Collection: Bulova Watches

Bulova watches, line by line

Bulova has made watches since 1875, and its range here runs from 16 mm women’s dress watches to Precisionist chronographs rated to 300 metres, with skeleton-dial automatics and a chronograph descended from one worn on the moon in between. Most Bulovas are quartz and the rest are automatics; the line pages below are the quickest way to compare them.

The lines to know

Sutton is one of the biggest Bulova lines here and the most varied: women’s rectangles from 21 mm, a 28 mm model set with 16 diamonds, a 34.5 mm open-heart automatic on mother of pearl, and for men a slim 29 mm rectangle on leather and 40 to 43 mm skeleton automatics.

Marine Star is the sporty side, with 44 mm automatics that have a screw-down crown and 200 metres of water resistance, and quartz chronographs rated to 100 or 200 metres. The Lunar Pilot brings back the design of the Bulova chronograph worn on the moon on August 2, 1971, mostly in a 43.5 mm case under sapphire crystal.

Super Seville revives the cushion-shaped case of Bulova’s 1970s original, at 25 mm for women and at 35 or 37.5 mm with a Precisionist movement. Surveyor has a sculpted, faceted case, from a 22.7 mm quartz to a 39 mm automatic. Beyond those, look at the Maquina skeleton automatics, the Classic and Futuro dress watches, and Rubaiyat, which Bulova introduced in 1917 as its first luxury line designed only for women.

Three kinds of movement

• Quartz: battery-powered, thin and accurate. Bulova rates its standard quartz at about 15 seconds a month.
• Precisionist: Bulova’s own high-frequency quartz. Its crystal vibrates at 262 kHz, eight times the rate of standard quartz, and drives a smoothly sweeping second hand. It powers the Icon, Jet Star, Series X, Super Seville and Marine Star Series C.
• Automatic: mechanical movements that wind themselves as you wear them, most with about 42 hours of reserve, often behind an open or skeleton dial.

Choosing a Bulova

Check the water rating first. Many Bulova dress watches are rated 30 metres, splash resistant only, so they come off for swimming; Marine Star, the Icon and the Oceanographer are made for the water. Sapphire crystal is common across Sutton, Lunar Pilot and Super Seville. Bulova’s logo is a tuning fork, and in 1960 its Accutron, which Bulova describes as the world’s first fully electronic watch, ran on one. Ducci is an authorized Bulova retailer, so every Bulova here comes with the full manufacturer warranty. Women’s models are gathered on Bulova watches for women.