Timeline  /  The first tuning-fork watch
1960

The first tuning-fork watch

Bulova’s Accutron of 1960 replaced the balance wheel with a tuning fork and was guaranteed to a minute a month.

Bulova Accutron Spaceview showing the tuning fork movement
A Bulova Accutron Spaceview of 1971, its dial cut away to show the tuning fork. A later example than the 1960 launch.Photograph: Tmtriumph · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
The need
A balance wheel runs at different rates in different positions and temperatures, and after shocks.
Made by
Max Hetzel, a Swiss engineer, for Bulova of New York. Launched on 25 October 1960.
What was new
A tuning fork vibrating 360 times a second, kept going by a transistor circuit. The seconds hand swept smoothly, and the watch hummed.
Worth knowing
It was accurate to a minute a month, better than any mechanical wristwatch of its time, and it was the first wristwatch certified by NASA for use in spaceflight instruments. It is the direct step between the mechanical watch and quartz.

SourcesBulova · Google Patents, US 2,949,727

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