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caliber timepieces
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ACCUTRON
The Worlds First
Electronic Timepiece
In any serious
discussion of 20th centurytechnology, the
Accutron 214 should be acknowledged as an American
icon. The 214
project was
begun
by Bulova at a time when America felt threatened by Russian advances in
technology. At the helm was retired generalOmar
N. Bradley, the quiet hero of
WW2 and the man after whom the Bradley Fighting Vehicle was named. The
"Astronaut" model was worn by pilots of our experimentalX-15
Rocket Planes,and Accutron played a vital part in every US
Space mission during the 60's and 70's. To this day, there are several Accutron214 timing devices sitting on the Moon's "Sea of
Tranquility". The first was carried there in 1969 by the crew of Apollo 11,
the first manned mission to actually land men on the moon. The Accutron 214 was
declared an American "Gift of State" by PresidentLyndon
Johnson
and for over a decade they were given to hundreds of visiting
dignitaries. The
214 was made into panel mountclocks
that were installed in the instrument panels of
military ships and aircraft including "Air
Force One". The 214 can reasonably be considered to be the prototype for all modern
quartz watches. No other timepiece has had a greater impact on the way we keep
time today.
A Symbol
of it's Era:
Many of us who watched the liftoff ofApollo 11
in 1969 remember the pride
and the apprehension that we felt as a tiny capsule, mounted atop a gigantic
"flying bomb" was launched into space. TV's were set up in store
windows and at workplaces so that people could go about their business without
missing the launch and we crowded around those early sets to witness the
historic event.
Three.....two.....one.....lift off! The rocket rose, ever so slowly
at first, and the world watched.
In every group, a spontaneous chant could be
heard. It was almost inaudible at first, breathed rather than spoken,
"go". Several more voices
chiming in, "go",
louder now, "go....go", and finally, shouting as the telescopic lens
showed the stages separating, GO!.....GO!.....GO!.......
As the
rocket rose into the blue Florida sky, America and the world rode with it on
an emotional high. At last, when the spacecraft had reached the escape
velocity of 17,500 miles per hour and the main engine shut down, the
enormity of what had just occurred set in. At he Kennedy Space Center on
that July day at 9:32am EDT men from Earth began a journey to the Moon and
Accutron was aboard.
America's moon landing program actually started on May 25th, 1961, approximately eight months after Accutron first appeared in stores, when President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech before a joint session of Congress in which he said that America had to be the first nation to land a man on the Moon. That was an amazing period in American history. During the next few years, with the X-15 rocket planes setting new speed and altitude records regularly, and our satellites multiplying in orbit, I wanted a piece of it to call my own. At the end of November in 1963 just a few days after president Kennedy's assassination, in need of something to lift my spirits, I went to a jewelry shop in Boston and bought a gleaming stainless steel Accutron Chapter Ring Spaceview at the then fairly high price of $150. That watch has been counting time to my life's events ever since.
The
Corvette Connection:
During the 60's and 70's, America's
Astronauts were young men who regularly flew the fastest and most sophisticated aircraft in existence at that time. They were mostly military test
pilots so it should come as no surprise that they loved speed on
land as well as in the air. Enter another American icon, theChevrolet
Corvette.
Although the many documented exploits by
astronauts with their "Vette's" were kept under wraps by NASA, and product
endorsements were, and still are taboo for astronauts, General Motors, sensing
an opportunity for free advertising, leased Corvette's to the astronauts for $1
a year. At the time, these men were only receiving a few grades above standard
military pay, so during the years that followed, everywhere that the astronauts
went as a group, there were bound to be Accutrons on their wrists, and
Corvette's in the parking lot.
Accutron Today and Tomorrow: 
Speaking of longevity, I
have no doubt that the Accutron timer controlled hardware that Apollo
Astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin left on theMoon during the first landing,
and the scientific
instruments left by those succeeding them will eventually be collected and
brought back to Earth. I only hope that we get to them first. If so they will
surely be displayed in a moon artifact
exhibit at the Smithsonian
ps:
For those of you who have
an Accutron 214 that belonged to a loved one, I hope that these paragraphs have shed some light on the reasons why many in our generation treasured them and why we kept
them in drawers long after Bulova stopped repairing them
Very truly yours,
Martin Marcus
For Astronaut Owners:
To
the present day, a surprisingly large number of pilots are still wearing an
Accutron Astronaut.
All of you original Astronaut owners are old enough to remember that during
the 60's
CBS, NBC, and ABC signed off at midnight which at that time was the
end of their programming day.
One of the stations, I forget which, ran a
short film showing a military jet streaking through towering
banks of clouds.
The film was accompanied by a narration of the pilots anthem.
For those of you 214 owners who are not familiar with this inspiring poem, I present it here. "High Flight"
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