# Accutron Beginner's guide Identification?



## Philip Clarke (Nov 1, 2017)

Evening, I'm a Newbie and reached that time of life where I want to start a modest low priced collection. I'd like an Accutron as my first and something a little different looking, I found this on ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232544400225

listed as a 1975 BULOVA ACCUTRON UFO-CASE TUNING-FORK 2180-CALIBER STINGRAY Z2 with a case back number of J783561 and N5 (which I believe confirms the 1975 date) but other than that I can find no information on it, I've done a google search, image search, looked through a lot of thumbnails on one site. Which I realize that a lot of the "space view" versions with the clear glass are modded versions with the dial removed, I cannot find anything about this watch at all, so I was wondering if the more experienced people here could give me some directions. I realize the watch is for repair, there's a gentleman in the UK that I believe fixes them regardless. I'm just attracted to "oddities" even if the value is to me alone rather than the market forces.

Thank you for your time.


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## scottswatches (Sep 22, 2009)

That English gentleman's website is the first place to look

http://electric-watches.co.uk


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## Philip Clarke (Nov 1, 2017)

scottswatches said:


> That English gentleman's website is the first place to look
> 
> http://electric-watches.co.uk


 Thank you, I found that site earlier on and followed the links to associated one, what I think I'm really looking for is some kind of Dial Gallery, as the listing is STINGRAY Z2 TRANSOCEAN and I have scrolled though hundreds of images with less keywords in them just in case so it's pretty frustrating. I know at some point I saw a wall poster for Seiko I believe that had all the variations of automatic watches they'd made and comparitiavely a production from 1963? to 1977 make Bulova pretty small, so was hoping something similar existed.


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## longplay (Sep 27, 2017)

I'm far from a Bulova expert, so take this with a pinch of salt, but I found a bunch of 70s ads at mybulova.com that were useful.

The UFO case seems to have been used a fair bit. The hands were a concern, especially as none I'd seen had an arrow seconds hand, until I found this ad










The one top-right looks pretty good as a match for style on the dial and has similar hands.


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## Philip Clarke (Nov 1, 2017)

longplay said:


> I'm far from a Bulova expert, so take this with a pinch of salt, but I found a bunch of 70s ads at mybulova.com that were useful.
> 
> The UFO case seems to have been used a fair bit. The hands were a concern, especially as none I'd seen had an arrow seconds hand, until I found this ad
> 
> ...


 That's a tremendous resource, thank you. The unusual thing about the watch offered is that it's got the crown a 4 o'clock but no date (which matches the quoted movement), I've found some black and white at the site you mentioned that suggest that it was part of an Accutron 25x (where x is a number) from 72 onwards, 75 adverts are missing unfortunately. Stingray seems to refer to the strap and not the watch, but I can't find any Bulova watch (as opposed to Breitling) ever referred to as a transocean. From the case back through I would assume that it had an element of water resistance. Yep I'm pretty sold on it as the starting for an "oddity" based collection.


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## Bcasecollector (Oct 2, 2017)

Philip Clarke said:


> Thank you, I found that site earlier on and followed the links to associated one, what I think I'm really looking for is some kind of Dial Gallery, as the listing is STINGRAY Z2 TRANSOCEAN and I have scrolled though hundreds of images with less keywords in them just in case so it's pretty frustrating. I know at some point I saw a wall poster for Seiko I believe that had all the variations of automatic watches they'd made and comparitiavely a production from 1963? to 1977 make Bulova pretty small, so was hoping something similar existed.


 Although this site (linked below) certainly doesn't cover all case designs, it has a nice collection of cases that sometimes helps in identifying a accutron. One good way to figure out what that watch is would be take the caseback off and look for a case number. Not all will have one, but when they do, it helps (with a few exceptions). All 214 casebacks are interchangeable so if you get a case number off a accutron 214, it may not be the caseback that came with the watch. Same with 218's. Thew more you search out odd, hard to find accutrons, the harder it is to identify them.

Accutron Case Number/Design Research Link


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