I have read discussions here and there were some people have claimed that Bulova never made a Mark I and in a way they didn't but this never made any sense to me, I mean why would Bulova start with the Mark II and and not the Mark I ? well that's because the first "Marine Navigator" was a experimental prototype Bulova used as a proof of concept and was the first in a line of marine timekeepers to be made, In the beginning (1966) Bulova wasn't even thinking about the next "Marine Navigator" to be released, heck they hadn't even released this one yet so there was no need for a "Mark" anything, Officially this marine timekeeper was called the "Model TE-18 Navigational Timepiece Experimental Model" which is a bit of a mouth full, This new marine timekeeper was only identified by the dial which simply said "Bulova Accutron" on it, not a real catchy name for this new marine timekeeper but that would later be changed to "Accutron Navigator Mark II" for release to the general public (1967), How many were made and how many may still exist is unknown but I know of only one ! It is currently owned by Chris Hooper of Windy City Watch Collector who runs the web site Windy City Watch Collector: Vintage Watches, Chronometers & Military Timepieces for Sale, When it went into production it was very much unchanged from the experimental prototype used for testing and from what I can tell the only thing changed was the name. Suffusive to say among the "Marine Navigators" Bulova produced it's the holy grail for collectors !
That's so cool.
Great info, too!
Fantastic. Good info, and a great watch. Thanks for adding it to the database.
Thanks guys, just FYI i changed my name to the name i originally tried to make it but messed it up but the admin has kindly fixed it for me, Thanks a mill i have more watchs coming !
Here's a peek inside the three tier movement assembly, not many people know how the three movements worked together in a way that translated into higher accuracy, The electronic circuits of the three units are interconnected so that the resulting rate is an average of the rates of the three fork frequencies.
In reply to Here's a peek inside the by Accutronitis
Great time piece and no doubt an important part of Bulova history of manufacturing highly accurate time pieces like they still do today. I'm amazed that it has three actual interconnected accutron movements.
It certainly is a fascinating gizmo. Interesting piece of Accutron history for sure. Quite possibly the most important piece of equipment on a ship in the day. Without knowing the time, a sailor has no way of knowing where he is (at least until GPS).
My question for the panel. What do we call this beauty? If this is a 1966 model and the name was changed to Mark II in 1967, should it be classified as "Accutron Navigator"? Seems to me it should.
"TE-18 Marine Navigator".
In keeping with what we have how about : Accutron Navigator with 'TE-18' in the model field.
I cannot e any reference to 'Marine' in the paperwork.
I think that would be fine Stephen. Accutronitis, if possible could you scan and e-mail that document to admin? We have a place where we can publish it.
Chris Hooper is the owner of the clock & document, i'll ask him if he could give me a copy of it. i've got a much higher rez of the doc photos but i had to drop the rez to upload it here.