Horological Meandering

This message has been edited by patrick_y on 2025-05-07 17:51:54

In the theater, I was seated to a fun fella who really familiarized himself with the Bulova history - and he owned multiple pieces. What a wonderful fella to sit next to!

The watch manufacturing industry in USA is almost nonexistent now. But at one point it employed thousands of people.

Not sure if returning to the glory days can ever happen but they at least returned from the dead under Citizen, so let’s see where the journey goes 😊

One Omega was most worried about taking NASA as a customer away from them 😊

And the Astronaut relying instead on his personal watch 😊👍



Source: Hondinkee

But what an amazing and glorious history they had. While they weren't necessarily a top luxury brand, Bulova was extremely prevalent in Western society. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was probably hard to live in a household that didn't have at least one Bulova product in the household. Be it a radio, a clock, or a watch. Bulova was modern, was inventive, was futuristic, and ahead of its time. The documentary does sound like a commercial for brief moments, but nobody can deny how amazing and inventive the Bulova brand was. And at one point, USA did have an extremely large watch industry (and pen industry - as the fountain pen was invented by Mr. Waterman and Mr. Cross of Massachusetts and Rhode Island) but much of the watch industry faded away during the quartz crisis. The USA watch brands weren't necessarily ultra-luxury brands, but were definitely premium brands.
It's a good documentary film overall - as I said it is a bit commercial in some aspects - but it evokes an image and reminds you of a time when America had a large watch industry. I'm glad I spent the time to watch it!