citizen 8110

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Citizen Chronograph “Speedy” 67-9313


Finally, I found the time to write a few words about it, one the most desired vintage Citizen chronograph, the “Speedy”. It is called this way because of the resemblance with the well known Omega Speedmaster. (did you know that there is a Speedmaster limited eddition of 500 with white dial, the “Albino”?) I like it a lot, (not because of the Moon watch) and it is one of my favorites, along with the Recordmaster and the octagon “Bullhead“.

omega speedmaster citizen speedy

This one is also made of stainless steel and has all the DNA of a vintage Citizen chrono.

citizen vintage automatic chronograph speedy 67-9313

The main attraction of this model is the dial and the outside tachymeter scale bezel insert. (it comes with white or black dial) All these features combined make it gorgeous. The case is finished beautifully, polished and brushed for a very nice contrast. The crown (signed CTZ) and the pushers are polished, made of SS too. They are located on the side, in the traditional way, not like most of the Citizen automatic chronographs that are called “Bullheads”, on the top. The case back screws into place and has all the info about it, the model, the material, the serial that gives information about manufacturing date…

The movement is the famous in-house calibre 8110A, that I wrote about quite a lot. It is an automatic, running at a high beat of 28,800. It is a fly back movement displaying both the date and the day of the week. It can also be manually wound.

Most of the times when I see this model it is on leather straps, but originally it also came on a bracelet. The one in the picture is not the original type but any straight end 18mm one will do just fine. In fact this watch looks good on almost any strap you throw on it.

UPDATE: Here is the pair, black dial, next to the white dial one. Which one do you like the best?

citizen speedy 67-9313 black white

You can read more about other vintage Citizen chronographs on the dedicated page, HERE.

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Vintage Citizen Chronographs


You may call them “Bull head” or “Speedy” or “Walter Wolf” or “Challenge Timer”. It doesn’t really matter, as long as we all call them “Beautiful”.

Here it is 2016 and I want to start the year sharing this picture of four of my watches. What we have here is a small collection of chronographs, all with Citizen 8110a fly back movement beating inside. vintage automatic citizen bullhead speedy 8110s

Because I already wrote a few articles about watches powered by this awesome movement, you can read more about this calibre HERE.

The watches above are: 

  1. Black coated alloy Blackie Challenge Timer, rare green dial – read more HERE & HERE 
  2. White dial SS Speedy with outer Tachymeter bezel – still working on the article
  3. The black dial SS octagon Bull Head – read about it HERE
  4. Titanium Walter Wolf, Promethium dial, count down rotating bezel – read more HERE

I wish you all the best for this year and may you find your perfect Vintage Citizen Chronograph for you to call “Your own”. 😉

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Citizen “Bull Head” Chronograph 4-901096-K


One of the Citizen mysteries, for me, gravitated around this very model. It is not only a very elusive watch but a beautiful one too! I have seen a few pictures that made the dial look bright green and in others looked a little bit towards golden brown. So I had to have them both to see myself how they look in real life!

citizen bullhead chronograph vintage

Finally I found two, both in excellent condition. So, here came out the magnifying glass, the photo camera and I kept on looking at one and then to the other in all lighting condition and from all the angles. In the end the conclusion is:

  • same case: 6N-4W-S, case back, pushers and crown
  • same model no: 4-901096-K
  • same movement: Citizen cal 8110A
  • same date and day wheel (English – Japanese)
  • same dial code: JAPAN 8110 – 901166 KA
  • same dial color – green, BUT… different shades of green

In fact most of the times they look almost the same, but from time to time, they look like in the picture above. So… why this difference? I do not know for sure. Based on the serial no, both these watches were made in the same day or very close together because they are only about 60 watches apart. My opinion this far is that the paint used had a slightly different proportion of ingredients. The simplest explanation is most of the times the correct one. If any of you guys have another point of view regarding this, please let me know! Maybe sun exposure, patina or…?? One day we might find out.

Update 2017 September: A NOS full package watch, box and booklet. The strap is the original Citizen rubber one. The price at the time was 23,000 JPY. (pictures from the online seller)

Meanwhile… read more about vintage Citizen bull head chronographs HERE.

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Citizen chronograph calibre 8110A


Here are a few pictures of the gorgeous in-house movement Citizen cal 8110A that my friend Sergio was kind enough to let me use on the site so all of us could enjoy! Thank you Sergio!

The movement here is the Citizen automatic, 23 jewels, calibre 8110A with hand winding capability. It was produced by Citizen starting from 1972. It is a vertical clutch chronograph (beating at 28.800 bph) with column wheel and fly back function. (how many modern chronograph do that, and what is their cost?) Lets don’t forget it has a day and date indicator. The fly back function means that you can reset the chronograph while in motion and it will start again without needing to go the entire process of pressing stop-reset-start. So, one push can do all of this. Of course that if you want to stop it you can go the classic stop-reset way. A particularity for this movement is that when you want to change the day you should pull the crown to second position (for changing the date) and push and release the reset (1 o’clock) button. It is 27 mm wide and 6.9mm high. The column wheel/vertical clutch design of the movement advices to leave the chronograph running for most of the time (this way you can also see the beautiful sweeping central second hand in movement), but from time to time it should be stopped. This is a chronograph that needs to be used. It is not made for design purpose but for timing.

citizen 8110a chronograph

Citizen 8110A

Features
automatic chronograph, 60s, 30min, 12h, pillar wheel
flyback feature: reset and immediate restart
day: set by reset-pusher in crown position for date setting, 2 languages
date: quickset

Data
12”’, Dm= 27.0mm
H= 6.9mm
23 jewels
f = 28800 A/h
power reserve 40h

Stem Citizen 065-178

Remarks
1970-
ball-bearing rotor
usually as bull head (crown/puschers at 12h, day/date at 6h)

Example, year: signature; shock device
1977: Citizen Japan, 23 J.; Parashock

Data about this movement from here.

Read more about one of my favorite Citizen, one powered by this awesome movement here: https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/24/citizen-bullhead-chronograph-67-9356/

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1974 Citizen Chronograph Print


One lucky find was this page from Auto Motor Sport magazine from 1974.

It says “Citizen Chronograph Automatic” and “A lot of precision for the money (at this price)”. So, we have a racing automatic chronograph that is not too expensive and still very precise. The race on! These are the designs that were used at the time. My favorites are not here (The Walter Wolf and the Octagon bullhead).

On the other side of the page we have a red Ferrari Testa Rossa. 😉

Enjoy the print!

Citizen chronograph automatic

The watches wit only one sub-dial are powered by Citizen calibre 8100A  and the others (with 2 sub-dials) by Citizen calibre 8110A

The next models are represented, with their prices in DM at the time (year 1974).

  1. 67-9011 (DM 355)
  2. 67-9631 (DM 298)
  3. 67-9577 (DM 278)
  4. 67-9038 (DM 325)
  5. 67-9071 (DM 348)

Read more about Vintage Citizen Chronographs here:

https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/chronograph-vcw/