About a week ago Vladimir sent me his watch in order for me to review it and find more information on this rare bird. I can say that I was intrigued with a few aspects of this watch so I decided to dig into this and find some answer. Well guys, here it is the July 1968 Parawater Citizen Crystate Deluxe 22 Jewels!

The entire watch is made of stainless steel and so is the bracelet. The 37mm case is entirely polished with simple and elegant surfaces. By contrast the bracelet finishing alternates between brushed and polished parts. Even though there is no brushed surface on the case, there is something similar, on the dial! Well, about the dial, that is a piece of art, simple, silver, with longitudinal brushed texture from 12 to 6, with applied hour markers. By the way, there is no date feature so the dial is well balanced. Regarding the polished hour markers, they also have a longitudinal black line except for the 12 o’clock one that has two. There is no luminous material to be found. The hands match the overall design and are simple, with a centrally mounted sweeping hand that hacks when the time is set (we will talk a little about the movement later). On the dial we can find the Citizen logo and a the star logo applied. The “Crystate Deluxe” and “22 jewels” are printed in black. The dial code and “Japan”, as well as the minute chapter ring, are also printed in black. I found a black dial version of the watch online and it seams it came in only two dial variants, silver and black. I like the silver one better.

The crystal is made of mineral glass and this fact on top of the upgraded metal bracelet gave the base model (the Citizen Homer) a new life into the form of the Crystate. It also has SS case, better regulated movement and screw in case back. The Deluxe and the star logo suggest a better finished movement. (thank you Kenneth for your help!) This one has 22 jewels because there is one additional one in addition of the regular 21, on the underneath part of the barrel.

The movement is rather common one (except for the additional jewel and better finishing) and hand winds. It also hacks for a better time setting. It runs at 18,000 bph.

Thank you Vladimir for lending me your watch, I took good care of it and I hope you enjoyed the review!

Read more about other simple Citizen watches HERE.