u_u for a second i thought that marvelous piece of engineering was going to get shoot.
but what if slug is not shoot? What if watch will be kill?
Proteus o_o do you engrish?
si
your engrish is not without
cool watch. bit if it makes that sound I couldent stand to be in the same room as it.
It isn't very loud, especially when the case is closed.
Wow, thanks for your effort. I have one of these in fine working condition and the fact that it has lasted over 50 years is just astonishing. I had a rough idea of how it worked but putting a hair in the picture made it very clear just how tiny those gear teeth are and how fast it is moving. Thanks again.
This is hands down the best action footage of the pawl and index finger that I've ever seen. It really drives home the marvel and ingenuity of accutron movements. No wonder all the super spies were issued these. If these little accutrons were slightly more robust, they would have passed NASA's wristwatch test and there would be no Omega Moonwatch... just accutrons imbedded within spaceship hardware and on the wrists of astronauts- a complete (and unbelievably smooth) sweep, so to speak. Where a watch like the Hamilton Pulsar P1 pushed electric watches into the digital age, there is no comparison to the marvel of Bolova's achievement. Thank you for this video.
Nanomachines, son. I'm joking.
Way cool. I wonder if such a watch could be made today at an affordable price. The quartz oscillator all but killed the fine art of watchmaking. I'm only aware of a couple Swiss companies that use traditional methods.
Fudmottin yeah, and they costs like a cool car
It could be, but there are cheaper and simpler ways of doing the same thing. I don't think many people would want to spend $1000 on a watch if they can buy a watch for $50 or so.
Good point. I guess a tuning fork just doesn't hold the charm of a rotating pendulum like Swiss movements use.
Bulova made some more tuning fork watches in 2010 for the 50th anniversary of the Accutron's release. It was a limited edition of 1000 and they were priced at $5,200 each.
what a fascinating feat of engineering - thank you for showing us this in slow motion so we could see the mechanism in action.
That watch is so amazing. I want one now.
not just the shotguns I come here for Geoff, this was a beautiful look at some amazing mechanical engineering. well done
Great 1950's-style documentary voice, complete with slight chuckles to liven up a relatively dry subject.
One of the most impressive watch related videos I have ever seen. Why doesn't it have millions of views????
I watched this video this morning, and as I was drinking my cup of coffee, I realized that I wasn't quite awake enough to take in all the amazing technical detail that went into the manufacturing and engineering of this watch. The slow motion video of the indexing mechanism, compared to the human hair was truly amazing to see. I have seen some other videos of watches being assembled, and always marvel at the precision of engineering. Thanks for bringing us something unique to "watch". See what I did there?
Excellent video and description. I remember an old guy who was a friend of my family had one about 1970. I was fascinated by that hum and the smooth second hand. Now I really want one for my collection.
What an incredible and crazy cool watch. It's insane thinking about how all those mechanisms are in something so small. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you for this video, it got me curious and I pulled out my old Bulova! Looked it up on eBay and it's $195! That's some good money I could use
that was AMAZING! I like adding loops to camera for macro views. AMAZING engineering involved in the watch is baffling. I'M de baffled. GREAT job, thanks guys.
Amazing video! Thanks Jeff. This Chronos has really given you the ability to do things never before possible. But only you and your inventiveness could come up with this. Thank you.
Hell I was expecting that Bulova to be somehow stuffed into a 12g hull and blown down range at 1500 fps! Was I surprised! In all seriousness one of the best clips I've yet seen on TH-cam on an astounding piece of engineering that's got me fucked in awe as to how the hell it was built!
Absolutely mindblowing. Truly stunning...thank you for sharing!
When I went to horology (watch and clock making) school back in the 70's, one of these was the last piece I work on before graduating. I remember the teacher telling me not to touch the wheel at all with tweezers, handle by the arbor only. He also got a good deal on some, which one of them I had to get after seeing them work. Still have it.
The engineering in that is stunning, thank you for posting.
My father bought a "Spaceview" version of the 214 model in 1968. I still have it. It has been "serviced" a few times... but it has never needed repair. It has run continuously for 50 years now... except for the 1 minute per year that it takes to change the battery... and the few times that it has been "serviced" for an hour or two. At over 31 MILLION oscillations per day of the Tuning Fork times 365 days per year times 50 years... it has pushed the Index Wheel over 550 BILLION times... without fail! I have "regulated" it (they have small "plates" at the ends of the Tuning Forks that allow it to speed up or slow down a few seconds per day) to well within the original stated "guarantee" by Bulova of 2 seconds per day accuracy ( for the first year of ownership). I often get these to run within /3 second per day over a few months. Try THAT with a Rolex!
Fascinating mechanism, and a Chronos put to really good use! This could very well be my favorite video of yours :D
Thanks!
More like these! Listening to zero-project while watching this was great. Great vid as always Jeff. Love your channel.
WOW! That's phenomenal that they could manufacture something of that much precision in the '60s. Outstanding!
Well done modding the Chronos too :)
Absolutely love this design. Just happened to read about it a week ago. Very impressive craftsmanship.
awesome video! My dad had this watch and I used to listen to it as a kid.
Huuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I don't know why I'm just now seeing this in June 2020 but it's real nostalgia for me. I bought an Accutron Astronaut in 1966. It is even more complex as it has 2 hour hands. One goes around every 12 hours and the other every 24 and it has a rotating 24-hour bezel. You rotate that to set the 24-hour hand. I was in the Air Force at the time stationed in Alaska with frequent TDYs to other time zones so I could set one hand to local time and leave the other on Alaska time. I still have it but the batteries have become hard to find.
Brilliant, thanks for putting the time in to make this.
Absolutely incredible. Thanks for sharing this!
I really like when you make videos like this Jeff. Its great to learn about incredible creations such as this movement. Super cool!
Great bit of history there! Thanks for sharing. Game on.
Thanks for such a beautiful and insightful video. Have always loved these watches, remember listening to one 'hum' back in the day.
thanks for the nice words!
Thanks for bumping this into our feeds again. Really enjoyed it.
thanks!
I knew most of the things about how this mechanism works but never saw it in slow motion and a close up of it. Really nice video
Amazing craftsmanship. Thanks for sharing Jeff!
This is the best TH-cam video I've watched all week. I love precision.
That was amazing. These watches came out when I was a kid. I had no idea that they had the ability to do that kind of miniaturization then. Great video. guys. Almost better than the shooting vids.
all I can say is wow...that's absolutely incredible
Amazing. Thanks for the microscopic shots!
This just proves they can make stuff that last!
Thank you so much for this video ! i never looked into how one works before!
Wow, this was really neat, thanks for sharing! This was very interesting to me, I never thought I would like to learn how any watch worked, this is an amazing piece of machinery. Thanks again!
What a great way to start my day. Thanks for making such a different and amazing video. I love the shooting stuff too of course.
I think this is your best video yet! I really appreciate the time and effort put into it - not only to set up the camera to record on such a tiny scale, but the visual aid animations and the background both historic and technological. It's also a fascinating topic. I hope you release more videos like this in the future!