WWII was a time when some sort of a military use was mandatory for most of the items produced at the time. Watches were no exception and Citizen was also involved in making military watches. One of them might be the one presented here. Seiko (and Seikosha) was the most prolific manufactures for military watches but this particular watch might be proof of the possible link between these two Japanese watch giants. 
The case is a in fact a transitional one, having a pocket watch body style inside an outer wrist watch case. It is chromed but both the casebacks are stainless steel. The case is small at 30mm diameter. Both of the parts have acrylic crystals. The outer case has lug holes. I think this could be an indicator that the watch had usual strap and not some type of nato as often seen on military watches (those have fixed lug bars). (read the comment below made by Keigo on nato straps) On the wristwatch part, the caseback reads: “Patent. no. 274740, Dust-Proof, Stainless steel, Back, 1428” Later edit thanks to Stephen: “Citizen’s research institute was called Shokosha.” The dial is simple with subsidiary seconds dial, at 6 o’clock. The arabic hour numerals are applied and so are the minutes markers on the outside. The overall design of the dial is carefully planned, with concentric parts and overlapping disks. The hands are blue, and they seem to be heated blue rather than painted. 
The movement is another mystery, to me at least. It looks like a Seiko calibre but is signed Citizen. So, is it Citizen or Seiko? In the end both of them got their inspiration from Swiss made movements. Later edit, thanks to Stephen: “The movement is the first version of the Citizen F-type. This was their first wristwatch, launched in 1931. It was based on a Swiss design and was used in several re-designed forms right through to the 1950s”. The strap is clearly a replacement. I don’t know how the original might have looked like, but I doubt the fact that it was a nato style. Yet again, it might have been. 
Here is one more piece of information I came across in my searches! Due to my friend Dobashi, now I have this awesome picture inside the firs Citizen factory where the worker coat has the same unusual logo seen in a circle on the movement. It is “CZ”, the Citizen logo. I have never seen this logo before and neither any of my Citizen collectors friends. Maybe this makes it one of the earlier watches EVER made by Citizen!? Year of production – 1931? (then, it’s not a military one) 
All things considered, I look at this watch and I can only imagine Japan before and during WWII and this watch doing it’s job, strapped on the wrist of it’s proud owner. Go to to the video of the movement here: https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2014/04/14/the-first-citizen-wristwatch/ Read more about Citizen history here: https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/26/citizen-history-from-1924/
citizen
Citizen ladies diver 150m model 54-0919
Every man needs a real diver watch, and every woman (either a girlfriend or a wife of a true watch enthusiast) is going to get one eventually. 🙂
This is the vintage Citizen ladies diver. This is the ultimate one, the real one.
This model has all the specifications that define a diver. My better half says it is even better than the men model of the same time frame, witch is the 52-0110 presented in the picture. I tend to agree with her (well, I have no choice but to agree with her 🙂 ). Read about my watch here: https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/24/citizen-automatic-diver-150m-52-0110/ Mine was made in 1978 and hers in 1980.
The case is small, made in polished stainless steel but with a brushed face that doesn’t reflect light the same way as a polished surface would. This is mandatory for a diver so the time can be easily read without light interference. Compared to the men model, this one has some other elements that gives it a nice diving touch: crown guards, lug holes (for easily changing the strap) and unidirectional rotating bezel (60 clicks). By contrast, the big brother has only a friction type bidirectional bezel, no crown guards and no lug holes. The water resistance is similar (150m) and both of them have a large screw-in crown, an easy grip bezel with a beautiful aluminum insert and a thick flat mineral crystal. The underside of the crystal is concave, magnifying the hands and the dial.
The dial and the hands are very similar. Both the ladies watch and the men watch have a black dial with applied luminous hour markers. The hands are similar (Mercedes hours hand, spade minutes hand and a seconds hand with a luminous dot close to the tip). The small brother has a day and date window. Both of them are marked in the same way: Citizen, automatic, 21 jewels, water resistant, 150m. My girlfriend’s watch has a raised ring part of the dial with seconds markers. That gives a great depth feeling to the entire watch face.
The movement is small too, suited for the small case. It is an automatic, 21 jewels movement. Citizen named it calibre 6601, and can be found in a variety of ladies watches. Not much to say about it except the fact that it displays both the day and the date, can be hand wound and a particularity is the fact the date changes by pulling repeatedly the crown.
