# Anybody Looking For An Accutron Clock?



## Larry from Calgary (Jun 5, 2006)

You can find one here on zaBay item no. 220577169080 for only $800 USD


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## dombox40 (Oct 20, 2008)

That,s not a proper tuning fork clock and is certainly not mid century as he,s leading you to believe I,d say it was late 70s or even 80s the real tuning fork clocks have a 214 movement or so I beleive perhaps Paul will chip in with his comments. He has a couple of small mantle clock and I think they would fetch a lot more than this one.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Tuning fork sure enough...just not Accutron...looks to be the same movement as the ones Rob was selling here....his were a little cheaper.


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## Who. Me? (Jan 12, 2007)

That is quite bizarre.

Definitely a Smiths/Jeco tuning fork movement (I bought Rob's), but in a Bulova case.

Surprised it fits so well.

That movement is about 2.5 inches in height, an Accutron 214 movement is tiny in comparison.

The Smiths/Jeco is marked to say it's based on Bulova patents, but I don't think they intended them to end up in one of those cases.


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## Who. Me? (Jan 12, 2007)

Footnote to this thread...

The seller put the clock in question back up for sale on ebay last week, at a more 'reasonable' price and with some more text.

The text claimed that it was quite rare etc, but how many sellers don't claim that nowerdays?

Anyhow, I thought I'd see if there was any substance to the 'rare' claim, especially as all the above indicates that we had some collective doubts as to whether the movement was the original one.

It turns out that, as far as I can tell, the clock is correct and that is the original movement.

The description is a little out though, in that the clock doesn't appear to have been branded as an Accutron, but it is still a Bulova tuning fork clock.

Googling for that reference number turned up another one that sold last year in another auction (not ebay) Bulova Clock on Live Auctioneers...

The pictures from that auction show that that clock also had a Jeco (possibly Smiths?) movement.

So; it looks like Bulova didn't solely produce 214-based tuning fork clocks (although, like I say, this one wasn't branded as an 'Accutron' clock).

The Smiths movements that I bought of Rob last month are marked with Bulova patents, so I'm guessing they didn't have to pay royalties to use the movements. Wonder if they were produced before, during or after the 214-based Accutron clocks?

Anyhow, thought I'd post this, as I thought it an interesting branch on the tuning fork tree.

I put in a low snipe, in case it didn't attract any attention, but the seller had certainly priced it better this time and it went above my limit.

Did anyone here get it?

If so, well done!


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## rdwiow (Aug 15, 2008)

If I remember rightly, Smiths started using their tuning fork movement in their clocks in 1972, very early ones were marked as Jeco with a Smiths label overtop.

This puts the movement towards the end of Bulovas 214 run.

This makes me feel old now, I remember Smiths tuning fork clocks at my primary school, which I attended from 1972, I distinctly remember the seconds hand sweeping smoothly just like a mains synchonous, but they ran on an Everyready Gold Transistor Clock battery, I remember being given the old batteries, as I guess they were changed before being dead, and I probably used them in a torch, as every 7 year old had?

Strange what you can remember that far back, was into watches and clocks even then, ask me what I did yesterday...who knows?

Cheers

Rob


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