citizen calendar watch

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Vintage Citizen Triple Calendar Watch


One of the oldest Citizen watches is the triple calendar, launched in 1952. It is also one of the most complicated watches they made (except for chronographs).

citizen calendar watch

Apart from telling the correct time it also has a complete calendar powered by the movement. That makes it unique among vintage Citizen watches. The running seconds are off centered, at 6. The date is shown by a pointer while the month and the date are displayed in a twin window on the upper part of the dial. The entire face of the watch is very well designed and balanced. On this particular watch the date hand is a replacement because it is too long, covering the date. On another dial design (for 17 jewels movements) the dates are positioned towards the edge of the dial and a longer date pointer is used. In this case the dates are closer to the center so a shorter hand should have been there in the first place. Because it is such an old watch I think at a certain time that one was replaced. The dial aged beautifully and it is still classy and elegant. The “C” logo, and hour markers are golden and applied, the dates are printed in blue, the month and date are black on yellow disks.

The manual “C” winding movement has 16 jewels and was inspired by the Swiss calibers at the time. The winding crown is at 3 and setting the time is done in the second position. The seconds do not hack. The date corrector is located at  4 while the month and day pushers are at 10 and 2. Very intuitive layout.

As more information will become available on this model I will update the page. So far… I can tell you I love the vintage elegant look of this awesome watch. The only thing I wish is that Citizen would have placed a moon phase in one of their watches. And this particular one would have been perfect for that. 🙂

Update 2016 July – Here is the booklet:

citizen triple calendar

Update 2018 April:

Here is my NOS one, I have it for one year already  but somehow only today felt like the right day for a photo shoot:

Read more about another (Citizen Monthly) full calendar watch HERE

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Citizen Seven Star Deluxe “Monthly” model ACSS-52704-Y


This is a nice full calendar Citizen, powered by a simple movement. Even though it looks like the month display is a complex feature, it is only a simple and clever internal bezel.  Due to this particularity (month display) it was named “Monthly” but another similar model is called “Moon – Dater”.  The reason for a this (one model with two names) is the fact that the “Moon -Dater” might have been designated for export.

citizen seven star deluxe monthly

The case is, as most of the times, made is stainless steel, with mirror polished flat sides and deep sunburst frontal surface. It has a cushion style shape with integrated lugs. The bezel holding the flat mineral crystal is polished and so is the stainless steel caseback. My watch is the black face one, while the credit for the pictures of the white one goes to an internet seller. Both of them are in perfect condition and the different surfaces can be easily admired mostly because of it’s generous proportions, being rather large. It has two crowns, one at 3 o’clock connected to the mechanism and one at 2 o’clock for easily setting the month. It is marked “Para water” (it is made in 1969, prior to the unfortunate term change in 1973 to international “water resistant”)

The dial is dark deep black, without reflections. The white one is as in the pictures. I didn’t have the chance to hold it and take a closer look. The hour markers are applied and polished. The “7” logo and the “Citizen” logo are applied in a similar manner. In the same way the hands and the day-date window frame are also polished. There is a second part of the dial, a raised internal minute disk that features the month window. All the disks (day, date , month) are white with black lettering (sundays are red). For the white dialed one the day is positioned at 9. There is also a version with a pink month disk (the Moon Dater?) I like the crosshair detail and the white lettering resembling white chalk writing on a blackboard on the black one.

citizen monthly seven star acss52704-y

The movement is the automatic Citizen calibre 5270, with 21 jewels beating at 18,000 beat per hour, with quickset date.  Some models have a 23 jewels movement. It is a reliable movement used in a variety of models displaying day and date. It offers hand winding possibility too. The date changes in the second position of the winding crown (first position for winding, third for time setting) but the day changes only by passing midnight with the hands. The operating crown for the movement is the one at 3. Even though it seams that the month display is operated by the movement, it does not. In fact it is an internal bezel that should be adjusted by the crown at 2 o’clock.

The bracelet for the black one (nor sure if it is the proper one for the model)  is tapering and closing with a signed clasp. The interesting part of the signature is the fact that is longitudinally placed along the clasp. Not too much to say about it, only a brushed bracelet that in my opinion suits the watch very well.The white one is on a mesh bracelet (not sure if original for the model).

All things considered, this is a simple, interesting watch, with a clever way of displaying the month. So, here we have a full calendar vintage Citizen.

Read about the older version, more complex, full calendar Citizen watch HERE