Original vintage 1973 advertisement for Bulova's Jet Star automatic watch - "If your watch takes more time than it gives, maybe you should get another watch"
 
Vintage vibes with a modern twist.  The highly sought-after Jet Star is back, and here is the original watch that inspired in back in 1973, with its bold shape and retro color details.
 
Dimensions: Approx. 8.25 inches wide by 11 inches high.
 
Per our friend, The Time Bum, "One does not generally think of 1973 as being the pinnacle of fashion. Bellbottoms were in, lapels were enormous, and my parents saw fit to send me into the world wearing v-neck sweater vests and plaid pants.  Still, there were some bright spots.  In the early 1970s, watch designers enjoyed a burst of creative freedom, experimenting with shapes and colors in ways that resonate to this day."
 
"One such winner was the Bulova Jet Star, now revamped and reissued as a limited edition for its 50th birthday.  The original Jet Stars included a range of distinctive cases and dials fitted with automatic movements.  For the reissues, Bulova reimagined an all-new yet suitably groovy watch that would have looked right at home in their 1973 catalog and powered it with the legendary Precisionist quartz."
 
Bulova was once the world’s largest manufacturer of wrist watches – during 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.
 
Many X-15 pilots qualified for astronaut wings as they flew high enough to have been considered to have reached the fringes of space.  And of course, within the cockpit of the fastest plane ever made, Lockheed’s A-12 spy plane, which handled classified aircraft development programs for the U.S. military and the CIA.  Omega may get all the credit, but Bulova played an undeniable role.
 
In 1875, a young Czech immigrant named Joseph Bulova set up shop in New York City, and his expertise carried over into his watchmaking career, which began around 1911 with boudoir clocks and pocket watches, and soon evolved to include what was then one of the latest and most fashionable technological innovations: the wristwatch.
 
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."