The groundbreaking Accutron 214

Below text borrowed from https://electric-watches.co.uk/makers/accutron/accutron-214/

When Accutron 214 based watches were first released in 1960, they were truly ground breaking. Although the Hamilton Electrics had only been released 3 years earlier, the 214 Accutron watches were very different to anything that had gone before — in fact, in one of Bulova’s 1966 advertisements, they have a tag line that says “The Accutron timepiece is not a watch.“. It was the first wristwatch to employ a transistor, it lacked a hand-setting crown on the side of the watch, it made a strange humming sound and it was very accurate. It is no surprise to me that the 214 “Spaceview” watches (see below) were a great success; owners wanted to see this wondrous movement inside their watch…and they wanted their friends to see it as well!

Here are the main calibres in the 214 Series:

Accutron 214: Standard 214 with no hacking facility

Accutron 214H: Standard 214 with hacking spring (part #194)

Accutron 214HN: GMT 214 with hacking spring (part #194). This calibre was used in the Astronauts (see below)

According to Pieter Doenson’s book, from 1968 onwards, the 214 calibre numbering system becomes as shown below. In addition, in the 1960’s, 214 movements were often used in instrument panel clocks — NASA used them in spacecraft — but I’m unsure what calibre designation these clocks would have had. Likewise, I have seen some Accutron 214 panel clocks with a date window; again, no idea what the calibre was….none of the Accutron 214 wristwatches had a calendar function.

Accutron 2140 = 214

Accutron 2141 = 214H

Accutron 2142 = 214HN

Accutron 2143 = Marine Chronometer (Mk11S)

Lots of interesting watch designs in the Accutron 214 Series! So, in no particular order…..:

Accutron 214 TV and Alpha

These are very early designs. The early Accutron 214 movements in these watches often lack certain features that were added from late 1960 onwards, such as the Coil Lead Retaining Plate (part #190). And their crown used the early Setting Stem Spring (part #9873) rather than the much more common Fly Back Spring (part #9937). Finally, they would have had the 3-lead Germanium PNP transistor based circuit rather than the later 2-lead Silicon NPN type. None of these improvements warranted a change in calibre number designation.

Accutron 214 Astronaut

It’s also surprising how many subtle varieties there are. They all have the Accutron 214HN movement which is characterised by having a second time zone hour hand. However, unlike the Astronaut Mark IIs with the Accutron 2185 movement (see Accutron 218 Series), the second hour hand on the Accutron 214HN cannot be set independently of the other hands but instead relies on the owner turning the outer bezel to set the correct 2nd time zone time.

Accutron 214 Spaceviews

For many people, an Accutron watch is synonymous with the Accutron 214 Spaceview. These very striking models came in all sorts of styles:

Cases came stainless steel, gold filled, 14K gold etc

Cases were round, cushion, Anniversary, TV shaped etc

Some had internal chapter rings with hour and minute markers

Some had crystals with the hour marks printed on the underside; sometimes as dots, sometimes as bars; in white, yellow or pink.

All sorts of hand styles: baton, daphine, alpha, etc.

But all were characterised by having no dial thus exposing the 214 movement….hence the name “Spaceview”

Due their popularity and value today, there is a mini industry producing Spaceviews from other standard Accutron 214 models with dials. Known as “Spaceview Conversions”, some are very professionally done and unless you examine the watch under a loupe, it can be difficult to tell the difference between a genuine Spaceview and a conversion.

Sadly, over the years many of the Accutron 214 watches that fall into this group have been sacrificed to make Spaceview conversions. It’s easy to do: just remove the dial and fit an appropriate signed Spaceview crystal. But it’s not so easy to do it well: you often need a movement ring, you probably need a change of hands, you may need to alter the stem length, you might need a chapter ring and not all signed crystals are appropriate for all cases.