Accutronitis

On ‎1‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 0:55 AM, FakeFinder said:

Here are a few home truths about the "M2 Astronaut".

 

http://accutronfacts.proboards.com/thread/2/facts-1962-accutron-astronaut

Don't bother trying this link....

 

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On ‎10‎/‎17‎/‎2016 at 8:31 PM, TheSociety said:

Thanks bro broken chrono but time keeping is great. This thing is so rare I didn't even care!




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Do you know anything about why it doesn't work ? I now know quite a bit about working on the v72 movement......

 

 

On ‎1‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 8:18 PM, TheSociety said:

Just completed Valjoux 72 fully converted to Rolex Caliber 727





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Wow ! Cool ! and even a free sprung balance with over coil ?

What movements are you guys using in both of those ?

I'm just using a simple Kodak digital 6.1 megapixel camera (no lens change with it) and your right about outdoors lighting, It's by far the best at mid day in the shade out of direct sunlight, at least with my camera.....   

This is me learning how to work on a Rolex 3135 movement....

Once I had the roller jewel for the rapid change date wheel fly off into no mans land and I tried to find one on ebay but everyone wanted a TON of money for one so I put on my more mag pair of reading glasses and got down on my hands and knees and with the strongest flash light I have searched every square inch of carpet were I was working on it until I found it many hours later, For quite a while I was thinking it was hopeless......... 

 

1 hour ago, RickFlorida said:

Oh, my mistake.   I should have remembered how hard it is to photograph shiny objects.  

 

Nice build!

Thanks, I wish I had a better camera and picture taking skills to go with it.....

It took quite awhile to finally win the bid on the right 18kt solid gold Datejust bezel for that newer style case and it was the last thing I needed to finish it, I had a gold color dial in it at first but it looked like so many other datejusts out there plus the gold on gold of the hands and dial made it sometimes hard for me see what time it was so I wanted a dial change which took almost a year before I found the right one I wanted at the price I was willing to pay......   

4 hours ago, alligoat said:

Nice job! That case looks like a 116233 case

Good eye !

17 minutes ago, RickFlorida said:

Yeah, especially since the gold mid links are rubbing off.    So unless I'm mistaken, the bracelet is not gen.  But nice movement!

That's just a refection because I polished it instead of keeping the stock brushed look.....  

 

But I feel I should give credit where credit is due, Martin Marcus helped me a lot before a bought my first Accutron 214 because I would email him about watches a was looking at on ebay and he would take time out of his very busy schedule to tell me not to buy many watches that I was looking at and he would always explain in detail why not !

Thanks Martin !     

Now I'm not "trying to out shout those that have disagreed with you" but when it comes to Accutron 214's I know what I'm talking about and really the only person that has had a very different opinion than mine isn't because he knows anything about Accutron 214 watches, Heck he has never even held one in his hand, ever, It's only because he has a axe to grind and he wants to discrete me any way he can and he believes what he's been doing is the way to do it.

Other than him I've never had anyone disagree with me about Accutron 214's, BUT I must say I know next to nothing about other watch brands in general other than the Rolex 3135 and the Valjoux 72 movements both of which I'm somewhat familiar with.   

I service all my own Accutrons and I've fixed many others for members of many watch forms, And I do mean many others in the last 3 years and I've never had a single complaint or even a bad word about my workmanship and so far not one of the watches I've fixed in the past has ever quit working knock on wood.....

Parts are hit or miss these days but they still come up for sale on ebay although maybe not when you need them sometimes so I've bought whole watches just for one part a few times.....

I'm sorry if you've seen some of my posts elsewhere, I make posts about some of the same stuff but in different forums for people that may not have ever seen any of it but would find it as interesting as I do......  

Well I'm in my 50's now but back in grade school I had a best friend named Doug W and we lived in Portland Oregon, He was one of those once in a life time friends where you could just walk into his house without knocking and get something to eat out of the fridge and I called his mother "mom" and the same was true for him.

His family was very poor and mine was barely middle class so both of us didn't have much growing up but much later he did very well by him self and we always kept in touch, About 20 years ago I went back to visit him and one thing that was new with him was he had started a modest collection of watches that caught his eye, Of course one of them was a solid gold Rolex just to name one but he had drove up to the coast and a watch on consignment in a little antique shop caught his eye and he had been going back and forth with the shop owner to buy that watch so he asked me if I'd like to take my Jensen interceptor III for a drive to the coast because he wanted to make another offer on that watch, I said sure why not, Well the shop owner took the offer and the watch turned out to be a 1962 Accutron 214 Railroad which at the time I didn't know anything about tuning fork watches but that hummer really left a lasting impression on me so I began to learn more about them and my interest just grew from there so I blame my "Accutronitis" on him because I really didn't have any interest in wrist watches until that day !       

