Best Bulova Watches of 2024

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Bulova made some of the most radical and innovative timepieces of the 20th century. More affordable than distant cousins like Omega and Rolex, its designs were purposeful, functional, and elegant. Bulovas were worn everywhere from the boardroom to the lunar surface and by everyone. Presidents, actors, even Frank Sinatra wore a Bulova.

Today, the brand kicks out fresh designs and vintage-inspired pieces ready for your wrist and is still renowned for its high quality and relatively modest price points. For under $800 retail, we’re endlessly smitten with our best overall pick, the automatic Oceanographer “Devil Diver,” a fun and funky cushion-case dive watch recently revived from archives.

Sure, your grandfather probably wore a Bulova, but we’d bet he was probably pretty cool back in the day. Plus as the saying goes, “everything old is new again.” As part of our 2024 Watch Guide, we’ve updated our selection of top Bulova timepieces—from field watches to dive watches—to consider now.

Best Bulova Watches at a Glance

• Best Bulova Watch Overall: Oceanographer “Devil Diver”
• Best Intro to Bulova Watch: Hack Watch
• Best GMT Bulova Watch: Astronaut
• Best Bulova Chronograph Watch: Lunar Pilot
• Best One-of-One Bulova: Lunar Pilot Meteorite
• Best Bulova Watch to Gift: Oceanographer GMT
• Best Bulova Reissue Watch: MIL SHIPS

Best Bulova Watches of 2024

Best Bulova Watch Overall: Oceanographer “Devil Diver”

You don’t need to have lived through the ‘70s to feel nostalgia for the disco decade. That’s why Bulova went back in time and their archives to revive its Oceanographer “Devil Diver.” The green dial and black and green unidirectional bezel on this cushion case dive watchare fun and funky. The stainless-steel, screw-back case combined with screw-down crown yields an out-of-sight 200 meters (or 666 feet for anyone wondering about the name) of water resistance, and protects a self-winding mechanical movement with a 42-hour power reserve. For sure, it’s a watch that would have been right at home on the dance floor at Studio 54, a beach in Puerto Vallarta, or even the first half of your neighbor’s key party. But today it’s my favorite piece out of the Bulova catalog.

• CASE: Stainless steel
• MOVEMENT: Miyota 821D
• DIAL: Green
• SIZE: 44mm
• STRAP: Stainless-steel bracelet

Best Intro to Bulova Watch: Hack Watch

For anyone who digs a military style field watch, the Hack is a great affordable option. It’s a contemporary ode to a watch that served on the wrists of soldiers in WWII. The classic 38mm size case houses a time-only Japanese automatic movement with a hacking seconds function for synchronization (aka stop seconds.) The ivory dial uses Arabic numerals to tell the time in both standard and Zulu formats. All in all, it would be an easy piece to make part of your own standard issue.

• CASE: Stainless steel
• MOVEMENT: Miyota Caliber 82S0
• DIAL: Cream
• SIZE: 38mm
• STRAP: Leather

Best GMT Bulova Watch: Astronaut

This reissue was inspired by the 1968 Accutron Astronaut “T,” which added a grey and black (day-night) GMT bezel to the original watch provided to Mercury-Atlas 9 mission in 1963. But unlike the OG versions, which were battery powered, today’s 300 piece limited-edition uses a Swiss-made automatic Sellita SW-330 caliber with a 56 hour power reserve—a nice upgrade for enthusiasts. The case has grown from 38mm to 41mm, keeping up with watch inflation and now comes on a “bullet” style bracelet with butterfly clasp, but also looks great on a NASA style velcro strap, a more traditional choice for interplanetary exploration.

• CASE: Steel
• MOVEMENT: Selita SW-330
• DIAL: Black
• SIZE: 41mm
• STRAP: Steel bracelet

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Best Bulova Chronograph Watch: Lunar Pilot

Sure, the Omega Speedmaster is universally known as the “moon watch.” But astronaut David Scott wore a Bulova on the lunar surface—after his NASA-issued Omega popped its crystal in the middle of the Apollo 15 mission. This special edition Lunar Pilot Chronograph pays tribute to that prototype, but with a few upgrades. The case is constructed from solid 316L surgical-grade stainless steel case and is sandblast finished. The crystal covering the chronograph is now sapphire with an anti-reflective coating, and the movement has been updated with high performance quartz that is accurate to a few seconds a year. It only takes a few days to get to the moon, so if you’re going you can probably just set it and forget it.

