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| 230 front (dial side) view. | 230 back view. |
| Manufacturer: | Bulova Watch Company Inc. |
| Dimensions: | 19.4mm or 23.5mm x 5.2mm |
| Commencement of Manufacture: | 1970 |
| Tuning Fork Frequency: | 480 Hz |
| Index Wheel: | 240 teeth |
| Derived Calibres | 2301, 2302, 2303, 2312, 2313 |
The Model 230 Accutron was the first tuning fork movement small enough to be offered as a Ladies watch. It was available in two basic sizes, the only difference being the bottom or pillar plate. The larger size (23.5mm) was used in men's watches also. It could be obtained with or without a sweep second hand. The electronic circuitry had been miniaturised from previous tuning fork watches, and had one set of disk-shaped coil windings which extended between the magnetic ends of both of the tuning fork tines.
One of the really odd things about this movement is the shape of the teeth in the wheel train. In a normal watch, wheel teeth are epicycloid in shape, and pinions were hypocycloid. In the 230, the wheel teeth are almost, but not quite, triangular in shape, while the pinions are almost, but not quite, triangular in shape also, but do bear some resemblance of normal pinions. I have never seen train wheels and pinions like this in 30 years of watchmaking, so I don't know what this design is called. Why they chose to use such an unusual design is beyond me, as it still would have taken the same tooling to make them as would be need for normal gear teeth.
Just off the top of my head, I think the 230 had the smallest index wheel of all the Bulova watches. When I have a little spare time, I'll check that.
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