Month: July 2014

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Citizen 150m diver bezel (original vs fake)


Call it fake, call it aftermarket, one thing is true: it is not original.

As a vintage watches collector I find myself often in the situation where I am wrong about some things I take too easily for granted. We all learn, sometimes it is the easy way, sometimes is the hard way, in the end, we all learn.

This time I’ve learned it the hard way with one of the most common and well known diver, the 62-6198 so I am writing this lines in order to help some potential vintage Citizen collector looking to buy a genuine one.  Read about the wonderful Citizen 150m HERE.

I already wrote about the original – fake dial for the Citizen bullhead octagonal chronograph. You can find that HERE. 

vintage citizen diver bezel 150m original fakeSo, lets see what sets them apart:

1 – First of all you should look at the luminous pearl. It should be matching the luminous material of the hands and the hour markers.

2 – The pearl should be dipped in the bezel, nor raised.

3 -The pearl, again should look a little darker on the original, not that clear and bright as the fake one.

4 – The triangle should be with clear borders, and on the top part it should be more space. The fake one has the upper part of the triangle almost touching the outer border of the insert.

5 – The numbers are not matching, take your time to spot the differences!

6 – Take the bezel insert of and see the color of the pearl on the other side.

As a conclusion: Take your time, do your homework, don’t assume you know it all and enjoy Vintage Citizen Watches!

P.S. Thank you Jack! 😉

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Vintage Citizen Newmaster – Jet Autodater


What can I say about this one? Well… I love this movement!

Citizen Newmaster autodater

The case is the usual classic style, made in stainless steel, with a screw in caseback. It is 35mm in diameter and it is entirely polished except for the sides that are brushed. The winding crown is made in stainless steel (just as the entire case is) and it is signed CTZ. The polished bezel holds in place a domed acrylic crystal.

The dial is silver, simple, with a sunburst effect. It has black writing: “Citizen 21 jewels”, “Newmaster automatic waterproof”. The applied hour markers are polished and have multiple surfaces that reflect the light no matter the angle from where you look at them. The hour date (black numbers on a white disk) has a applied frame too. The hands are polished too (without luminous material) and have a classic shape.

Citizen newmaster autodater

The movement is the main feature of this watch due to the ring rotor that I like a lot. It is a 21 jewels movement, beating at 18,000 bph. It has a power reserve at about 45hours. The date changes only by advancing the hands. The movement, as stated , is an automatic but can be manually winded too.  I came to the conclusion that the rotating ring has 4 or 6 screws but the 4 screws one seems to be a more rare type. The thing I like the most it the beautiful sound that the rotor is making when rotating, smooth, loud, mechanic.

The strap in this case is a aftermarket shinny lizard skin one. I think it goes very well with the watch.

As a conclusion, I think anyone would love to experiment at least once the sight and the sound on a ring rotor vintage Citizen movement. I really am!

More details about Jet movement here:

https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2015/03/26/citizen-jet-autodater-21-jewels/