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In the wild and wonderful world of 1970s watch design, the tool watch reigned supreme. This was an era of bold colors, funky case shapes, and cool, practical complications built for a new generation of adventurers. And while many Swiss brands were producing incredible pieces, some of the absolute coolest and most accessible tool watches of the day were coming from Caravelle, the powerhouse sub-brand of the legendary American manufacturer, Bulova.
Launched by Bulova in 1962, Caravelle was created to offer stylish, high-quality, jeweled-movement watches to a wider audience. But these were no mere budget pieces; they were backed by Bulova’s design expertise and quality control, resulting in fantastic, durable watches that have stood the test of time. As the jet age made the world feel smaller, the world-timer complication became an incredibly popular and aspirational feature, and this fantastic Caravelle is a perfect expression of that globe-trotting spirit.
This particular Worldtimer, a Reference 753 from the early 1970s, is pure, unadulterated fun. It all starts with the awesome, cushion-shaped stainless steel case—a classic 70s design with a substantial and comfortable presence on the wrist. The matte black dial is clean and highly legible, with big, blocky applied markers and a useful day-date window at 3 o’clock. But the star of the show, of course, is the world-time complication. By rotating the bidirectional outer bezel to align a home city with the current time on the inner 24-hour track, you can instantly read the time in dozens of locations around the globe, from Dakar to Denver, Sydney to Singapore. It’s a brilliant, charmingly analog piece of pre-digital tech.
