Asymmetrical Bulova Accutron, 1966
Released in 1960, the Accutron was the world's second mass-produced battery-powered watch, and arguably the first truly successful one. (The Hamilton Electric beat it to market by a few years, but was plagued with mechanical problems and offered little real advantage over the mechanical watches available at the time.) While battery-powered quartz watches are taken for granted today, the technology to realize them was still years off when the Accutron was developed. Instead, the regulatory organ of the Accutron is an electronically oscillated tuning fork vibrating at 360 Hz (and yes, if you hold it up to your ear, you can hear it humming). This vibration is then translated directly into the motion of the seconds hand. The result is a remarkably accurate movement whose seconds hand moves in a perfectly smooth arc. The technology and miniaturization inherent in this movement are really quite remarkable for their day, especially when placed side-by-side with the Hamilton Electric, which looks almost crude by comparison. Far more technical discussions on this movement can be found here and here.
While I (and most collectors) generally shy away from battery-powered watches in favor of mechanical movements, I decided that the Accutron represented something far different from the run-of-the-mill quartz watch, so I made a place in my collection for this one. (Maybe some day I'll add a Hamilton Electric to the mix and bring my battery count up to two, but that'll be a while, I suspect.) This example was built in 1966, featuring the original (and more desirable) 214 movement, which is set by a crown on the back of the case rather than the traditional side-mounted crown. To push the notion of the "Watch of the Future," Bulova produced many Accutrons in wildly futuristic cases (as did Hamilton with their lovely Richard Arbib-designed electrics), and this design, colloquially known among collectors as called "squashy football," is one of the most attractive. The Florentine-engraved, asymmetrical case is dressed up by a high-gloss black dial, for an effect that is both formal and retro-futuristic - something to wear with your space tuxedo and laser cummerbund. To highlight the technology, a stylized tuning fork graces the dial at the 12 o'clock position, as well as the counterbalance of the seconds hand.
Though its technology only lasted about a decade before being overshadowed by more modern - and simpler to produce - quartz movements, the Accutron represented a real sea change in the way that the world thought about electronics and watches. It proved that the battery-powered watch was a viable entity, and ensured that electronics would play a dominant role in the future of the mass-market timepiece. In some ways, it also heralded the end of an era for the industry, beginning a trend away from traditional watchmaking that would be felt for decades - the "Quartz Revolution" all but killed the mechanical watch until its rebirth as a niche product in the early 1990s. But good or bad, the Accutron was an important milestone in watchmaking history, and this example, with its raygun-gothic styling, wonderfully embodies the hope and futurism of an era when technology was both salvation and boogeyman.