The strap is the original (pretty impressive for a 30 years old watch), mint condition rubber, with a stainless steel buckle. It is very comfortable, very easy to find the perfect adjustment hole. The width at the lugs end is 14 mm, but it integrates really well with the flowing case design. I think it would look good on nato (still looking for one so small) and i have already ordered a mesh stainless steel bracelet for it.
As a conclusion, all I can say that my diving watch found it’s better half and so did I. 🙂
Read more about vintage Citizen divers here:
https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/diver-vcw/
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VCW Facebook group page
Facebook is a great place to meat great people with really great watches. 🙂 This is why we have created the Vintage Citizen Watches official group page. Check it out and add yourself and your friends! Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vintagecitizenwatches/354822734656228/?comment_id=354922047979630¬if_t=like 
Thank you for looking!
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Vintage aviator Citizen 51-1811
A true “tool” watch for pilots, this is the automatic Citizen 51-1811.
The inner rotating bezel (slide rule) is very useful for all types of calculations. The interesting thing about this watch is that it was used for its original purpose, as an aviator watch.
The case is really large at about 42 mm without the crowns. It is made entirely in stainless steel. The front surface of the case is brushed with a circular grain, and the rest is polished. There is an interesting blue light reflecting all the time from the brushed finish, giving it a satinated feel. The winding crown is located at 3 and the one at 2 is for adjusting the inner bezel. The crowns are not signed. The ring bezel holding the large, flat (35mm) mineral crystal is polished too. As pictured, the case integrates the lugs and the twin crowns, protecting them.
The dial is the main attraction of the watch. It is grey, with a sunburst effect. On the outside there is a golden ring with black digits. The golden ring is circled by a thin red zone delimitating the dial from the golden rotating bezel. The entire face of the watch is shiny and powerful. On the grey zone there is the applied Citizen logo, the white painted lettering “automatic 21 jewels”, the day and the date (sharing a single golden frame) and the applied luminous hour markers. The hands are painted, partially, in black with a luminous line. The sweeping second hand is not painted.
The slide rule is the name of this type of internal bezel. How does it work? In a few words it is used for multiplication, division, distance and volume conversions, time calculations and percentages.
The movement is the well known 8200A Citizen calibre. It is an automatic movement (it can be also hand winded) beating at 21600 bph with a quickset day and date. It has a unidirectional winding rotor and 21 jewels. Nothing fancy, just an usual Citizen “workhorse”. It has a power reserve of about 44 hours.
The bracelet is a stainless steel one, with a polished center and brushed sides. It compliments the overall shinny design of the watch nicely. It has folded “H” shaped links and a signed “Citizen” clasp. As usual, very comfortable.
The PAF engraving (and the up pointing arrow) suggest it was in use by the air force and it seams that this was the Pakistan Air Force. So that makes it a tool watch, used for what it was meant to be used. Just a nice, interesting touch.
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VIDEO – Citizen automatic chronograph 67-9631 cal. 8100A
This is one of the two vintage automatic chronograph movements made by Citizen, the other is the Citizen 8110A calibre that features an extra 12 hours counter.
A video of 8110A is here:
https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2014/01/13/video-citizen-bullhead-chronograph-model-67-9356-2/
And here is the video for 67-9631, calibre 8100A. You can see the start-stop-reset mechanism in function, as well as the fly back. Also you can see the way you can change the date and the day. Enjoy!
More informations about this watch here:
https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2014/01/05/citizen-automatic-chronograph-67-9631/
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Vintage Citizen compressor style diver 4-520343 Y
Vintage Citizen divers – this time a compressor style. And what is better than one diver? Two divers, or even three!
A compressor case means that the bezel is not outside the case, but actually inside the case, under the crystal. It is not operated directly but with the turn of one of the two crowns. As Gray showed in the comment of this post these are not actually compressor cases, but actually compressor style inspired.