• CASE: Stainless steel
• MOVEMENT: Bulova NP20 quartz
• DIAL: Black
• SIZE: 45mm
• STRAP: Leather

Best One-of-One Bulova: Lunar Pilot Meteorite

The dial on this version of Bulova’s Lunar Pilot is a slice taken from the Muonionalusta meteorite, a 4.5-billion-year-old iron meteorite found in Northern Scandinavia in 1906. Because every segment is different, every dial is unique making each watch one-of-a-kind. Inside the six-hand chronograph a three-pronged quartz movement ticks away at 262kHz, which yields both a ‘sweeping’ second hand, unusual for quartz, and an accuracy of only seconds a year. The hands and applied indexes are filled with Super-LumiNova so the watch is easy to read in the dark of space or your bedroom. On the back of the case, the wearer will find a relief-engraved caseback commemorating astronaut David Scott’s lunar walk with a Bulova on the wrist during the Apollo 15 mission. The piece is limited to only 5,000 examples. So get one before they’re lost in space.

• CASE: Stainless steel
• MOVEMENT: Bulova NP20 quartz
• DIAL: Black
• SIZE: 43.5mm
• STRAP: Leather

Best Bulova Watch to Gift: Oceanographer GMT

Watches are inherently giftable and everyone needs a slick and sporty dive watch in their collection. So if you’re feeling generous, look no further than the Oceanographer GMT. Fitted on a rugged, silicone strap, the case is water resistant to 200 meters. The creamy white dial is fully luminescent for low-light environments and uses a 24 hour scale to track a second time zone. An automatic movement means it never needs a battery. While it’s not quite right for formal settings, the Oceanographer is a highly versatile piece your lucky someone can throw on the wrist for nearly any occasion that doesn’t involve a suit and tie. Thankfully, smart casual has become the norm.

• CASE: Stainless steel
• MOVEMENT: Miyota 9075
• DIAL: White
• SIZE: 41mm
• STRAP: Rubber

Best Bulova Reissue Watch: MIL SHIPS

Bulova based the MIL SHIPS on a prototype that never made it to market. The original piece was designed for the U.S. Navy and used a unique paper strip that changed color to alert the wearer that moisture had subverted the watch’s seals. Today’s piece redeploys that stress test against the watch’s 200-meters water resistance. The sandblasted 41-mm case houses a automatic Miyota 82S0 movement and features a domed sapphire crystal, screw-down crown and case-back. Another interesting feature, unlike other dive watches the timing bezel must be pushed down in order to rotate. So it stays locked in place whether you’re timing a dive or just dinner’s cook time.

• CASE: Steel
• MOVEMENT: Miyota 82S0
• DIAL: Black
• SIZE: 41mm
• STRAP: Textile

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More Bulova Watches We Love

Best Bulova Dress Watch: Commodore

For the rakish, Bulova’s Commodore is a refined piece perfect for the office. The 38.5mm steel case is highly polished and stands only 11.5 mm tall, so you’ll have no issues sliding it under a shirt cuff. A clear case-back offers a view of the Swiss-made Selita SW200 movement and its Joseph Bulova signed, limited-edition stamped rotor. The piece comes on a black leather alligator grain strap outfitted with a deployant clasp. The flat black dial contrasts the applied silver Arabic numbers in a Gothic font and syringe style hands, offering a modish dose of Art Deco flair.

• CASE: Steel
• MOVEMENT: Selita SW200
• DIAL: Black
• SIZE: 38.5mm
• STRAP: Leather

Best Bulova Dive Watch: Chronograph A Archive Series

Nicknamed “The Surfboard” for the dial design, the Chronograph A is a faithfully resurrected version of a watch Bulova only produced briefly between 1970 and 1971. The case measures 38.5mm wide and 16.7mm thick and is paired with a matching steel bracelet. Inside, a Swiss-made automatic with a 48-hour reserve powers the five hands on the dial. The watch also features a dive bezel with an aluminum insert in red and blue and a tachymeter scale under the AR-coated domed sapphire crystal. It’s a lot of watch for a fair bit of money. But for those who might be a little bit nervous about the price tag, Bulova offers a quartz version on a rubber strap for much, much less.

