citizen adorex

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Stone and Wood Vintage Citizen Watches


Everybody knows Citizen was the first worldwide to use Titanium for their watches. They also used Aluminum alloy, Solid gold (white and yellow), Stainless steel, “harder than steel” black coating and they didn’t stop there. With a little bit of luck we can still find watches made of natural materials. In the process of finding new ways, in providing more diversity, Citizen made watch cases made of natural wood and a few types of stone.

These watches were intended for the younger customers that cared a lot about fashion and the way the watches looked like and were also interested in having a watch with a story. As you can see they were branded under Adorex line, or Afro Craft, Cosmo Star, V2… Usually a leather strap was used but I have found a few with a bracelet option. Other materials might have been used for straps but I am not sure. Still to find out.

The movements are diverse, simple or displaying the day / date and some are high beat. The cases are rounded and the crystal sometimes is faceted (see the wood variant below). Colorful, young, eye catching and interesting at the same time.

Thank you Branislav for the beautiful red agate stone picture! Beautiful watch!

I have in my collection a NOS wood case one, original strap, buckle and tags. The build quality is very good and I love the warm feeling of the material. I never had a stone watch but for sure I will find one. Somehow a wood / stone Citizen is a must have for at least once in order to fully appreciate the craftsmanship involved in these.

The picture above is my watch, so I opened it to take a look at the movement. Beautiful, clean and interesting.

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Citizen Adorex


“Adore”
[uh-dawr, uh-dohr]

verb (used with object), adored, adoring.

  1. to regard with the utmost esteem, love, and respect; honor.
  2. to pay divine honor to; worship:
    to adore God.
  3. to like or admire very much:
    I simply adore the way your hair is done!
    verb (used without object), adored, adoring.
  4. to worship.

citizen-adorex

And what is not to like about it? Just look at that dial! Gorgeous!

The Adorex line was made starting from 1974 up to about 1977?

The watch presented here is a 35mm NOS example, still with the price tag (JPY 16,000 at the time, February 1975). All made of stainless steel, with matching bracelet and Citizen signed clasp. It has a beautiful blue “fish scales” dial that looks different depending on the light source. My watch is powered by the Citizen 8050 21J movement working at 28,800bph. With this calibre Citizen used for the first time the unidirectional rotor needed for automatic winding. It was made for two years and can be found only in the Adorex watches. There is one more calibre to be found inside the early Adorex range, the Citizen 8000 with 25 Jewels. Both have a sweeping central seconds hand and display both the day and date. The 8050 has a few more cool features I will talk about later. Of course, as most of the times, the watch can be manually winded too. When pulling the crown out one position you can change turning it one way, while turning it the other way will advance the day. On this one you can see the day is bilingual (Japanese and English) with red printing for Sundays. Later on you can also find calibre 8200 inside, somehow with a a similar look but different architecture.

I found this article, written in German, with a lot of interested details about the 8050 calibre inside a similar Adorex, HERE. Take a look!

Bottom line, a beautiful and interesting watch to be worn and loved!