Bulova: A History of Firsts chronicles the extraordinary American watch company in a fittingly unusual manner: by recounting an epic, multi-generational picaresque that runs from the Gilded Age up through present-day New York City. Joseph Bulova, the man behind the movement by which America would set its time, was an iconoclastic industrialist fostered a corporate culture of innovation that endures today. What makes the previously untold story of Bulova—the founder, his son and their eponymous business—especially remarkable, though, is the seemingly limitless series of firsts that garland the company’s history: in watchmaking prowess, certainly, but also advertising, marketing, aviation and space exploration, even feminism—and firsts continue today. The entirety of social history and modern popular culture has been influenced by the achievements of this singular watchworks—“America runs on Bulova time,” as the old slogan went, and subsequently so does the world.

Less a traditional corporate history than an exactingly curated periodical, this profound new title features eight visually captivating chapters comprising an essay each by luminaries including style writers David Coggins, Matthew Hranek, and Kate Betts; music-industry legend Nile Rodgers, advertising journalist Stuart Elliott, noted horology authority Jack Forster and more, all edited by luxury historian Aaron Sigmond.

Aaron Sigmond is an award-winning publisher, editor and author of numerous books, including six on watches, who has written about timepieces and the watch industry for over a decade; he has worked on projects for Esquire, Playboy and Time Inc.; and was previously group luxury editor for Doubledown Media. He divides his time between New York City and Charleston, South Carolina.