Since this threadt is about The first all stainless steel Accuton Astronaut, The 1962 Bulova Accutron Astronaut "X-15" !

This rare Accutron Astronaut shown below is all factory original with the exception of the crystal and the hand set which was replace with the same factory original hand set P/N WS-25 that came on the watch from the factory and is the correct hand set for this model year, The factory original "Simple" dial & hand set was refer to as a "Regular" dial & hand set in promotional materials in 1962.

The reason i call this watch the "X-15" is because of one of the ways it was advertised and promoted by Bulova in 1962 but more on that later, Let's take a look at the very rare 1962 Accutron Astronaut "X-15" watch....

More than a few people that are unfamiliar with this very rare model have tried to say that this watch "has the wrong hands" but that simply is incorrect as can be shown by the many Bulova adverts dated 1962 which includes this Bulova factory sales card that was only given to authorized Bulova dealers....

And as this 1962 factory hand set list clearly show the white spade hand set on the list of the only hand sets that were available during that time frame for the Accutron 214 movement and frankly if the hand set isn't on this list then simple didn't exist or could not be used due to the unique OD tube size of the Accutron 214 movement, All other Bulova movement calibers hand sets are incompatible with the Accutron 214 caliber movement and without exception could not be used on the 214 movement !  

The "white spade hand set" p/n WS-25 was almost certainly lifted from the Bulova Timer Labs aerospace clocks and timers which had been using the same part numbered hands for many years prior to their use for one year on the 1962 Accutron Astronaut...

Never say never with Bulova as this factory hand set appears to have blue centers or it could just be a trick of light !

Some WS-25 hand sets have rough paint edges like these below......

Some factory WS-25 hand sets have smooth paint edges like this set below.....

The white spade hand set WS-25 was also used with the 24 hour dials in some very rare wrist watches as well, The 24 hour dials used in those wrist watches differed from it's panel clock counter part in that the 24 hour dials used in wrist watches are "dished" where as the 24 hour dials used in the panel clock's are "flat" making the wrist watch version of the dial much rarer !

The white spade hand set WS-25 was all set to be used on this Bulova prototype but it was never put into production for unknown reasons.....

Once again these paint edges are rough so as always never say never with Bulova because you are a fool if you do......

Here are some of the Bulova ads all dated to 1962, It's a fact that every Bulova factory picture that dates back to 1962 clearly shows the white spade hand set and one more distinguishing feature is the factory dial which only says "Accutron" on the dial and lacks the white "dots" between the hour marks and were only added after 1962....

This is a Bulova Factory picture of the M2 Astronaut that shows very clearly the hands on the real M2 Astronaut are NOT some nonexistent skeleton hands that Bulova didn't make for Accutron 214 movement and the hands shown below are in fact just a pair of white painted spade hands part number WS-25 which are the same hands Bulova had been using for two years prior to using them on the M2 Astronaut for less than a year !

Here is a more close up and detailed view of this 1962 Accutron Astronaut's movement, It's a 214HN with a date code of M2 (1962)....

Some facts about the M2 214 movement, A factory correct M2 movement will have no letter or number codes on the center fork mount, It will have the earliest three wire coil assembly with the downward facing capacitor, on the back of the movement there will be no patent pending number, It will have the large model number 214HN inline and angled, And of course it will have a M2 date code.

If any of these distinguishing features of the M2 Astronaut movement is not present the movement is not 100% original like the movement shown above ! 

Now back to the "X-15" desigation i have personally given to this watch (Bulova never called this watch the "X-15") I call this the X-15 watch because of one of the ways Bulova advertised it back in 1962 and is shown in these 1962 date adverts....

 

And these rare 1962 Accutron Astronnaut watches can be clearly seen on the wrists of the X-15 pilots on the outside of their pressure suits below, Sometime around late 1961/Early 1962 all of the X-15 test pilots were given one of these 1962 Accutron Astronaut watches and it is unclear if these first all stainless steel 1962 Accutron Astronaut watches were ever released for sale to the general public.......  