“These are beautful watches and I enjoyed reading about them but I must correct your assumption that they are compressor watches. Its a common misconception that if a watch has two crowns and an internal bezel, it must be a supercompressor but infact Compressor and Super Compressor watches are defines by the company which made the cases and held a patent for their design. These cases were made by the specialist manufacturer Ervin Piquerez S.A. of Switzerland. No Japanese manufacturer used EPSA Compressor cases. Information about Compressor cases is not hard to find. The link below shows the three types of Compressor case, including the Super Compressor from which your Citizen watches are inspired. True Super Compressors are typically identified by a crossed hatched design on the crowns, a diver helmet logo on the case back or inside the case back, but always, they have the brevet (patent) number on or inside the case back. http://wornandwound.com/2014/03/24/guide-super-compressors/” – Is the comment from Gary. Thank you for the clarification!
This particular model is one of the early Citizen divers, with compressor style case. I have seen it in black dial, red, blue and silver dial. The red dial is one of the most beautiful dials ever. Actually is more a burgundy red. The blue is awesome in different lightning conditions, the black is subtle and classy and the silver is really special.
The case is larger than the usual divers of that era, but similar with other vintage Citizen. It is about 44mm, with a brushed frontal surface, with a radial pattern. The sides are polished. The lugs are well integrated in the overall design, with the same finish as the case. The two crowns are protected because the 9 o clock side (flat) and the 3 o clock side (angled) are not symmetrical, so the crowns are not sticking out a too much. They are signed “C”. The outer bezel that keeps the domed acrylic crystal in place is polished. The crown at 2 operates the inner bidirectional bezel, and sometimes is very easy to move it by accident so i prefer the models with an outer bezel. The crown at 4 winds the watch and sets the time and sometimes is hard to operate.
The dial is the best part of this watch. The red one is gorgeous, the blue is beautiful, the black is classic but the silver is not really at home for this model (IMHO) but it is rare and special.. In fact all the colors have a matching rotating bezel except for the silver one that has a black bezel. The black dial is flat, matte. The red and the blue one have thin black longitudinal stripes so the color gets a little darker. All of them have the cross hair lines. At 12 they have the polished applied Citizen logo and on 6 it is written “water 100M proof” “automatic” “21 jewels”. It is very interesting the fact that the dial is marked waterproof (sometimes parawater) and the caseback parawater. This is due to the fact that it was manufactured in an era when Citizen transitioned from parawater to water resistant. Also some of them were designated for export so a different marking was needed than the ones for domestic market. Read about this here: https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/26/citizen-parawater-citizen-parashock/ The ones that have “waterproof” on the dial are for export. At 3 we have the day and date window, in a divided frame. The Sundays are in red lettering, the rest are black. The hour markers are trapezoidal, applied with a polished frame, jus as the date frame. The hands are the usual “Mercedes” type and the second hand has the luminous tot at the very end of it. One rare model has straight hour hand, matching the minute one. For a long time I thought it might not be original but thanks to Pawel I now saw the model in real life and it is for sure 100% original. I also saw one picture from a German catalogue on Stephen‘s blog who says: “There was also a version of this model, maybe only an export version, that had a straight hour hand, rather than the ‘Mercedes’ type. At the moment this image, from a German brochure (with credit to ‘Axel’ on the old SCWF site) is the only one I have seen.” Thanks Pawel for the pictures of the straight matching hands one! Great watch! After 40 years, the luminous material still glows beautifully at night. The rotating bezel is rather shiny, with a luminous dot inside a triangle at 12, and painted numbers every 10 minutes. The rest of the minutes are dots and every 5 minutes we have a rectangle. Great quality for this bezels. You have to see them in real life to fully appreciate them!
Here it is another straight hour hand piece, a black dialed one. Thank you Christian for the pictures!
And a pic that I like:
The movement is the automatic Citizen calibre 5270, with 21 jewels, (and a black rotor that I like a lot). It is a common movement used in a variety of models, not only divers. This means that replacing parts are easy to source. It is reliable and offers hand winding possibility. 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 4.
The strap I’ve seen is most of the times a replacement one. Sometimes I have seen them on Citizen or replacement stainless steel bracelet, sometimes on rubber, nato or even leather. They can take any type you want to throw on them. I keep them on matching nato straps, red for red, black for black. This way they are really comfortable and I thing a Nato suits them well. The width at the lugs is 20mm.
Conclusion: Just as most Citizen divers – wonderful, easy to wear, a pleasure to look at, modern and vintage at the same time… timeless beauty!
