jason_recliner wrote: ↑February 2nd 2021, 12:18am
TemerityB wrote: ↑February 1st 2021, 11:33pm
jason_recliner wrote: ↑February 1st 2021, 9:23pm
TemerityB wrote: ↑February 1st 2021, 7:45pm
... I can't for the life of me figure how this is worth $1,550.
Why's that? I don't know what it's
worth, but the price seems reasonable to me (compared to other luxury watches) for a limited edition mechanical watch from an established and reputable brand.
Established and reputable? Accutron's been through more hands than Marilyn Chambers in Behind The Green Door. In the last 10 years or so, Accutron has been, at varying times, Accutron, Bulova Accutron, Bulova Accutron made in China, and its suddenly Swiss again, and just Accutron agsin, claiming its its own brand again ...while somehow still at the new Bulova NYC address.
Bulova isn't the only brand that's been through changes in the past. But it's never shut its doors AFAIK, they have some significant historical models, they currently make some nice models, and they actually innovate and do R&D (e.g. precisionist). I don't see how they are any less established and reputable than any of the Swatch or LVMH brands, for example.
Agree to disagree. Trust me, no offense intended at all. Oh, man, far from it, Mr. R!
I'm just trying to educate and warn. From a collector's standpoint, I've never seen a watch company more unfocused and confusing than what Bulova has done the past 10 years. And again, they claim Accutron is on its own now, whatever that means.
IMHO, the Bulova Accutron stuff from the previous incarnation (not the new stuff) was as if Stuhrling Original took the brand over - the watches said Accutron, but they were far from it. I had a chance to handle those watches more than a few times, and I was shocked - I mean, they weren't even trying. I don't see any Swatch stuff ending up at T.J. Maxx, and it's easy to see why these did. Meanwhile, at the same time, here comes "Bulova Accu-Swiss," their last gasp at Swiss-made watches that fizzled out in just two years. Why? Total brand confusion caused by shitty products on one hand and name changes on the other.
Cut to today: The new Accutron models are whopping expensive, and they've professed they're "reinventing themselves" and trying to enter the luxury segment. I look at it this way - here's an homage watch from four years ago sitting next to a brand new homage watch from "Accutron," but they weren't really the same brand. Two entirely different sets of standards. One was a cash grab, the other is a "rebirth." Another case in point: When Bulova cheapened Accutron, at the same time they turned the once-respected Wittnauer into a fashion brand in an attempt to market against Michael Kors and endcap stuff.
https://wittnauer.com/
So that's two instances of Bulova brands literally going mushroom without having the mushroom label, all thanks to corporate group think. Maybe now it's Citizen pulling the strings from on high, but these brands have kinda lost their luster, as least with me. What will they be next year? Or even, next
week? You can bet your Chinese case back once one new concept fizzles, they'll come up with another one. We have FOUR different brand names all under a corporate umbrella. What once was Bulova is kinda in the rear view mirror.
Again, it's all one collector's opinion. I own a couple of Bulovas and a couple of Accutrons. I just don't have any interest in any of the new stuff. You're right, too - the word in question is "reputable." And I hope I'm wrong - I hope maybe this is a new era for Accutron; I know their new homages have gotten good reviews - and at the prices they're asking, they damn well better.
"Funny how things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach." - Neil Young
