Original vintage 1970s Bulova LCD Digital Quartz advertisement - "Bulova - A Name You Know on a Watch You Can Trust - Quartz Digital" 
 
"The LCD: time when you want it...always there, always dependable, always accurate, because it's a quartz digital by Bulova."
 
Dimensions: Approximately 8 inches wide by 11 inches high
 
Bulova was once the world’s largest manufacturer of wrist watches – in fact, in the 19th century, Bulova went from strength to strength, in particular during the Cold War, when it was used for a wide range of national security applications, from the NASA space program (where it was adopted as cockpit instrument panel timers for manned space flight in the U.S.’s Gemini and Apollo programs) to its use in the hypersonic X-15 rocket plane program, launched from under the wing of a B-52 Stratofortress at high altitude and flew at speeds of up to 4,500 mph.
 
Bulova introduced its first line of wristwatches in 1919. Manufacturing watches at their factory in Biel (Switzerland), Bulova began a standardized mass production never seen in the world of watchmaking until then. The company grew and prospered, and soon early radio and television ads were declaring, "America runs on Bulova time."
 
In 1954, Swiss engineer Max Hetzel developed an electronic wristwatch that used an electrically charged tuning fork powered by a 1.35-volt battery.  The tuning fork resonated at precisely 360 Hz and powered the hands of the watch through an electromechanical gear train.  Known as the “Accutron,” Bulova began selling the watch in 1960.  Although Bulova did not have the first battery-powered wristwatch, the Accutron was a powerful catalyst, as by that time the Swiss watch-manufacturing industry was a mature industry with a centuries-old global market and deeply entrenched patterns of manufacturing, marketing, and sales.
 
Bulova's entry into the world of solid-state Quartz digital watches was initially marked by hesitation, as the watch manufacturer assessed reliability had to be proven over time.  However, Bulova would experiment with both LED and LCD watches, winning design competitions before the company officially launched its first model, the Big Block 228 LED watch.  However, Bulova's late market entry caused it financial trouble from 1976 onwards.
 
During this time, the so-called “Quartz Crisis” – initiated by Seiko, naturally – was well underway amid the postwar global Digital Revolution (or "Third Industrial Revolution").  The crisis started with the Seiko Astron, the world's first quartz watch, introduced by Seiko in December 1969. 
 
The crisis, also referred to as the "quartz revolution," particularly in the United States where many American companies had gone out of business or had been bought out by foreign interests by the 1960s, witnessed the U.S. take a prompt technological lead in part due to microelectronics research for military and space programs.
 
During the Quartz Crisis, Bulova followed the lead of other watchmakers in creating electronic quartz watches by introducing the Computron watch in 1976, Bulova’s first watch with a LED display and first digital watch.  It featured a distinctive trapezoidal steel case profile, with the display located on the side of the case rather than the main face, and was marketed as a beneficial design for drivers so that they could view the watch without needing to roll their wrists or release the steering wheel.  The success of the Computron was a significant factor in keeping Bulova financially viable through the next several years.
 
American companies like Texas Instruments, Fairchild Semiconductor, and National Semiconductor had also started the mass production of digital quartz watches and made them affordable, winning commanding percentages of the market. This would not remain so for long – by 1978, Hong Kong was exporting the largest number of electronic watches worldwide, and U.S. semiconductor companies would pull out of the watch market all together.  
 
With the exception of Timex and Bulova, the remaining traditional American watch companies, including Hamilton, went out of business and sold their brand names to foreign competitors; Bulova would ultimately sell to the Japanese-owned Citizen in 2008.