Five Star General Omar Bradley’s Special Bulova Accutron

Five Star General Omar Bradley’s Special Bulova Accutron
A five-star watch for the Fourth of July.
Andrew Hildreth

Finding an actual Bulova Accutron watch owned and worn by five star General Omar Bradley was a surprise. I knew that Bradley, who rose to command the U.S. First Army during World War II, had been Chairman of the Board of Bulova from 1958 to 1973, and that watches bearing the five star insignia had once existed, but of these watches there was no sign – no photographs, even on Bulova enthusiast websites.

Omar Bradley as General Of The Army, wearing the 5-star insignia.
Bradley was the last U.S. officer to hold a five star rank, which denotes a General of the Army. Bradley was instrumental in running Bulova, but he was also committed to the rehabilitation of U.S. military veterans into society, training former soldiers at Bulova’s watchmaking school, and using Bulova’s program as a blueprint for retraining soldiers after their military service. He also helped Bulova become not only a watchmaking company, but a maker of critical timing instruments for military and aerospace applications, especially during the Cold War.
The Bulova Watch Company
The J. Bulova Company was founded by Joseph Bulova in 1875; he was an émigré from Bohemia (what is now the Czech Republic). Manufacturing took place in both the USA and in Bienne, and Bulova had many firsts to its credit, including the first watch ever advertised on both radio and on TV. 
The Bulova Watchmaking School was founded in 1945 by Joseph’s son Arde to help train returning GIs and while Arde did not serve in World War II, his brother Harry D. Henshel did. It’s here that the connection to General Bradley can be seen; Henshel served as an officer in the First Army directly under Bradley and it was Henshel who invited Bradley to observe the Watchmaking School.

Bulova’s Harry Henshel with Omar Bradley.
Bulova was hard hit, as many companies were, by the quartz crisis and was bought out by the Loews Corporation in 1979. In 2008, Bulova was sold to Citizen Watch Company of Japan and today Bulova is part of the largest watchmaking company in the world.
The Last Five Star General
General Omar Bradley was born in rural poverty in Missouri but excelled academically and as an athlete in high school, and was working after graduation as a railroad boilermaker when his Sunday school teacher encouraged him to take the entrance exam for West Point. He graduated in 1915 as part of a group known as “the class the stars fell on,” which is a reference to the fact that out of a class of 164, 59 would become generals. You’d think that with five stars and the command of the First Army, Bradley would be the highest-ranking officer of the group and you’d almost be right – he was beaten only by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would achieve a five star rank and as well, become Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe.

Omar Bradley as a cadet at West Point.
At the time of the D-Day landings, Bradley had approximately 1.3 million men under his command – more than any other U.S. general in history. Yet Bradley was by many accounts, a quiet and polite man, unlike some of his colleagues who had larger than life personas. A circumspect, thoughtful man, Bradley was decidedly introverted, always saying “please,” and talking in a measured manner. He became known as the “GI’s general,” thanks to this, and his reputation for being sympathetic to the situation of men at the front. 
Some dissented with his leadership style but for the most part he is remembered as a fine officer with great concern for the welfare of his troops. At the end of World War II he held the rank of four star general, and in 1950 was made General Of The Army (a rank in the U.S. not in current use and generally reserved for wartime) with the right to wear five stars on his uniform.

Three generals, with very different personalities: General George S. Patton, General Omar Bradley, and Field Marshal Bernard “Monty” Montgomery.
The Military-Industrial Complex: Bradley And Bulova
Bradley became the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but retired from active service in 1953 having become disillusioned with the Truman administration’s handling of the Korean War. 
It seems natural in hindsight that as an officer concerned with the welfare of soldiers, that Bradley became head of the Veteran’s Administration, a position he held from mid-1945 to 1947. He was particularly interested in helping wounded veterans ease back into civilian life. The Bulova School of Watchmaking was of interest to him from the outset, as the School was a pioneer in accessibility for the disabled, and was designed to help make disabled servicemen feel at no disadvantage. Graduates could be sure of employment with over 1500 positions pledged by the Jewelers of America.
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The Accutron was the most advanced watch of its time and was chosen not only by NASA, but also by the CIA for the pilots who flew the fastest plane ever made. Find out more here.
After his tour Bradley wrote, “I hope we can encourage other people to start similar projects, so that every one of our boys who has suffered disability can have an opportunity to feel independent and to feel he is accomplishing something.” Bradley was also quoted in a news sheet for veterans as saying the School, “… marks a new step forward in joint government and industry cooperation to ensure there will be no repetition of the wasteful and costly practice of ignoring the talents and abilities of disabled veterans.”
Omar Bradley became Chairman of the Board for the Bulova Watch Company from 1958 to 1973. It was a time when the watchmaking industry in the U.S. was increasingly seen as a vital element not just in consumer products, but in the American defense industry as well.
Watchmaking was so important to the U.S. in terms of essential skills and technology that in July, 1954, President Eisenhower increased the tariff on imported watches “… to aid the security of the United States by insuring the preservation of essential skills…” This decision rested on the recognition “… that the American watchmaking industry is essential to our national defense …” (Bulova Watch Company Annual Report, 1955). Mr. Arde Bulova was called upon to speak before a sub-committee for the Committee on Armed Forces of the United States in which he detailed the critical role of watchmaking and the manufacture of precision devices for weapons supplied to the Army, Air Force, and Navy.
Not only was Bradley Chairman of the Board, he was also (and this is less well known) Chairman of Bulova’s Research and Development division from 1954 onwards. 
In this capacity Bradley made a telling case (in Bulova’s 1955 Annual Report) as to why President Eisenhower had signed off on the increase in the tariff. Uppermost in Bradley’s mind was not only the supply of precision parts and instruments, but also the skilled labour required to manufacture and maintain such precision devices. As Bulova had manufacturing facilities in both the U.S. and Switzerland, it was uniquely placed to benefit from technology and production in both locations without incurring the tariffs on their products. However, the concern was to retain domestic production and supply. The lessons learned from the Second World War and the Korean War were still very much in Bradley’s mind. He wrote letters to Bulova’s shareholders assuring them that the protectionist measures were in the national interest for defense.  

