(PRESS RELEASE) NEW YORK, NY — For years, the watch enthusiast community has made one request of Bulova louder than any other: bring the Lunar Pilot case to a smaller 41mm. With the limited-edition Lunar Pilot “Black Hole,” that change has finally arrived. This release earns its name through the most significant story in Bulova’s space exploration history.
On August 2nd, 1971, the Apollo 15 mission commander suited up for his third and final moonwalk. Under certain anticipated operational conditions, the only method of monitoring these vital systems was with a wrist chronograph. His NASA-issued chronograph, the one he’d worn for the first two extravehicular activities had lost its crystal.
So, he reached for his backup – a Bulova chronograph. This watch was not NASA-issued and not part of the official manifest. He’d packed it himself, as a matter of prudence, in case he needed a reliable second timer to track oxygen, water, and battery levels during the lunar walk. He wore it through the extravehicular activity, through reentry, and all the way to splashdown.
After the mission, the commander testified before Congress about the watch in August 1972. The record existed. But NASA deliberately withheld the manufacturer’s name from the public record to avoid commercialization. The watch was acknowledged. The brand was not. For decades, the story sat in congressional archives with a missing name, technically public and functionally invisible, while the broader world remained unaware that an American-made watch had been worn on the lunar surface. That moment, and the name behind it, is now part of the permanent public record of Apollo 15.
None of this happened in a vacuum. Bulova’s Accutron technology, the world’s first electronic watch movement, had been embedded in NASA’s infrastructure since the mid-1950s, providing navigation timing and synchronization across 46 missions. The commander’s trust in a Bulova on the lunar surface was, in that sense, well-founded.
Advertisement
The name “Black Hole” is not only about aesthetics. In astrophysics, a black hole is defined by one property above all others: information that crosses its event horizon cannot be recovered. For years, the story of what happened on Apollo 15 existed in exactly that kind of void, known by almost no one, unclaimed by its subject, invisible to history. The Lunar Pilot “Black Hole” takes its name from that silence, and its purpose from breaking it. Black holes erase information. History doesn’t.
“The Apollo 15 record doesn’t need us to dress it up. Our job is to preserve it with the same precision the watch itself brought to the lunar surface. The 41mm case is what the community has been asking for. The name is why it matters.”— Michael Benavente, Managing Director, Bulova
Technical Innovation and Design
To achieve the darkest aesthetic possible, the Lunar Pilot “Black Hole” utilizes a special Musou black paint with 99.4% light-absorbing capability on the dial. The case and bracelet get their matte, light absorbing finish by a combination of a sandblasted finish and PVD plating.
- Case Dimensions: A new, smaller 41mm case (lug-to-lug 48mm).
- Movement: Powered by the NP20 High Precision Quartz (HPQ) 1/20th second chronograph movement.
- Case Back: Features a screw-down construction with a unique glass insert depicting a matte black and grey lunar landscape and Apollo 15 mission details.
- Visibility: Includes grey Super-LumiNova indexes and hands that glow blue, protected by a flat sapphire crystal with a 5-layer anti-reflective coating.
- Packaging: This limited edition of 6,000 pieces comes in a specialty “Black Hole” box, including a travel pouch and a travel clock inspired by the Lunar capsule instrument used in the Apollo 15 trip to the Moon.
The limited-edition Lunar Pilot “Black Hole” is available in 6000 pieces, accompanied by a gift set and limited-edition clock, to purchase at Bulova.com beginning April 28, 2026.
Advertisement
