citizen autodater

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Citizen Auto Dater para40mwater Diver


Beautiful watch but such a difficult one to take a good picture of. Here it is the Citizen Auto Dater para40mwater, reference ADOS 3001-DM, Diver!

citizen autodater diver 40m ADOS 3001-DM

There are so many aspects of this watch that I like that I don’t know where to start from! Let me begin by saying that even though Citizen marked it so boldly “Diver” on the case back it is water proof only up to 40m. The unsigned crown is not a screw in type but the engraved case back is. The entire case is made of stainless steel, polished, with brushed lugs on the upper part. The case back, as mentioned before, screws in and is engraved with the Eagle motif and “Diver”, also “40m water proof” and “stainless steel” The ADOS 3001-DM reference number is there too, but no serial so an accurate dating of the watch is, unfortunately, impossible. As a result of my research I date this watch around 1965.

The dial is pure awesome! It is very dark satinated grey almost black. In bright light the sunburst effect is obvious but on low (normal) light it becomes matte pure black. Due to the domed mineral crystal the sunburst effect of the dial is enhanced and looks somehow… circular. The hands are simple, matching, with large luminous areas, the hour hand being shorter than the minute one. The sweeping central second hand is simple without any luminous material. The hour markers are applied and they glow in the dart too, just as the hands do. The bezel has no luminous dot at 12 but just a simple triangle. Speaking about the bezel, it is a bidirectional friction type and, as a particularity, it is a count down starting from 60, 50… all the way down to 10, 0. This way you can directly say how much time is there left out of an hour, not as usual the elapsed minutes.

Opening the watch we see the beautiful jet movement (read about these movements HERE). It has 21 jewels and can be winded by hand too. It can also display the date, in the widow at 3 o’clock.

The strap in this case is a vintage Tropic but it also looks gorgeous on nato, leather or stainless steel bracelet.

It is a beautiful piece, lovely addition to my diver collection and makes me so happy when I strap it on my wrist, especially on these sunny autumn days.

Read more about Citizen divers HERE.

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Citizen Auto Dater 200m, the Skin Diver


Could this be the first real diver made by Citizen? Well.. maybe it is this one, maybe it is the 120m (that for sure I will write about in the future – read about it HERE). Either way, it is one of the first and what a beautiful watch it is! citizen autodater 200m skin diver The first thing I noticed about this is the “skin diver” engraving on the back, making it really special at 200m (para200mwater). It is the only diver Citizen made with 200m water resistance. The screw retained case back is not marked with a serial no, so unfortunately the date of manufacture is impossible to accurately determine. Because the watch is powered by the Citizen cal 1120 jet movement, and taking other aspects into consideration we can assume it was made somewhere around 1962-1965. The case is made entirely in stainless steel, having the top part brushed in a circular pattern while the rest is polished, with integrated lugs. The Tropic strap dimension is 19mm and is the perfect match for a skin diver. The frictional bidirectional bezel is a one piece design (no bezel insert) and painted black. Because of a lot of usage the edge becomes silver as the paint is slowly being worn away. After all it is a 50 years old tool watch that was used as Citizen intended it to be. On 12 it has a luminous dot, not the usual triangle. An interesting feature of the watch is the fact that the bezel is a count down type, starting from 60 and going down: 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 0, not the other way around as usual. Each minute is marked with a dot. The dial is painted in a beautiful glossy black with integrated hour markers that are polished. Wonderful design of the markers and the hands. On 3 there is the date window, that has a polished frame too. Citizen made the date reading better by providing an acrylic crystal with an outer date magnifier. The winding crown is not signed and operates the movement. It is not a screw in type. Although the Citizen jet movement 1120 ( 21 jewels )  is an automatic one it can be winded by hand too. This is done in the first position of the crown. In the second position the time can be set. The seconds do not hack and there is no quick set date. The date changes by advancing the hour hand past midnight.

One very rare variation of the skin diver is the silver dial one with gold accents (bezel, hour markers and hands). By contrast this one has a “normal” bezel counting up not down as the black version. I have yet to find another, or a catalog picture, to be sure this is all 100% original. (Stephen provided another picture of a similar one but without a bezel so it seems it must be legit. Thank you! ) Update: Both variants are now a part of my collection. The silver dialed one is on original rubber bracelet with Citizen golden buckle.

autodater citizen skin diver 200m

All things considered, black or silver, this is a beautiful, rare, awesome diver that has it’s own place in Citizen history, and ofcourse, in my collection. 🙂 Read more about other Citizen divers HERE.

Read more about the first Citizen diver, the Jet Autodater 120m, HERE.

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Citizen Jet Autodater 21 jewels


The Jet movement is a ring rotor one that I really like a lot. Rumor has it that Citizen chose to replace this movement with a central swing rotor, even though the rotor one was better, because the later one was cheaper to produce.  This one is a 21 jewels movement, beating at 18,000 bph. It has a power reserve at about 45 hours. 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 earlier type. The thing I like the most it the beautiful sound that the rotor is making when rotating, smooth, loud, mechanic.

Enjoy the photos taken by Sergio.

citizen jet autodater

Citizen 1160

Features: Automatic, Sweep second, Date: quickset by repeated pulling the crown

Data
13”’, Dm= 29.0mm. Do= 29.4mm
H= 5.3mm
(visible automatic wheel +0.1mm)
F= 1.45mm
T= 2.25mm
39 jewels
f = 18000 A/h
power reserve 47h

Balance staff U3163

Stem W3088

Hands
1.52 x 1.00 x 0.18mm

Remarks
1963-
ring rotor rotating on 9 ruby balls
nearly useless jewels in the three rotor suspension plates
differences not known between 1160, 1161

family/generations:
0310: 21/23/25 jewels
0320, 0321: 17/19 jewels
0340, 0341: 35 jewels
1120, 1121: 19/21/23/27/35 jewels, date
1130, 1131…1133: 17/19 jewels, date
1150: 39 jewels, date
1160, 1161: 39 jewels, quickset date
1170: 27 jewels, quickset date
redesign, all with quickset date:
4000…4002: manual wind, 23 jewels, day, date
4101…4103: 25 jewels, day, date
4111…4113: 19 jewels, day, date
4111…4113: 19 jewels, day, date, month
4130: 35 jewels, day, date

Example, year: signature; shock device
1965: Citizen Jet, Autodater; Parashock
(Citizen 4130 without day disc)

Data from here. 

Read about the Newmaster watch powered by this movement here:

https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2014/07/20/vintage-citizen-newmaster-autodater/