Bulova Astronaut Day and Date Wheel

A few days ago, I posted a watch I called 'Date Wheel' by Benetton, but not part of their Benetton by Bulova range. Today's watch is a Bulova with date wheel, but nothing to do with Benetton!

I don't have a definitive model name/number for today's watch, so I've decided to call it the Day and Date Wheel based on its features, but there is also the name Astronaut in tiny writing on the dial. The watch is a quartz analogue model with a 3 hand dial design for telling the time. The unusual part is how the watch shows the day and date. The date is done with a wheel behind 7 equally spaced windows, with the middle of the bottom window showing the date. The days are written around the edge of the dial in gold capsule shapes with a small window at each end. The day is shown by the dots behind the windows showing red instead of white, and interestingly, the transition between days is shown with one dot in each.

The watch is made of grey painted /anodized base metal with a grey steel back, and there is a gold cog tooth pattern around the edge of the glass. The strap is a matching grey metal and there is the Bulova tuning fork logo on the clasp.

The watch is made by the US watch company Bulova. They were founded in 1875, starting the first dedicated watch making plant in 1912, and bringing mass production into watchmaking on a scale never seen before. Over the years, they were good at embracing advertising technology, being thought to have had the first official radio and television adverts. In 2007/08, the brand was incorporated into the Citizen watch making family.

This model has no indication of a date in the watch as far as I can tell. If they use the same format for serial numbers as Citizen, that would suggest a manufacture in X7, and based on the design, I'd suggest 1987. There is a second number on the back 8988501 which could be a model number, but the imprinting style suggests it was a number which changed regularly...