Bulova Lunar Pilot Owner Review : Historical, lunar and efficient

I present to you my Bulova lunar pilot reference 96a299 purchased in January 2025. This is the version I was waiting for, the one that is probably the closest to the original worn in 1971 by NASA astronaut Dave Scott who commanded the Apollo 15 mission, the fourth landing mission on the Moon. At the beginning of the trip, he wore the Omega Speedmaster on his wrist. But Scott, along with other astronauts, had received a prototype chronograph from Bulova to test (reference 88510/01), which he had chosen to wear as a reserve. Indeed, after two laps on the lunar surface, he noticed that the glass of the Speedmaster had come loose. For his third EVA outing, Scott put the Bulova on his wrist. When I opened the box I said Wow, the dial of this Bulova lunar pilot is simply magnificent, there is a really impressive depth, the design of the case but especially the originality of the wing-shaped push buttons gives it a really atypical and retro 60s look. I come back of course to the dial which is for me the most beautiful success of this watch which of course recalls the Omega moonwatch. The thick glass which protects the integrated tachymeter bezel then the 3 different levels allow it to have a very beautiful relief. For the rest the visibility is excellent, indexes and hands are very effective and finally the watch is ultra precise thanks to the movement equipped with a 3-pin quartz crystal with a frequency of 262 kHz, 8 times higher than that of standard quartz, allowing precision and a loss of a few seconds per year. I would have preferred that Bulova keep the satin finish of the case of the original version and of course a mechanical movement rather than quartz which would be more faithful and even more legitimate, certainly the price would not be the same but we would still be far from the prices of the speedmaster. This can be a very good alternative to the Omega, but even more compared to a moonSwatch that I owned and quickly resold because their quality-price ratio is really not good. Last little remark, I have a small wrist but frankly the 43.5 it goes on the other hand the metal bracelet is a little too long even by putting it on the shortest too bad 😉 See you soon!