In 1985, a young immigrant from Bohemia, Joseph Bulova, opened a small jewelry store on Maiden Lane in New York City. In this simple store he made timepieces: clocks, pocket watches, pins. With his old world craftsmanship and some ingenuity, he created watches that soon became the rage of the city. Known not only for their beautiful workmanship, but also their style, Bulova mens watch were excellent examples of European time keeping mechanisms.
First created in 1875 by a young immigrant from Bohemia in a small New York City jewelry store, the Bulova brand has developed into a broad range of styles and prices. In those days, men carried pocket watches and women wore watches as pins. Wristwatches were for the rich and considered luxury items. Until 1911 Joseph Bulova designed and sold fine pocket watches and fancy clocks. It was not until World War I that wristwatches were seen as practical timekeeping instruments.
In 1919, during the First World War, the soldiers realized how inconvenient pocket watches could be. Joseph Bulova responded by making wristwatches that were excellent yet practical timekeepers.
By the end of the First World War, Joseph Bulova and his Bulova Watch Company have produced thousands of watches worn by our soldiers on the battlefields of Europe. He presented a special commemorative watch to Charles Lindbergh when he completed his solo transatlantic flight in 1926. And as the twenties roared, the company presented the first National Radio Advertisement in 1926 at a Dodgers vs. Phillies baseball game.
In 1928 Bulova introduced the first clock radio. In 1929, it re-engineered and patented a new method of building clocks for automobiles. And the first electric clocks were manufactured in 1931. These included small clocks for homes, as well as large clocks for train stations, office buildings, airports and public buildings. During the depression, the company spent over $1 million to support their dealers by offering buyers of their watches time-payment plans.
The "Lone Eagle", a special commemorative watch designed for the Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight was snatched up as soon as they hit the ground. Five thousand watches were sold in three days! So fond of the Bulova was Charles Lindbergh, that he appeared in much of their print advertising for several years.
Never forgetting their humble beginnings, the Bulova Watch Company was eager to work closely with our Defense Department to provide our soldiers and sailors military watches. During World War II they provided strong and accurate watches to our military, as well as mechanical devices for torpedoes and other armaments that required precision timing. Being a true patriot, the company would only charge the actual cost of production, making no profit on the war products.
To help our wounded veterans, the Watch Company opened the Joseph Bulova School of Watch Making. This school was designed for disabled veterans with forward thinking accessibility: automatic doors, wider than usual door openings and aisles, lower worktables, and other accommodations. Upon graduation, the vets would find employment across the country. Most likely one of those jobs was from the 1,500 jobs pledged by the American jewelers. Once again, the company put our country first.
The culmination of Bulova's success has to be the fact that the NASA invited Bulova to use it Accutron technology into the computers being used by the space program. Bulova timing mechanisms were used in 46 space missions and its technology was used in the space capsules panels for the moon mission.
The history of Bulova womens watches cannot be separated from the history of the United States. Rising to meet the demands of the military and space, while meeting the cultural needs of the population, the Bulova mens luxury watch is an outstanding representative of American craftsmanship and technology.
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