 

On July 17, 1962, Robert White flew the X-15 to an altitude of 314,750 feet -- 59.6 miles above Earth.
"This is a fantastic view," he reportedly radioed while flying weightless.
He said after landing that it was too cloudy to see the ocean, "but I could see the coastline of the Western United States from well above San Francisco Bay down into Mexico."
Calling him "the nation's newest space hero," Life magazine featured a photo of White on its cover greeting son Greg, then 7, after the flight. Said the headline: "Boy, That Was a Ride."
At a 1962 ceremony on the White House South Lawn, President Kennedy presented what had been called the nation's most treasured aviation award, the Robert J. Collier Trophy, to White and three fellow X-15 pilots.

Robert White can be seen below wearing his 1962 Accutron Astronaut watch after his record setting flight ! 
In late 1962/early 1963 Bulova added the "ASTRONAUT" on the dial to commemorate (and further capitalize) on the 17 July 1962 event.

Bulova had record-setting watch bands produced by a local watch company for the watch given to the X-15 pilots in order for the pilots to wear the watches on the outside of the X-15 pilots pressure suits, Wearing the Accutron Astronaut on the outside of the X-15 pilots pressure suits meant that the watches were exposed to the extreme environment of the X-15 cockpit ! The record-setting watch band is talked about in this November 14 1962 newspaper article.....

 

I bought ever part for this Rolex Datejust for pennies on the dollar by bidding on Gen Rolex parts on ebay, I kept bidding really low and more and more I started winning bids, I even got the Gen Rolex 3135 movement from a guy I PMed on ebay and he gave me a great deal on the NOS 3135 movement, I asked him what type of hairspring it had and he told me it was silver BUT when I got it low and behold it had a parachrom bleu hairspring !

   

Got it and thanks again !

Here is what the Sky Lab count down timer alarm sounds like....

The alarm part of it took a very unusual battery and there was no indication what P/N battery was needed...... 

Thanks I appreciate any help I can get.......

That Sky Lab timer repair was by far the most challenging timepiece repair I've ever done and I had no manual or documentation of any kind to guide me.....

Here are some pics of the movement and count down timer section.....

Or there was the time I repaired a Bulova Timer Lab's Skylab Countdown Timer....... It was 1 of only 3 known to exist with one of them sitting in the Smithsonian's "Sky Lab Exhibit"......

Well I taught myself how to disassemble, clean, reassemble, and adjust a Rolex 3135 movement, Is that the kind for thing your talking about ?

I also did the same thing with a Valjoux 72 Chronographic movement as well, It was a good thing a took LOTS of pictures when I dissembled the Valjoux 72 movement because there was a LOT of parts that looked very close to alike but they were not and I had the pictures to show me what was what ! 

 

 

I changed a few parts but mostly it's all original, it has all the sub hands back on it now. I'm posting this here by special request......

 

4 hours ago, Sogeha said:

The real facts are we are not interested. 

Do you speak for all members here ?

The real M2 Astronaut facts can be found here, http://accutronfacts.freeforums.net/thread/73/facts-1962-accutron-astronaut-watch complete with factory documentation and factory photos and as always no nonsense !

You couldn't attack me here so you made a site full of nonsense and your posting a link to it here instead ? If that doesn't show what a troll you are nothing will !

Late year 1962 2nd Gen Asrtonaut "A" !

I made these for anybody that like them.....

 

I just bought a new 1 Piece Laser Collimation Glass lens, The transparence ratio of the normal collimation lens of the market is around 70-80% due to the long focus distance. The one I just bought has a Transparence of 98% and it just cost $8 ! The original laser diode's light is difused a long focus lens will bring more power lost. The normal collimation lens's focus is 7-8mm but this lens' focus is around 2.357mm. So,the power lost will be the less and the beam effect is the best !

I love a good upgrade !

In that same New York Times article there was a interesting quote of Buzz Aldrin about the 60's Accutron technology.....

"The Accutron was used in the displays of devices that were more crucial than a wristwatch, he said. Astronauts essentially only wore watches as a backup for timers on the spacecraft"

Which is something I was told a very long time ago by someone who worked for NASA at that time....... 

This New York Times article confirms what I've always knew to be true which is the fact that Bulova strongly courted test pilots like Mr John McKay, who were routinely given free Accutrons which I have no doubt were always the latest and greatest Bulova had to offer which accounts for why Mr McKay is seen wearing next years model of a 1963 Astronaut late in the year 1962 !

"At the dawn of the space age, the watch's association with test pilots, who were given free Accutrons, intrigued buyers. ''They did a great promotional job,'' said Daniel Nied, director of the School of Horology run by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/01/technology/for-collectors-a-race-for-a-space-age-heirloom.html