Bulova is celebrating their 150th anniversary this year and as such they are paying tribute to some of their most significant watchmaking milestones. With the launch of the Lunar Pilot x Budii, a collaboration with Brazilian pop artist Thiago Rosinhole, they pay tribute to the Apollo 15 moon landings, which saw an astronaut wear the original Lunar Pilot timepiece on the moon in 1971.
If you’re unfamiliar with Rosinhole’s work, he’s the man behind the viral Budii sculpture, a mouse-like astronaut figure that he paints in a huge variety of styles and patterns. The astronaut connection is what makes this a relevant collaboration for the Lunar Pilot. Each of the 5,500 watches in the limited edition will come with its own Budii figure in a space suit with commemorative signing under its feet, making for a fun collectors’ set.
Let’s get to the watch. It’s a 43mm stainless steel chronograph in the classic Lunar Pilot shape with its round, curving lugs and wide, flat chronograph pushers. The accent colour here is a dark blue that’s used across the pushers, tachymeter bezel and dial. That dial is obviously the focal point of the dial because it’s made from Timascus, which is to say titanium that has been produced using the traditional Damascus style of metalworking with repeated layering of different grades of the metal to create a distinctive ripple pattern.
The timascus dial is then thermally treated to bring out a range of colours in blues and dark browns. It’s very similar to the dial of another watch that was released recently, the Venezianico Ti-Damascus albeit in chronograph form. This is pure speculation, but I can only imagine that they have the same supplier. It would be too much of a coincidence otherwise. Where Venezianico got the standard dial, the Bulova Lunar Pilot x Budii got the chronograph one with room for a tricompax display.
Powering said chronograph is Bulova’s high-precision quartz movement, which operates at a frequency of 262kHz. While every quartz chronograph I’ve ever owned used a deadbeat chronograph hand (moving once per second) the Lunar Pilot uses a sweep seconds display in a style more familiar to mechanical watches.
Protecting the movement is a solid caseback engraved with the Budii figure on the moon and a commemorative 150th anniversary inscription. The Bulova Lunar Pilot x Budii is limited to 5,500 pieces worldwide at a price of £1,295. That includes the watch, the Budii figure and commemorative packaging. While the Budii elements of the watch are fun, I think they pale in comparison to how striking the dial is, as that’s the real draw of this watch.
Price and Specs:
More details at Bulova.
I am not so sure they have the same supplier since Timascus is a brand name owned by a dude that claims to have invented the process.
I am definitely pro Bulova, I have a number of watches from this brand, and can honestly say that they are excellent, robust, and keep great time. This long established American brand definitely do not get the respect that they duly deserve, and can only think that this is due to the fact that they are not a Swiss brand, which shouldn’t make a difference but apparently does. As Michael points out, Bulova watches stepped up to the plate on the Apollo 15 mission when the Omega failed, so a definite plus point, which, leads me to ask why Bulova weren’t the main choice over omega (American company on an American led mission), but I guess we will never know for sure, but the much better accuracy of the electronic movement used by Bulova, is still far more accurate than the Omega specs of today.
Anyway, to this latest release from Bulova. – very attractive watch, and stylistically, the Chrono pushers are far nicer than the rod style generally used on most chrono’s, so all good so far (for me). Slightly larger at 43mm than I would like, and also a bit too thick on the wrist, but, the use of a Damascus style dial is currently on trend. Not sure that the Budii association is necessary, but I do see the lunar link. I’m sure this watch will go stratospheric (yes, pun intended), and hopefully will lift the brand presence to where it should be.