Read abut my favorite Citizen diver here: https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/24/citizen-automatic-diver-150m-52-0110/
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Video – Citizen “Bullhead” chronograph model 67-9356
Here is a video with the Citizen octagonal “Bullhead” chronograph model 67-9356, that shows the chronograph function, start – stop – reset, and the fly-back function. Also you can see the day date settings.
The video shows the fly-back in slow motion.
Enjoy! 🙂
Here is a more detailed article about this wonderful vintage Citizen flyback chronograph.
https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/24/citizen-bullhead-chronograph-67-935
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Vintage ladies Citizen watch 64-4838
It is time for a ladies Citizen watch!
Another NOS watch, ready for wearing, 40 years after it’s birth date. (it was made in July 1972). I wonder why did it take so long for such a beautiful watch to enhance the beauty of a woman’s wrist? Maybe it waited for the right owner?
The case is rather a small cushion shaped one, made in stainless steel, with a snap on, flat, brushed caseback. It has integrated lugs, with a brushed frontal surface. The sides are polished. The acrylic crystal is flat, but sitting higher than the case. I love the way it gives warmth to the entire watch. The silver metallic overall appearance needed something soft, as the case design and the worm acrylic crystal for counterbalance. The crown is signed “CTZ” as expected. Another feature I like about this watch is the fact that it is Parawater (read about it here: https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/26/citizen-parawater-citizen-parashock/ )
The dial is silver, simple yet elegant, with applied polished hour markers, Citizen logo and date frame. Each hour is also marked with a luminous dot (except for the one at 3 o’clock where the date is). The hour markers are “T” shaped in sectional view. The 3 hands, with a sweeping second hand, are polished and the hour and minute hands have luminous material that is very bright after 40 years. The writing is black, thin, reading “automatic” and “28800 21 jewels”. The entire dial has a brushed pattern in the same direction as the case, caseback and bracelet.
The movement is an automatic with hand winding capability, Citizen calibre 6900. It has a power reserve at about 38 hours, beating at 28800 bph. The date can be changed in an interesting way, by pulling the crown. It is a quickset mechanism. With the crown in time setting position pulling and releasing the crown will advance the date by one day. Each pull is one day.
The bracelet is stainless steel, with full links and connectors made from folded steel. It is tapering from the case towards the clasp. The clasp is also signed, longitudinally “citizen”. The entire bracelet is brushed except the clasp that is satined with polished sides. The sides and underside ot the bracelet is also polished.
Conclusion: Such a beautiful watch! So elegant, so delicate, so understated! One of the last years (maybe the last) of “Parawater”. Maybe it looks nice and it is a beautiful jewelry but also a well made timepiece.
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Citizen automatic chronograph 67-9631
Citizen had two automatic calibres.
One automatic chronograph is the 8110A and you can read about the “octagon bullhead” that had this movement here:
https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/24/citizen-bullhead-chronograph-67-9356/
And the other one is the one I will write about now, the 8100A.
Both of them came with different case design, shapes and sizes with a lot of dials. This is why sometimes is difficult to identify if a certain watch is correct or “reconditioned” with aftermarket parts.
This is a one sub-dial design chronograph featuring a lot of interesting details. It was made in November 1973.
The case is made of brushed and polished stainless steel. The chronograph pushers are on the side, where the winding crown is. It is a cushion shape with a circular grain brushed front surface (I have seen a sunburst grain also, and polished – the polished is for sure not correct) and polished everywhere else. The caseback is screw in with a circular brushed flat surface. The crown is signed “CTZ”. The mineral crystal sits a little bit taller than the case, with chamfer edge. Nothing out of the ordinary, jut a simple, normal ’70’s design by Citizen, 38mm wide without the crown.
The dial is blue with orange and silver accents. It is nothing less but gorgeous! The blue changes from dark blue (almost black sometimes) to bright blue and then to a type of green really difficult to picture. Sometimes it seems unreal. You have to see one in real life in order to fully appreciate the beauty of this one. On 6 it is the sub-dial, counting the elapsed (30) minutes. This is the only sub-dial (normal for cal 8100A). The central, orange central sweeping hand counts the seconds. This sub-dial is silver with highlighted 5 minutes periods. The 5-10 minutes is blue. Not only the chronograph hands are orange but also the current time hands are painted (not entirely) orange and they have a luminous line. On 3 o’clock there are the day and the date windows, with a silver painted frame. The days and the dates are printed on black disks. The polished Citizen logo is applied and so are the hour markers. The hour markers have an orange central line ending with a luminous dot. On the outer side of the dial there is a white Tachymeter scale, for racing, you know!
