The announcement coincided with its full-year results, with growth driven by its jewelry brands.
Accutron Opens a New Chapter With a ‘Legacy’
Citizen is relaunching the world’s first fully electronic watch as its own brand, separate from Bulova.
New York—Watch brand Accutron is celebrating 60 years with new collections, a book, a podcast, and an identity separate from Bulova.
After getting its start in 1960 as the Bulova Accutron—the world’s first fully electronic watch—the timepiece, which has not been produced in over 40 years, is being reintroduced by parent company Citizen Watch as just Accutron.
And what better way to reintroduce a brand than by riffing off some of its greatest hits?
This past fall, the Citizen-owned brand invited a select group of watch collectors to its head offices in New York’s Empire State Building.
There, the collectors spoke about their history with Accutron and identified the watches that were historically significant and/or the most sought-after vintage models.
From that feedback came the Legacy collection, a group of 12 watches all limited to 600 pieces each that take their cues from Accutron models made up until 1974. (The watch was only in production for 17 years, between 1960 and 1977.)
The original Accutron was a miniature electronic marvel in its time. It was known for its accuracy and, in fact, its name is a portmanteau of the phrase “accuracy through electronic.”
In bringing back the brand, Citizen already released the Accutron “Spaceview 2020” and “DNA,” the world’s first watches powered by electrostatic energy.
But with the Legacy collection, it’s more about capturing those design vibes of the ‘60s and ‘70s than it is about technology.
See: 5 of the Watches in the Accutron ‘Legacy’ Collection
All 12 pieces in the Legacy collection have the same movement, the brand’s Swiss-made 26-jewel movement, are water-resistant to 30 meters and have sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating.
The watches are priced between $1,290 and $1,550 retail and will be available beginning next month on the Accutron website as well as at independent jewelers like Watches of Switzerland.
In addition to the fresh collection, there’s a podcast and a new book, “Accutron: From the Space Age to the Digital Age.”
Written by Hodinkee Editor-in-Chief Jack Forster and Aaron Sigmond with a forward by industrial designer Carl Gustav Magnusson, the six-chapter tome is available for $75 on the website of publisher Assouline or offered as a set with a limited-edition Spaceview 2020 timepiece for $4,000.
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