Omar Bradley and Harry Henshel during Bradley’s tenure as Chairman of the Board.
Under Bradley the R&D department began producing timers, and also many other precision devices, for military applications; in 1954 he wrote, “Bulova is producing mechanisms of the most complex and delicate nature for our national arsenal – detection devices for guided missiles, mortar fuzes, mine detectors, complicated torpedo-head assemblies, quartz crystals, and certain devices which are classified as secret by the Department of Defense.” In just one year (1954) the number of employees at the Research and Development division increased fivefold. And a critical element, for both consumers as well as for the military, was the development of the watch known as the Accutron.
Accuracy Through Electronics: Accutron
In 1952 Bulova’s Harry Henshel went to Switzerland to research possible new technologies for watchmaking, having become concerned about advances in electronic watches by rivals like Elgin and Lip. There he met engineer Max Hetzel at the Bulova factory in Bienne. It was Hetzel who became the father of the Accutron tuning fork watch and by 1954 he had already made a working prototype. The 1958 Bulova Annual Report said, “This timepiece will for the first time harness electronics to produce accuracy surpassing that of any mechanically energized watch.” The Accutron movement was built around a low voltage Raytheon CK 722 transistor and unlike Bulova’s rivals’ electronic watches, used a vibrating tuning fork rather than an electrically impulsed balance wheel. 

The very first Accutron movement, the 214, was inside the first Accutron watch sold in 1960 and Accutron technology quickly became the standard for high precision timekeeping – both on the wrist, and in military, aerospace, and navigation applications. Accutron came to define the company. 46 NASA missions were flown with Accutron clocks in the cockpit. In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson gave Accutron clocks to visiting state dignitaries. Air Force One was equipped with Accutron clocks and NASA even left Accutron timers behind on the Moon as part of lunar experiment packages.
Bradley’s Bulova Accutron
Accutron and Bulova became synonymous and even today the watch many think of when they hear the name Bulova, is the Accutron. Bradley’s Bulova Accutron, which was located recently in a private collection, is very in keeping with watch design in the latter part of the 1960s, with a Calatrava style watch case and crown offset at 4:00. The silvered satin finished dial and gold markers are also typical for the era. 

What sets this apart as one of Bradley’s watches is the five star insignia. These were actually a series of watches that were given as gifts by the company, and Bradley would actually wear the watch daily until it was given as a gift. This was not an everyday occurrence of course and the Bulova Museum believes that no more than 12 were made, so this is likely one of 12; the current owner declined for now to let the Museum acquire this example as it’s a family heirloom.

Note those five stars just above six o’clock.
The watch is an Accutron 218, made around 1968, and it symbolizes a time when American watchmaking not only produced technical marvels (albeit in Switzerland) but also provided mechanisms and material essential to US defense. By the time Omar Bradley stepped down as Chairman, in 1973, Bulova had sold around 4 million Accutrons, providing an unprecedented level of precision.

The movement of the Omar Bradley 5 star Accutron; at the top are the two heads of the tuning fork and the driving coils. The two copper colored circles inside the triangular cut-out of the bridge are the attachment points for the arms holding the index jewel, and the pawl jewel.
The heart of the Accutron was a tuning fork, whose precisely controlled vibrations gave the Accutron its accuracy. Above you can see the heads of the two prongs of the tuning fork, as well as the coils that cause them to vibrate. Turning the linear motion of the tuning fork into a circular motion for the watch hands is done by using an impulse jewel connected to the fork, which pushes an “index wheel” forward one tooth at a time. (A second pawl jewel prevents the index wheel from slipping backwards.) 
The index wheel was an extraordinary piece of engineering. It had 320 teeth, each only 0.01 mm high, and it was only 2.4 millimeters in diameter and 0.04 mm thick. There were 20 patents filed with the Accutron movement from 1950 to 1959, although the main patent that sets out the movement was patent number 312290, filed in Switzerland on June 19th, 1953. Max Hetzel produced the first working prototype (the one used for the main patent in 1953) by hand.

An interesting aside in the story (and there is some contention in literature dealing with the sequence of events) is that Hetzel almost left Bulova for Omega in 1957. Hetzel’s first prototype, though granted a patent, was not reliable and the manager of the Bienne factory wanted to scrap it, so Hetzel threatened to leave. Arde Bulova personally intervened and offered Hetzel the position of chief physicist at Bulova’s New York plant, and it was there, in 1959, that prototypes of the first successful production models were produced.

Just a year after this watch was made, Seiko sold the first commercially viable wristwatch with a quartz movement: the Astron. The era of Accutron as the world’s most accurate production watch was drawing to a close. With the waning of General Bradley’s influence and the loss of his connections to the corridors of power in Washington, Bulova’s place in the military supply chain also came to a close. This “Five Star” Bulova Accutron 218 is symbolic of both the pinnacle, and the beginning of the end, of an amazing chapter in American watchmaking history.