The Bulova Accutron 2181 Turning Fork Men's Watch...

Last year my father-in-law passed away. I blogged about it at the time. I also blogged about some items I inherited after he passed.

Watches.

I was given my wife's father's watches.

There were half a dozen of them. You can check out the blog post: HERE. Most were of the wind-up variety, but a couple required batteries to run, a fairly new Seiko, and a vintage Bulova. I'd seen the Bulova at my in-laws's house several times. To be honest, I didn't know anything about the watch until my mother-in-law, for a Christmas present, gave it to me again. This time it ran beautifully.

I've collected several watches over the years--not so many now. The ones I really like don't require batteries, and they're harder to come by. But I knew nothing of the Accutron models. What I've learned about them, after doing a little research, is fascinating.

Here's some information about the watches from a website:

While a mechanical watch uses a mainspring and a balance wheel, Bulova came up with a battery that makes a tuning fork vibrate – the tuning fork replaces the balance wheel as a regulator, powered by electromagnets attached to a battery-powered transistor circuit. The vibrations of the tuning fork are impossible to see – the Accutron’s frequency is 360Hz; later models from other brands vibrated at even higher frequencies. The mechanism is very small compared to a conventional watch mechanism, and is virtually invisible. A tooth of the ratchet wheel measures 0.025 mm in width and 0.01 mm in height. The wheel itself has a diameter of 2.4 mm and carries 300 teeth. The material used here is beryllium copper, which can be easily milled, especially in such miniscule size ranges.

A tuning fork--are you kidding me? Who'd have thunk it?

I guess smarter people than me. You can access the website: HERE.

My wife remembers her father wearing the watch and listening to it hum--you can actually hear the hum when you hold it up to your ear...no "tick-tock," just hum. It's very cool!

I have several favorites out of all the watches I've collected--most used to belong to my dad. Over time those watches have stopped working. No wonder since many are over seventy years old. But I'll be adding a new watch to my favorites, a Bulova Accurton 2181 watch with a 14K gold-filled case and a tuning fork inside making it all run smoothly. 

Very cool, indeed!

Yeah, I've Got The Time...Times Two

Today at work I wore two wrist watches. My long sleeve shirt prevented any strange looks or awkward questions. Why would I wear two watches, especially during a time when fewer and fewer people even wear one?

Because of a dead battery.

I've had a few battery-powered watches in my day, but they all end up in a drawer or on a shelf. I bought a semi-nice watch a few years ago at a thrift store and I wore it daily. That is, until the battery died. Since it had been a while since I replaced a watch battery, I thought I'd take it someplace that sold watch batteries and they'd change it for me.

Nope.

I had to do it myself. It shouldn't be a big deal to swap out a battery, but I ended up scuffing up the crystal face pretty good. We bought a couple of nice watches for me and my son two years ago and both needed the battery changed. I ended up completely cracking both crystals faces, so much so, I  basically destroyed both.

So, when the battery on my new watch died again (which seemed to die rather quickly...), I decided to try my old wind-up watches and see how'd they do. It's been a while since I wore either of them, so I wore them both.

Conclusion: they both kept time very well. The Bulova's a nicer watch than the Elgin, and it's self-winding, but the wristband is a little tight. I doubt I'll wear two watches again, but it was kind of fun today.

Watches And Staplers...

My dad was a collector, and he collected stuff. There is a difference. He collected coins and he had some model trains. I'm not sure what other things could be considered "collections."

As stated earlier, he also collected stuff. Being old enough to have lived through, and more importantly, understood what the Great Depression was all about, he had a good reason to hold on to things.

If I had the means (and the storage space...) I'd collect more things, too. About 25 years ago I started collecting watches, but only non-battery powered watches. I wanted the old wind-ups. Back then they were all over the place and I could pick them up pretty cheap. Those days are gone.

 

Lately, I've taken an interest in staplers--I have NO idea why. Whenever I see an old metal one at a thrift store, I'll pick it up. Today I went to a thrift store and found an old red Swingline (now I have my Red Swingline, so maybe they'll put me in the basement at work...), and I came across a 1971 Bulova Whale Automatic. The watch cost $55. That's pretty steep for a thrift store purchase.

The stapler was $1.

I came home and checked ebay for prices and I saw a watch similar to the one at the thrift store for $395. I almost jumped in the car and bought it. But I checked other ebay items and they had the exact watch in almost the same condition as the one at the store. I could buy it on ebay for $45.

For now, I think I'll stick with staplers. I don't think in 25 years metal staplers will be hard to find, but you never know...