Bulova 98A284 Surveyor Automatic Open Heart Two-Tone Bracelet

Bulova 98A284 Surveyor: An Open-Heart Automatic That Doesn’t Hide the Mechanics

The Surveyor is Bulova’s Classic line at its most straightforward: a 42mm two-tone automatic with a window cut into the dial at six o’clock so you can watch the balance wheel do its work. That aperture is the whole pitch. Everything else here, from the applied gold-tone markers to the finely textured silver-white dial and the matching two-tone bracelet, exists to frame it.

The Miyota 82S0, and Why Bulova Uses It

Citizen has owned Bulova since 2008, which is why you find a Miyota caliber under the caseback rather than something Swiss. The 82S0 runs at 21,600 vph on 21 jewels with roughly 42 hours of reserve. What matters more is what the current version added: it hacks, and it hand-winds. Older Miyota 8-series calibers did neither, and that omission annoyed people for years. Rated accuracy is -20/+40 seconds a day, which is honest rather than impressive. This is a workhorse, not a chronometer.

42mm That Doesn’t Wear Like 42mm

The case measures 42mm across and about 11.6mm thick, but the 49.5mm lug-to-lug is short for that diameter, so it sits closer to the wrist than the number suggests. Lugs take a 22mm bracelet, and the deployant clasp uses push buttons rather than a fold-over catch. The bezel and center links are gold-tone; the case flanks and outer links stay brushed steel.

Where It Gives Ground

Two things worth knowing first. The crystal is mineral, not sapphire, so it resists shattering better than it resists scratches. And water resistance is 30m, which Bulova’s own spec sheet describes as splash resistant. That is the more useful description. Wash your hands with it on; don’t swim in it.

The Bottom Line

If you want a mechanical watch that shows part of its mechanism without going full skeleton, and two-tone doesn’t put you off, the Surveyor is a reasonable way in. The exhibition caseback gives you the other half of the view, and at 42mm with a short lug span it suits a wide range of wrists.