Madmen

Bulova gets starring role in Mad Men

Bulova’s existential marketing activities in the hit AMC series Mad Men gain pace in the final series that premiered this week.

The brand’s highly accurate Accutron timing technology becomes a central plot point in the opening episode of the seventh series, Time Zones, as the show’s central advertising executive characters work to market the product.

Before Accutron was released commercially as a watch collection in 1960, Bulova developed its electronic tuning fork-based concept for the Vanguard 1 satellite in 1958 at the request of NASA. The technology was also used in the Apollo 11 moon landings in 1969, when the current series of Mad Men is set, with astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong leaving a Bulova timer on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquillity.

At the time Bulova marketed this fact with the slogan “Until now, we were merely the most accurate watch in the world”.
In the nine years between launch and the arrival of quartz technology Accutron represented by far the most accurate timing system used in watches.

Mad Men is renowned for featuring products and companies authentic to the 1960s setting, some of which are paid for product placement and some of which feature for the sake of authenticity.

Bulova is honouring the Accutron system this year with the launch of the Accutron II watch featuring unisex styling, stainless steel case, authentic sweep seconds and open dial styling.

James Buttery

Editor of WatchPro, the WatchPro Hot 100 and The Luxury Report.

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