subject: Everyone Should Really Discover, A History Of The U.s. Is A History Of Bulova Watches [print this page] Who has not heard of Bulova mens watches? Adorning the wrists of men and women around the world, the Bulova brand is well recognized and very well respected. Over the years it has developed several different styles, each with its own brand name and own personality.
Over the course of the next 130 years, the Bulova Brand developed into one of the world's leading developers of timekeeping instruments. These included delicate boudoir clocks and simple pocket watches to diamond encrusted watch pins for women. In 1919, when the US entered World War I, the watch company began making simple yet sturdy wristwatches for our soldiers. Until this time, wristwatches were for the elite.
Between the years of 1875 and 1920, Joseph Bulova devoted himself to designing new styles of clocks and watches. He developed new mechanisms that would provide more accurate timekeeping, down to one-thousandth of a second. He was not satisfied with the beauty of the watch exteriors, but worked to create the most accurate timekeeping mechanisms known to man.
By the end of the First World War, Joseph Bulova and his Bulova Watch Company have produced thousands of watches worn by our soldiers on the battlefields of Europe. He presented a special commemorative watch to Charles Lindbergh when he completed his solo transatlantic flight in 1926. And as the twenties roared, the company presented the first National Radio Advertisement in 1926 at a Dodgers vs. Phillies baseball game.
In 1928 Bulova introduced the first clock radio. In 1929, it re-engineered and patented a new method of building clocks for automobiles. And the first electric clocks were manufactured in 1931. These included small clocks for homes, as well as large clocks for train stations, office buildings, airports and public buildings. During the depression, the company spent over $1 million to support their dealers by offering buyers of their watches time-payment plans.
In 1926, Arde Bulova, the son of the founder and now President of the company, offered a prize to the first pilot to fly a transatlantic flight solo. In 1927 Charles Lindbergh was presented with a special commemorative watch. Five thousand copies of the watch for men named the "Lone Eagle" were sold in three days after Lindbergh's' famous flight.
The Bulova Watch Company has worked closely with the US Government to produce timekeeping and precision instruments for the Army at cost, making no profit during World War II. A resolution was passed by the President, Arde Bulova, son of Joseph Bulova, in 1941, to sell products for national defense at actual cost. They designed and manufactured watches for the military, as well as critical torpedo mechanisms and fuses.
At the end of the war, the company opened the Joseph Bulova School of Watch Making in New York. Here disabled veterans would learn the skills of watch making. The building was specially designed to accommodate wheelchairs and those with disabilities, including automatic doors and extra wide aisles. After graduating from the school, employment was assured with over 1,500 positions pledged by American jewelers.
The culmination of Bulova's success has to be the fact that the NASA invited Bulova to use it Accutron technology into the computers being used by the space program. Bulova timing mechanisms were used in 46 space missions and its technology was used in the space capsules panels for the moon mission.