• CASE: Stainless steel
• MOVEMENT: Selita SW510
• DIAL: Cream and blue
• SIZE: 38.5mm
• STRAP: Stainless-steel bracelet

Best Digital Bulova Watch: Computron

The Computron feels like a prop right out of Logan’s Run. The trapezoidal design was a ‘70s prediction of the wristwatch future. Of course, almost no timepieces ended up looking anything like the Computron, but that’s what makes it so cool. The piece is battery powered with an LED screen and has the ability to display two time zones. It’s probably not a watch you’d want to wear every day, but for the money it’s an incredible conversation piece.

• CASE: Stainless steel
• MOVEMENT: Battery-powered quartz LED
• DIAL: Blue
• SIZE: 31mm
• STRAP: Stainless-steel bracelet

Best Bulova Heritage Watch: Breton

The Breton is part of the Joseph Bulova Collection, which celebrates the brand’s founder. The rectangular, stainless-steel case houses a Swiss-made, automatic movement that can be seen through the exhibition case. The sandblasted, blush dial is beautifully textured and painted with Arabic markers. A small window at three o’clock reveals the date, and the piece comes on a black leather strap with a lizard grain texture and a deployant clasp. It’s a piece we’d bet old JB would be proud to have his name on.

• CASE: Stainless steel
• MOVEMENT: Sellita Caliber 9075
• DIAL: Blush
• SIZE: 32mm
• STRAP: Lizard grain leather

Best Bulova for Design Enthusiasts: Frank Lloyd Wright

In the late 1920’s Liberty Magazine commissioned iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design 12 covers with seasonal themes. But the pieces were deemed too ‘out there’ for Liberty’s audience, so the artwork was canned. Not one to waste good ideas, Wright would go on to repurpose much of the design language across other projects. This rectangular piece is an homage to his “December Gifts” cover and uses a detail from the design meant to represent gifts tied with ribbon and bows with abstract geometric shapes. The rectangular case houses a Bulova 2035 quartz movement that spins silver hands across the red and black patterned dial with applied silver indexes. It’s nearly a square beyond compare.

• CASE: Stainless steel
• MOVEMENT: Bulova 2035 quartz
• DIAL: Black
• SIZE: 35mm
• STRAP: Leather

Why You Should Buy a Bulova Watch

Initially founded in 1875 in New York City by Joseph Bulova, a Bohemian immigrant to the U.S. In 1912, he returned to Europe to open a factory in Biel, Switzerland, where he pioneered standardization and mass production in watchmaking. A revolutionary concept to be sure, but perhaps more groundbreaking were the brand’s forays into advertising and marketing. Bulova was the first company to air a commercial on radio in 1926 and also the first to advertise on television in 1941. After all, what good is the capacity to make pieces en masse without demand?

Throughout the ’60s, Bulova reigned supreme as the king of American watchmakers in terms of advertising budgets, and by the end of the decade had expanded into 20,000 retail locations. Bulova may have talked the talk with marketing firsts, but the brand also walked the walk with its watchmaking—launching a water-resistant piece in the 1930s, outfitting the U.S. military during WWII, the CIA during the cold war, and NASA’s lunar missions with cutting-edge timekeeping equipment. They also developed a tuning fork mechanism for a fully-electronic analog wristwatch (the Acutron) to create the most accurate piece in the world at the time.

Today the brand is owned by the Citizen Watch Company, but is still based in New York. A shadow of the juggernaut it once was, the brand still produces an incredible number of models from its Precisionist, Marine Star, and CURV collections, as well as the Archive Series of vintage-inspired watches.

Once upon a time (or a few paragraphs ago), you might have thought Bulova was a watch brand for old people. Now you know they make more than a few sophisticated timepieces for everyone.

Why You Should Trust Me

I’ve been collecting watches for nearly as long as I’ve been able to tell time. Around the age of 10, I started disassembling pocket watches to see what makes them tick. Today, I feel naked if I accidentally leave the house without a watch on my wrist—and, yes, I’ll go back and get one. (Horology or OCD? Only my shrink knows for sure.) Currently, my cache includes a variety of vintage and contemporary pieces from microbrands to G-Shock. Most days, I wear an Explorer II (Ref. 226570), but my grandmother’s Mickey Mouse watch will always be my favorite.

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