43mm Bulova Lunar Pilot / Moon Watch announced

[Seiko7A38]

Those readers, like myself, with an interest in space watches will no doubt already be familiar with the Bulova Lunar Pilot and 'Moon watch'. It's a cheaper (read affordable) quartz powered alternative to the ubiquitous (and over-hyped) Omega Professional Speedmaster 'Moon Watch'.

For those not familiar with the history, a prototype chronograph, model designation 885104/01 was given to NASA astronaut David Scott. He wore it as his personal back-up watch for the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. When the crystal popped off his officially issued Speedy, he wore this watch for the third EVA of the mission. He subsequently returned the Omega Speedmaster to NASA, but kept the Bulova, as his personal property. In October 2015, he decided to put it up for auction at RR Auctions in Boston. It made an astonishing $1.3M (+25% buyers premium) giving a total of $1.625M, setting several records in the process, including the highest price ever paid at auction for a space flown watch.

Here's just a few links:

https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot- ... 5004639001
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/co ... ing-watch/
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/dave- ... n-for-sale
https://www.gearpatrol.com/watches/a724 ... moonwatch/
https://thetruthaboutwatches.com/2021/0 ... ot-review/
https://www.ablogtowatch.com/bulova-spe ... ch-review/
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-o ... has-landed
https://shikaiseki.com/2019/04/16/the-a ... ot-review/

The upshot was that Bulova's marketing people saw an opportunity to produce a tribute watch, powered by a modern quartz movement, rather than the (Universal Geneve) mechanical movement of the original. In most aspects, including dial layout, unusual slim flat pushers, tall bezel, etc., they kept the design of the homage 'true to original'. It was released at Baselworld in 2016. Bulova later offered the watch in different finishes: brushed or polished stainless steel, bead-blasted and black PVD. It came with or without date, supplied fitted with a 20mm bracelet and a variety of straps including a NASA style velcro strap. Then followed various special editions, like their 50th Anniversary (limited to 5000) in 2021, in titanium with gold accents.

Where Bulova deviated from the original concept, is that following the fashion trend for larger watches, they increased the size from 43mm of the original to 45mm. I have a 7.5" wrist, which is slightly flat in profile. The largest watches that I consider 'looking right' on my wrist are the Seiko 7A38-6020, Yema Spationaute III and N8 Flygraf, all of which are 43mm diameter. I started looking at wrist shots of Bulova Lunar Pilots that other people were posting on various watch fora; even gazed longingly at a few FS adverts on TZ-UK's Sales Corner, but couldn't overcome my doubts about the size and bring myself to buy one. Taking the size thing to the extreme, if you want a good laugh, take a look at the wrist shots posted in my last link. In the comments beneath, the author (under)states:

6.4 inches in circumference, which is on the small side. Have to admit the watch is a bit big for me!

[Seiko7A38]

Like many other potential buyers, I always hoped that Bulova would see sense and produce a reduced diameter original size version. It seems they've eventually bowed to pressure / conventional wisdom.

Scant details so far, in two short threads on TZ-UK and WatchuSeek.

The watch will be 43mm diameter, in stainless with either a convention black or blue panda dial, initially without date.
Availability from January 2023. The bad news is that they're talking about an R.R.P. 'in the $900 range' - about double what the basic versions of the 45mm were 6 years ago, when they first came out.

Here's a couple of taster pics I grabbed from Instagram videos:

Bulova-LunarPilot-43mm-BlackDial.jpg (81.75 KiB) Viewed 4541 times

Bulova-LunarPilot-43mm-BluePanda.jpg (91.86 KiB) Viewed 4541 times

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ciyu2Jopo92/ and https://www.instagram.com/p/Ciz8lQiuEme/
The Blue Panda will come supplied on a bracelet. See: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qMwVzn_JnBs

[Seiko7A38]

I found an older thread on WatchuSeek dating back to July 2019, that had recently been bumped. The title says it all:
ask/demand/call for SMALLER Bulova LUNAR PILOT! Post #44 begins: 'ask and you shall receive,' ....



