Bulova Lunar Pilot – The moon watch in the shadow of the Omega Speedmaster

Text: Andreas Johansson

That Omega has a connection to NASA and other space programmes through its model the Speedmaster is widely known in the watch world. For example, all the astronauts in the Apollo programmes had an Omega Speedmaster on their space missions. But when the astronaut David Scott walked on the moon in 1971 he had another watch on his arm, namely a chronograph from the American brand Bulova. How did it end up there and what significance has it had for Bulova's history?  

In 1875 Joseph Bulova started his company which later came to develop into one of the world's most innovative watch brands. To begin with the brand made art deco watches, but in time they became known for being especially successful in their development of technology and marketing. Bulova quickly understood the importance of marketing via public channels such as newspapers, radio and tv. In fact the brand was the first in the world with both radio and tv advertising. 

The world's first commercial, which was made by Bulova: 

In addition to making use of public channels such as newspapers, tv and radio that Bulova also made use of public events in order to show off its watches to the general public. One such event was when Charles Lindbergh became the first pilot to crush the Atlantic, as thanks for the feat he was given a watch by Bulova but he also had the model "Lone Eagel" named after him. In addition to Bulova being successful in their media strategy they were also innovative in their technical development and in the 1960s they developed a tuning fork technology and the first fully electronic watch was born, Accutron. At that time that movement was counted among the world's most accurate.   

Bulova's media and technology strategy worked excellently and Bulova got even more attention when the Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott's Omega Speedmaster's crystal broke during a mission on the moon's surface. Scott was thereby forced to make use of his private Bulova chronograph (Model #88510/0 which was a prototype). Scott's Bulova is the only privately owned watch that has been on the moon's surface and in 2015 it was auctioned off for 1.625 million dollars. But both before and after Scott's moon landing Bulova had a collaboration with NASA and Bulova's watches have been along on 46 of NASA's missions in space. It took until 2016, however, before the company began producing the moon watch again, then under the name "Lunar Pilot". Since then it has come in a few different versions:   

Lunar Pilot – Black dial 

Scott's watch on the moon had a black dial, so this version is the one that most resembles the original. It measures 43.5 mm and comes in stainless steel. The chronograph pushers are nicely integrated in the same silver grey as the rest of the case. The watch has sapphire crystal, super luminova in the hands and markers and in addition the watch is driven by Bulova's own developed quartz movement. 

Lunar Pilot – Silver dial 

Last year a new version of the Lunar Pilot came, this one came in blue and silver-coloured details. It has the same spec. as the watch mentioned above, but the watch stands out with its blue details and is a nice addition to the family, Lunar Pilot.  

Lunar Pilot – 50th Anniversary Limited Edition

In 2021 Bulova released a Lunar Pilot to mark the 50th anniversary of Scott's moonwalk. The watch, which was made in titanium, also had gold-coloured steel details. The dial comes in grey and the back of the case has the date of the moon promanade engraved on it. The watch is limited to 5000 examples.    

Lunar Pilot – Meteorite dial

During 2024 yet another version of the Lunar Pilot is coming, this time with a meteorite dial. The watch comes with a black leather strap and the meteorite stone originates from the Muonionalusta meteorites, so there is a Swedish connection in the watch. The watch is limited to 5000 examples.