Bulova 1976 Accuquartz

Submitted by Mystic Nerd on January 25, 2021 - 3:58pm
Manufacture Year
1976
Movement Model
2242
Movement Jewels
Unknown
Case Serial No.
T-3579
Case shape
Tonneau
Case color
White
Case Manufacturer
Bulova
Crystal details
Faceted
Gender
Mens
Watch Description

N76 Accuquartz, 2242 movement.

The most distinctive feature of the watch are the faceted crystal and reflective blue dial, which has vertical striations.  Even a slight movement of the watch or eye position changes the appearance of the dial.

The crystal has three facets, with the edges of the three facets forming two horizontal lines.  The hands will occasionally appear to have a lightning bolt shape as they pass under a facet edge.

The 224 series movement is regulated using a series of six tuning capacitors located on the crown side of the movement.  The lowest position is for coarse adjustment, with gradually finer degrees of adjustment provided by the other positions going upwards.  The presence of a screw in a position slows the mechanism by a prescribed amount.  Those screws are extremely small even for watch screws, 0.5 mm in diameter.

I have seen photos of similar Accuquartz watches with a brown dial and gold tone case.

This watch came to me with a blue Accutron Corfam strap.  I replaced it with the tuning fork branded bracelet you see here.

Accuquartz with striated blue dial and faceted crystal.
Dial, crystal, and tuning fork bracelet
Crystal facets and signed crown
Accuquartz movedment, Cal 2242.  Date code N6 in lower right corner, very small
Back view
Mystic Nerd
Posted January 26, 2021 - 11:40am

Blue dial Accuquartz, inside back

JimDon5822
Posted January 26, 2021 - 8:29pm

Thank you for that thorough description you provided.  Very interesting.  This appears to be 1976 Bulova Accuquartz Date & Day.

Geoff Baker
Posted January 26, 2021 - 9:01pm

Swanky looking watch  - 1976 Bulova Accuquartz Date and Day

neetstuf-4-u
Posted January 27, 2021 - 8:20am

Very cool! Well described, thanks for sharing. I had no luck narrowing it down to a named variant either.

1976 Bulova Accuquartz Date and Day

Mystic Nerd
Posted July 21, 2023 - 6:36pm

The case is stainless steel; I've entered Case Color as "White" as I did not see a stainless or silver option in the dropdown list.