This is the “GMT” version of Citizen vintage watches.

In fact it is not a real GMT but rather a world timer, and this is actually it’s name .

The Citizen Worldtimer.

Following the beautiful Citizen chronograph and the Citizen diver we have now a different vintage Citizen. Maybe the worldtimer will not outshine the first two, but it is at least at the same level. The feeling you get when you strap it on your wrist is like no other. The light is passing through the acrylic crystal and bouncing back from the silver dial, the inner rotating bezel with all those cities…The case is made of stainless steel, 42 mm diameter (rather large even for today’s standards), with a cushion shape. The frontal side is brushed , in a circular motion and the sides and the part where the bracelet connects to the case are polished. There is also a polished bezel that holds the domed acrylic crystal. I love the way the light passes through acrylic crystals. There is nothing like this, so worm, so inviting! The shape of the case protects the twin crowns (signed “CTZ”), one for winding the watch and one for rotating the inner city bezel. The SS caseback is screwed in, marked “parawater”. Parawater is a term used by Citizen to describe what later will become “water resistant”. For more informations about “parawater” follow the link: https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/26/citizen-parawater-citizen-parashock/

The dial is silver with applied Citizen logo and hour markers. They have green luminescent material applied. There is luminescent material on the hands too, except for the seconds hand that is polished and the “GMT” hand that is short and painted red.  The 24 hours ring might be all black or half blue, half black (just as the 2014 released Rolex GMT – ceramic bezel – 40 years later). I have seen it also with a black dial. The KYOTO is the same as Citizen but it was made for France. There was a time when Citizen was not allowed to use Citizen name so it used to sell there by the Kyoto name (very rare watches now).  

The movement is automatic with hand winding capability, hacking seconds calibre 7450, with 21 Jewels. Just as all the other Citizen movement this one is nothing fancy, just a simple working, reliable one. As time passes, you learn to  really appreciate the simplicity of Citizen movement, the sound of it, the movement of the hands…  The date is quickset and it beats at 21.600 bph. The year this one was introduced was 1971. The nice thing about this movement is that added to the three classic hands, there is a forth one (the red small one) that is circling the dial once every 24 hours. In order to operate the Worldtimer function you need to use the 24 hours hand and the inner bezel. You have to rotate the inner bezel until the timezone where you are in is opposite to the 24 hours hand. Then you have to look for the city you want to know the time in and read the time on the inner 24 hours ring, next to that city.

The bracelet is nothing but beautiful. There are other types of bracelet for this model, but this is my favorite. It has an intricate design, with polished dots and brushed links, resembling an armor, and not any armor but a Japanese samurai one. The clasp is also stainless steel signed “Citizen”. It can also be found on leather and I have seen it on rubber or nato. Still looking good. 😉

Update 2016 Apr: Mikko was kind enough to provide me a few pictures with his awesome black and white dial watches side by side. He also noted one particularity. In my watch we have “Central Europe” as in his it is ” London Madrid Rome” in the same space.

Conclusion: A real traveller watch, so entertaining to operate, so simple and so clever, nice wrist presence and gorgeous!