stainless steel

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Vintage Citizen alarm date 67-7050


Let me show you my first vintage Citizen Alarm Watch. 

This is the stainless steel model, the Citizen reference 67-7050, and it is really loud!

Screen Shot 2013-12-25 at 23.04.21One of severals designs that is used by Citizen to fill the gap for alarm watches. This one is my favorite (I will write about some other models), with a blue sunburst dial, the cushion shaped case and this particular vintage bracelet. I love the sound of it, i love the feeling when I wear it and it vibrates. I often set the alarm just for the pure pleasure of hearing it.

The case is, as usual, made of stainless steel, with a polished frontal part and brushed sides, in a sunburst pattern. It is a relatively large watch with a nice wrist presence. The bezel is spectacular, with a combination of polished raised areas and sandblasted lowered square areas. It accommodates two crowns, one for setting the alarm and one for setting the time and date. The crystal is acrylic,domed, with a magnifier for the date.

The dial is the most beautiful part of this watch, bright blue, with a sunburst pattern, white (handwritten characters) writing. There is an outer black ring that has the hour markers, with luminous material (still working today).  The date window (red digits) is a t 3 o’clock, inside a painted white frame. The hands are simple, with a luminous part at the extremities, and the alarm is shaped as an arrow with a triangle inside a circle tip. The dial is bouncing the light in so many different ways that you have to see it in person to fully appreciate the entire beauty and finish.

citizen alarm vintageThe movement used is a handwound movement, based on the famous USSR calibre AS 1475.  There are the calibres 3100 and 3102 (date), 21 Jewels, 18000 bph. This one is the Citizen calibre 3102. The crowns are for the time and the other for the alarm. The crown at 2 o’clock in first position is winding  the alarm and the alarm is deactivated. If you pull it in the second position you can set the alarm (counterclockwise) and the alarm is activated. Pressing it while the alarm is ringing will stop it. The crown at 4 will wind the watch and pulling it out will set the time. The alarm will ring for 13-16 seconds.

The bracelet is shared with other vintage Citizen models but has an interesting design with curved large perforated links.  Nothing much to say about it, but for sure it is well integrated in the general watch design. The clasp is stainless steel, signed (as usual).  

citizen alarm calibre 3102

The box is small, made of plastic and looks like this. It is very rare for a watch to be found with it’s box after all these years.

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Conclusion: Beautiful design, beautiful dial, loud sound.  A true vintage timepiece with an alarm complication.

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Vintage Citizen Worldtimer (GMT) 68-0516


This is the “GMT” version of Citizen vintage watches.

In fact it is not a real GMT but rather a world timer, and this is actually it’s name .

The Citizen Worldtimer.

Following the beautiful Citizen chronograph and the Citizen diver we have now a different vintage Citizen. Maybe the worldtimer will not outshine the first two, but it is at least at the same level. The feeling you get when you strap it on your wrist is like no other. The light is passing through the acrylic crystal and bouncing back from the silver dial, the inner rotating bezel with all those cities…The case is made of stainless steel, 42 mm diameter (rather large even for today’s standards), with a cushion shape. The frontal side is brushed , in a circular motion and the sides and the part where the bracelet connects to the case are polished. There is also a polished bezel that holds the domed acrylic crystal. I love the way the light passes through acrylic crystals. There is nothing like this, so worm, so inviting! The shape of the case protects the twin crowns (signed “CTZ”), one for winding the watch and one for rotating the inner city bezel. The SS caseback is screwed in, marked “parawater”. Parawater is a term used by Citizen to describe what later will become “water resistant”. For more informations about “parawater” follow the link: https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2013/12/26/citizen-parawater-citizen-parashock/

The dial is silver with applied Citizen logo and hour markers. They have green luminescent material applied. There is luminescent material on the hands too, except for the seconds hand that is polished and the “GMT” hand that is short and painted red.  The 24 hours ring might be all black or half blue, half black (just as the 2014 released Rolex GMT – ceramic bezel – 40 years later). I have seen it also with a black dial. The KYOTO is the same as Citizen but it was made for France. There was a time when Citizen was not allowed to use Citizen name so it used to sell there by the Kyoto name (very rare watches now).  

The movement is automatic with hand winding capability, hacking seconds calibre 7450, with 21 Jewels. Just as all the other Citizen movement this one is nothing fancy, just a simple working, reliable one. As time passes, you learn to  really appreciate the simplicity of Citizen movement, the sound of it, the movement of the hands…  The date is quickset and it beats at 21.600 bph. The year this one was introduced was 1971. The nice thing about this movement is that added to the three classic hands, there is a forth one (the red small one) that is circling the dial once every 24 hours. In order to operate the Worldtimer function you need to use the 24 hours hand and the inner bezel. You have to rotate the inner bezel until the timezone where you are in is opposite to the 24 hours hand. Then you have to look for the city you want to know the time in and read the time on the inner 24 hours ring, next to that city.

