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Is Bulova a well respected brand?
Hey there fellow Crunchers!
I grew up seeing Bulova as a very cool brand when I was in my younger years (13-23), but as my interests in watches grew, I saw a lot of mixed feedback regarding the QC of Bulova. Most notably branded as a "department store" watch. Now I'm 34 and looks like they are back on the rise, maybe?
Familiar with their Luna Pilot history though and always thought they were cool from a historical perspective but do feel like their was a time where they were just overstocked in Macys or on sale at TJ Maxx and you could get a shiny battery powered watch for like $130 bucks.
Anyways, curious what my fellow Watch Crunchers think and look forward seeing the results!
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William
Love everything about Cars, Guitars, and Watches.
Chicago, IL, USA
Member since
Last active: 5 hrs ago
8
watches
in collection
6.50”
/
16.51 cm
They have some great designs and reissues along with a line of "fashion" watches.
Seiko, Citizen,Tissot, Hamilton, and others are also sold at Macys.
A + B
They have some great designs and reissues along with a line of "fashion" watches.
Seiko, Citizen,Tissot, Hamilton, and others are also sold at Macys.
This is very true and I love my Hamilton!
C = A + B
I love Bulova! Nicely-made watches.
I like the Lunar Pilot, but none of their other watches have piqued my interest so far. There‘s nothing in their current catalogue that I would seriously consider buying.
They're great. Sure they absolutely make big and brash fashion watches but they also make lovely designs and introduced an entirely different movement technology (electrostatic) a year and change ago.
They're also doing great things, IMHO, with their reissues.
I like the Lunar Pilot, but none of their other watches have piqued my interest so far. There‘s nothing in their current catalogue that I would seriously consider buying.
Sign me up for the Jet Star 😄.... Anything with that 262Khz movement is a winner in my book.
They're starting to dig deeper in the catalogue to great styles and are making the precision it movements smaller. They still have many God awful designs but they're improving. Over the past year or two.
Nothing negative to say, it's just another brand owned by a reputable company (Citizen).
I associate Bulova with Eastern European arms dealers. 😂
Their high frequency quartz models are interesting, but the overall design is lacking.
2 Bulovas. Great vintage watches. Mall trash.
Like my devil diver very much, but not enough to make me forget about rotting garbage in the display case at Macy's.
I really love my Devil Diver. Cant say the same about the majority of their catalog, but there are some bangers in there.
Bulovas archive series has literally something for everyone and if your pockets are a bit deeper Accutron brand has some incredible stuff.
Nice!!!! These are awesome and kind of what I had in mind when I posted the question for those that voted in favor of Bulova! I personally like the 4th from the top and the 2nd from the bottom out of the selection you posted. I mean in all honesty, I'd wear every single one of them but I am looking for a nice clean vintage era dress watch with a square design and this really ticks all the boxes. Pun very much intended.
Excellent! The second from the bottom is the Bulova Breton. It was part of the limited edition Joseph Bulova series of automatic watches.
Here are the specs in case they are helpful...
Brand: Bulova
Model: Breton Limited Edition of 350 Joseph Bulova Collection
Model Number: 97B192
Movement Type: Automatic
Movement Engine: Sellita SW200
Power Reserve: 38 hours
Case Size: 32mm
Case Thickness: 10.5mm
Case Material: Stainless Steel
Crystal: Sapphire
Luminescence: N/A
Bezel/Material: Fixed Stainless Steel
Crown: Push/Pull
Water Resistance: 30M / 100FT
Band: Brown Leather Lizard Grain w/Deployant Clasp
Band Width: 20mm
List Price: $1,100
These were not heavily discounted and are now pretty hard to find with the white dial. The black dial is still available at a modest discount from list.
Here are a couple of examples:
JOSEPH BULOVA BRETON LIMITED EDITION SWISS AUTOMATIC 96B332 - Claudias Jewelry Inc
Joseph Bulova Breton Limited Edition Automatic Men's Watch 96B332 | Jared
Excellent! The second from the bottom is the Bulova Breton. It was part of the limited edition Joseph Bulova series of automatic watches.
Here are the specs in case they are helpful...
Brand: Bulova
Model: Breton Limited Edition of 350 Joseph Bulova Collection
Model Number: 97B192
Movement Type: Automatic
Movement Engine: Sellita SW200
Power Reserve: 38 hours
Case Size: 32mm
Case Thickness: 10.5mm
Case Material: Stainless Steel
Crystal: Sapphire
Luminescence: N/A
Bezel/Material: Fixed Stainless Steel
Crown: Push/Pull
Water Resistance: 30M / 100FT
Band: Brown Leather Lizard Grain w/Deployant Clasp
Band Width: 20mm
List Price: $1,100
These were not heavily discounted and are now pretty hard to find with the white dial. The black dial is still available at a modest discount from list.
Here are a couple of examples:
JOSEPH BULOVA BRETON LIMITED EDITION SWISS AUTOMATIC 96B332 - Claudias Jewelry Inc
Joseph Bulova Breton Limited Edition Automatic Men's Watch 96B332 | Jared
Awesome! Thank you, sir!!
The Luna pilot is great and some of the other models look pretty striking , I think there a pretty good brand overall.
Currently have 2 in my collection and had one from the precisionist line in that past and sold it. That’s probably all I’ll have for now.. “maybe” the surfboard one in the future, but not sure.
Want a cool bit of history for watch nerds, look up worlds first TV advertisement. Yep it was Bulova
Used to be amazing, they have ruined their name.
One step up from Movado
Bulova it's two companies in one. There is a great company with heritage and a great archive of great designs with great prices, and there is the mall company, with awful big designs. So, it's complicated.
Bulova it's two companies in one. There is a great company with heritage and a great archive of great designs with great prices, and there is the mall company, with awful big designs. So, it's complicated.
Nice! The picture says it all!
I quite like their new Super Seville
Lunar Pilot, Oceanographer, Milships, Jetstar, Oceanographer GMT, Parking meter, Surfboard, and that other chronograph (type C?) are all great but…all the mall watches they have are a necessary evil ai guess. If they can do a proper dichotomy that would be better for their reissues and enthusiast watch releases. I also love their devil diver 666 vintage skindivers (esp the Caravelle issued ones).
I voted they got some work to do. While the lunar pilot and the devil diver remain my favourites within the Bulova brand, and they’ve done some cool stuff even with their Kurv lineup, i feel they just have so many different options which dilutes from some of the cool pieces with good stories behind them and makes them perceived as the “mall watch brand”. Brands like citizen have really been turning it up with their new releases with more automatic watches, I think if Bulova followed suit they’d have a good chance of changing that perception as well.
Bulova get a lot of flack but I personally think they are killing it right now. They finally realized they need to put that high frequency quartz movement in other watches. I've been waiting for them to do this for quite some time.
Every Bulova I’ve bought has been great. The Marine Star is the only one left in the collection as I simply didn’t wear the other 2 all that often. Nonetheless, highly recommend.
I'm also interested in Bulova and have been recently looking at this reissued model.
I have a 12 watch collection some of which I purchased in the 80's and 90's. I'd like to buy more but struggle with the lack of diversity in design I see lately. Sure some watches are ultra different but that usually comes at a cost. I like the Bulova Parking Meter and Surfboard watches, it's nice to see they're prepared to take a risk sometimes.