Here's a link to the interview of Bulova's CEO by someone from Redbar Crew that took place in New York two days ago, when they announced the reduced versions of the Lunar Pilot. I'm appalled by the dress sense of both parties.



The 'sneak peak' comes at approximately 17 minutes into the video. I tried to get a clearer screenshot of the trio.

BulovaLunarPilotx3.jpg (125.07 KiB) Viewed 4520 times

Slightly disappointing snippet that comes out in the interview is that these forthcoming reduced versions are actually 43.5mm Ø, not 43mm as rumoured, so they're only 1.5mm smaller than the existing 45mm watches. Embarrassingly the interviewer thrusts his black PVD 45mm Lunar Pilot into frame as a comparison @ 17:38. First impression is that there doesn't seem much difference in size.

Bulova-Video-1738.jpg (104.9 KiB) Viewed 4519 times

Oh and the R.R.P. will be $995.

[Seiko7A38]

I was wondering how Bulova might have achieved their 1.5mm reduction. The current 45mm versions are powered by their Cal. 8136 movement* which measures 15 Lignes, approx. 34mm diameter. Here's a couple of pics of it in situ:

BulovaMoonwatch-Movement-Cal8136.jpg (185.72 KiB) Viewed 4514 times

rsz_bulovamoonwatch-cal8136-crop.jpg (240.54 KiB) Viewed 4514 times

Note the white nylon spacer / retaining ring. Assuming they're going to use the same movement in the 43.5mm versions, presumably just deleting that ring will give them the 1.5mm. Incidentally, I checked back through the various videos and none of those reduced versions were actually working. Their constant seconds hands (@ 6 o'clock) hadn't moved.

*According to Caliber Corner, Bulova's 8136 movement (which is made in Japan) is based on the Citizen / Miyota 6S20, but presumably fitted with Bulova's 262 kHz 'ultra high frequency' crystal instead of the standard 32.76 Hz.

[Seiko7A38]

Much as I'm attracted by the blue panda, it's unlikely I'll buy one. I already have my 7A38-6000 Dinky Divers. I've decided to hang on (further) and wait and see if they produce a 43.5mm reduced version of the 96B251 'Special Edition' variant - i.e. matt finish case; black dial with date and leather / optional NASA style velcro strap. Apart from the date window (which the Dave Scott's prototype didn't have), it's as close to an original as I'm ever likely to get.

[Seiko7A38]

Availability from January 2023.

I've been keeping an eye on Bulova's website for any hint of availability. None as yet, sales product codes have been assigned and UK R.R.P. set at a lofty £599.

https://uk.bulova.com/96k111.html and https://uk.bulova.com/98k112.html

Bulova-Moonwatch-43mm-'Reduced'-Stainless-BlackFace-96k111.jpg (140.36 KiB) Viewed 864 times

Bulova-Moonwatch-43mm-'Reduced'-Stainless-BluePandaFace-98k112.jpg (169.6 KiB) Viewed 864 times

According to the website blurb, both versions include an optional leather NATO strap:

Bulova-Moonwatch-43mm-'Reduced'-Stainless-BlackFace-96k111-LeatherStrap.jpg (165.54 KiB) Viewed 848 times

Bulova-Moonwatch-43mm-'Reduced'-Stainless-BluePandaFace-98k112-LeatherStrap.jpg (165.35 KiB) Viewed 848 times

[Seiko7A38]

I was wondering how Bulova might have achieved their 1.5mm reduction.

It appears they've taken the easy way out and simply shaved 0.75mm off each side off the original 45mm Ø watch case. Hence why there appears hardly any difference in proportions in the impromptu comparison shot in my previous post. Disappointing.

Another thread discussing their impending release was started on TZ-UK a week ago: New smaller Bulova Lunar Pilot.
It started on a generally positive note, but disgruntled posters over there tend not to mince their words. The last post by 459GMB reads:

Bulova-43mm-TZ-UK-459GMB-Post.png (48.52 KiB) Viewed 862 times

He's right. A HUGE opportunity missed.