The movement is the Citizen automatic, 23 jewls, calibre 8100A with hand winding capability. It was produced by Citizen starting from 1972, just as 8110A. It is a vertical clutch chronograph (beating at 28.800 bph) with column wheel and fly back function. It also features 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 (5 o’clock) button. It is 27 mm wide and 5,8mm high, (1mm less than 8110A). 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.
The bracelet is an usual one piece link design, made by Citizen, with a brushed surface that suits the watch perfectly. It is made in stainless steel with a signed “Citizen” clasp. As usual, Citizen bracelets are very comfortable with a lot of adjustments so finding the perfect fit is easy.
Conclusion: Wonderful Citizen chronograph, vintage yet so modern, with a nice wrist presence and amazing dial!
Enjoy the video of this watch here:
https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2014/01/25/video-citizen-automatic-chronograph-67-9631-cal-8100a/
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Citizen “Day-Date” Seven Star Deluxe 4-520068 T
This is a nice watch story about collecting vintage watches.
Everybody knows what a NOS watch means, and this one is indeed new old stock, stickers and tags intact, but… the story is not so straight forward.
This looks as the day it left production, a NOS Citizen watch, no scratches, clean sharp lines, perfect bracelet, no dirt, perfect acrylic crystal, perfect dial, perfect hands, stickers and tags. And we are talking about an old watch, made in 1969. Let’s see the watch!
The case is made of stainless steel, round, with straight lugs. Al the lines are straight, clear and bold. The watch is polished entirely. The crown is signed, as usually, “CTZ”. There is a perfectly integrated stainless steel bezel that holds in place the acrylic crystal. As you would guess, the crystal raises a little bit on the edges, but the surface is perfectly flat as parallel to one another as possible. The diameter is 39mm and it is “parawater”. (I love this Citizen trademark feature)
The dial is simple, grey, with a sun burst pattern with a date at 3 and the day at 12. Both the day and the date frames are applied and so are the Citizen logo (under the day frame), the baton hour markers (double for 12 o’clock) and the “7” badge at 6 (between the writing – “Crystal Seven” and “33 jewels”).
The movement, and now the plot thickens, inside this gorgeous NOS Citizen is… the Citizen NOS calibre 5270, with… 21 jewels! What?! Why is it written on the dial 33 jewels and the watch model suggest it is a 21 jewels movement inside? How come inside is not a 5240 (for example) or another 33 jewels movement? I have an idea, but that will be in the conclusion. As for the calibre 5270, it is an automatic, with a nice black rotor, 21 jewels, that can be winded by hand also, with a day and date function.
The bracelet is a beautiful brushed with two polished longitudinal lines. It has folded links and closes with a beautiful satined (as most of the vintage Citizen should have) clasp. The clasp has a raised polished Citizen logo with sharp lines and edges.
Conclusion: Just a beautiful, clean, honest design watch, but not so honest when it says on the dial that the movement inside should be 33 jewels, but in fact it is a 21 jewels calibre. So, my point of view regarding this is that the dial and the day wheel was changed at a later date. I wonder if the hands and date wheel belong to the watch or to the dial? After all they are basically on the same base movement (5270 and maybe 5240). I might suspect that this is the way it was made 45 years ago. So this is just a recent “marriage” watch, made from NOS original pieces. Unfortunately, watch collecting is not always easy. 🙂
Thank you Stephen for your, much more detailed answer, and your blog: http://www.sweep-hand.org: “You can see from this that the case number is for a Seven Star model, not a Crystal Seven. The model is a Seven Star Deluxe in fact with day and date window at 3 o’clock (I have a pic of that in a book, but I’ve not scanned it yet), which uses a 21 jewel 5270 movement. The dial design with a separate day window at 12 o’clock was used in the earlier Crystal Seven models up to 1968 as far as I’ve seen, so a production date of 1969 seems too late for that layout to me. So it looks to me that the NOS case and 5270 movement has been used with a NOS Crystal Seven dial and day/date wheels (I guess they would fit since it’s the same base movement) and although presented as an original NOS piece I doubt that this is correct.”
Vintage Citizen Watches 