It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of both Frank Sinatra and Bulova watches. So when Bulova announced a series of watches released in tribute to Frank Sinatra it was bound to grab my attention.
Who knew Frank and I had something in common. A fondness for Bulova watches. It wasn’t until this release that I learned that Frank Sinatra and Bulova had a relationship that went way back. Bulova was the sponsor of Frank Sinatra’s television show, “The Frank Sinatra Show” (Bulova Watch Time).
The line consists of four watches, each with a retro feel and each named after an iconic Frank Sinatra song. They are the round “The Best is Yet to Come” and “Fly Me to the Moon” and the square “Young at Heart” and “My Way”. Between the four collections they’ve covered silver and gold cases and black and brown leather straps. There’s a silver bracelet option in “The Best is Yet to Come” collection.
I was personally drawn to the “Fly Me to the Moon” with the stainless steel case and brown leather strap. The case is 39mm diameter, 12mm thick and houses a 21 jewel automatic movement visible through the exhibition back. There are three words that I believe sum up this watch...simple, understated and elegant.
The dial is white with a “sunburst” design behind vintage markers that alternate between Roman numerals and hash marks. On the right side, just inside the numeral 3 is the date window. There are various design elements throughout that evoke the collections namesake. On the bottom of the watch face, just above the 6, is Frank Sinatra’s signature. The crown is etched with his signature fedora. On the reverse side, the leather strap is embossed with the song title “Fly Me to the Moon” and printed on the exhibition back is the name “SINATRA” in all capital letters, the name of the song and, again, his signature fedora.
The leather strap has a lizard grain textured finish, and with what I thought was a nice touch, a metal deployment clasp. As nice as leather straps can be they tend to wear out after a while from repeatedly bending them back in order to buckle. Eventually they split and crack requiring replacement. Considering the leather band on this watch is one of the design elements with the song name embossed on the inside you would hate to have to throw it away after repeated buckling if it split. That should be solved by the deployment clasp as it eliminates the need to constantly bend the leather back in order to fasten the strap.
It appears Bulova really put in the effort to make the Sinatra collection as beautiful as possible and that effort shows, even in the packaging. The watch arrived in a large square box featuring a portrait of “The Chairman of the Board” on the top with each side featuring a different song title from the collection embossed on it. Behind these various design elements is a faux wood grain pattern. But Bulova didn’t stop there. Opening the box continued to impress. Upon opening the box the watch is revealed fastened around a silver watch pillow which itself is surrounded by a black vinyl 45 “record”. The inside of the box top is also lined with a silver velour-like fabric with silver lettering.
Once you adjust the band to your wrist size, which was extremely simple, the watch goes on and off with ease due to the deployment clasp. Though it’s easy and fast to put on and take off it’s very secure on the wrist. Secure and incredibly comfortable. Much of the time I forget I have it on.
It’s a beautiful watch equally at home dressed up or down. The watch is claimed to have a 42 hour power reserve but I have yet to test it over that time. So far, wearing it several days a week occasionally swapping in another watch, it hasn’t lost or gained any noticeable time.
The domed sapphire crystal has an anti-reflective coating and the watch is rated for water resistance to 30 meters.
The “Fly Me to the Moon” collection is available in a variety of color combinations including stainless steel or gold finishes with black or brown leather straps and black or white face combinations.
Bulova makes some extremely beautiful mid-range time pieces and the watches in the Sinatra collections are no exception. I highly recommend. Very highly.
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Very timely....