Several unauthorized clones of the Accutron 214 movement were produced by various Soviet-aligned manufacturers. The Soviets had a well-established policy of theft and duplication of US technology during World War II and the Cold War, the most notable examples being the atomic bomb and the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Unlike these other technologies, the Soviets came in through the front door when stealing the Accutron design. President Lyndon Johnson presented an Accutron to premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1963, and the Soviets reverse-engineered the 214 in short order.

The earliest and best-known of these clones is the Slava 'Transistor', which utilizes an exact part-for-part duplicate of the 214 movement. The Slava movement is well below the material standards established by Bulova, and was only produced in small quantities; working examples are rarely seen today. Slava later produced a model with a day/date complication, of which only one example is known to still exist.


Common type of Slava Transistor, featuring an exact clone of the Accutron 214 movement.


Slava Transistor movement. Note the brown plastic coil assemblies.


Extremely rare Slava Transistor date/day model.

Following the Slava Transistor, Czech watch manufacturer Prim produced the prototype 'Elton', a Spaceview clone using their own part-for-part duplicate of the 214. The Elton is an attractive watch, with white plastic in lieu of the green diallyl pthalate used in Bulova's original coil assembly, or the brown plastic used in the Slava Transistor. Only 10 pieces were produced.


The Prim Elton, an Accutron Spaceview clone with white plastic coil assemblies.

The third unauthorized clone of the 214 is the Chinese-manufactured Tianjin 'Yinchabiao'. Unlike the Slava and Prim designs, the Tianjin movement has a side-exiting setting stem, as well as a somewhat altered pillar plate and coil assembly, which allows access to the transistor and other electronic components from the rear of the movement instead of the front. Little is known about this watch, and only one example is confirmed to exist. It is currently unknown whether the Tianjin movement was developed from Soviet duplicates, or was independently derived from the original Bulova movement.


This is the only known photograph of the Tianjin 'Yinchabiao', a modified 214 clone with rear-accessible elctronics and a side-exiting setting stem.

It is of particular note that both a day/date complication and a side-exiting setting stem were features which Bulova once sought to introduce to the Accutron product line. While Bulova opted to develop these functions on the second-generation 218 movement, the Slava and Tianjin clones demonstrate that the existing 214 platform was capable of accomodating them as well.