The bracelet is nothing but beautiful. There are other types of bracelet for this model, but this is my favorite. It has an intricate design, with polished dots and brushed links, resembling an armor, and not any armor but a Japanese samurai one. The clasp is also stainless steel signed “Citizen”. It can also be found on leather and I have seen it on rubber or nato. Still looking good. 😉

Update 2016 Apr: Mikko was kind enough to provide me a few pictures with his awesome black and white dial watches side by side. He also noted one particularity. In my watch we have “Central Europe” as in his it is ” London Madrid Rome” in the same space.

vintage citizen automatic worldtimer gmt dual time

Conclusion: A real traveller watch, so entertaining to operate, so simple and so clever, nice wrist presence and gorgeous!

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Citizen automatic diver 150m – 52-0110


Vintage divers – every time I hear this combination of words my heart races a little. 

I dream about that period in time when a watch was what it was supposed to be, a true tool watch, a real diving instrument, not a desk diver fashionable statement as it is most of the times today. Was it a good thing or a bad one, who am I to judge? But for sure I love a vintage diving tool watch such as this one I am talking today. Lucky me I have a NOS one, birth year and month 52-0110, and this is awesome. I love it!

citizen diver

The 150m Citizen is, in my opinion,  one of the best looking vintage diver ever! It has everything a real diver should have: decent water resistance (150m), screw in crown and easy to use, screw in caseback, a diver bezel, clear indexes, easy to read hands contrasting with the matte dial, a sweeping central second hand, thick glass, diver extension clasp and the most important: a reliable movement.  Wearing this watch makes me dream about the Ocean depths and underwater adventure. It looks good on original bracelet, on nato, on mesh bracelet, on rubber and even on a rugged leather strap. Beautiful watch!

The case is made of stainless steel, 40mm diameter, 13mm thick, brushed face and polished sides. It has thick lugs and it is rugged and powerful without being overwhelming. The perfect shape and size for a diver. The screw-in crown is easy to operate, and it is unsigned. The bezel is frictional type, bidirectional, easy to use but not so easy to mess with when underwater. Pay attention because most aftermarket bezels don’t have dots at every minutes. The lugs are 20mm apart accommodating most modern straps you throw at it. The mineral crystal looks like it is domed but in fact it is flat. The underside is actually concave bending the light in a mysterious way that makes me day dreaming. It sits at about the same height (or slightly higher) with the black bezel.

The dial is gorgeous. Plain, matte, deep black. There is no reflection. The reflection comes from the crystal and from the indexes and the hands. Not too much writing on the dial except the applied Citizen logo, automatic, 21 jewels, water resistant, 150m. At 3 we have the date window. Something about the date window – there are some variations here – with or without luminescent index at the side, in the same frame with the date, or in a separate frame. The luminescent material is glowing even more than 40 years later and has a superb green-yellow light to it.vintage citizen diver

The movement is the work horse 8210A, 21 jewels, automatic with hand winding capability. Not much to say about this, it is just a clean, easy to use and service, reliable movement. Nothing fancy, just a up to the job honest movement. It beats at 21.600 bph and has a quickset date. The first time this movement was used in this watch seems to be 1977. You can see the date of manufacture in the serial on the caseback. The first number is the year, the next two digits are for the month.

The bracelet is stainless steel, with “H” shaped links. Very comfortable. The clasp is also stainless steel, signed Citizen. It has a diver extension. The bracelet should be brushed. My NOS one came on the original Tropic strap with Citizen signed SS buckle. So… Tropic is original and bracelet is original too.

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Update 2017 September: An orange dial one and a NOS 52-0110 with box  and booklet with pictures from the online seller:

Not sure if both boxes are correct? They might be because there are quite a variations of 52-0110 models so I expect it for the boxes to be a little different too. Who knows?

And here it is the booklet of the watch: Thank you Mikko and congrats on yours! Mikko’s booklet was in English and Spanish.

Conclusion: Beautiful, real diving watch, a time capsule that as soon as it is strapped on the wrist ticks away telling a story about sand, sun, and underwater adventures. A watch made for real men, a work horse that enjoys being wet. Give it at least a short shower every once in a while! 😉

Read about the complete 150m diving collection HERE. 

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Citizen “bullhead” Chronograph 67-9356


This is one of the best vintage chronographs that i can think of! 

Of course you could say that a vintage “Paul Newman” Rolex Daytona is way better, but let’s take a look at this beautiful timepiece.

 

This is THE vintage automatic Citizen chronograph, Challenge Timer, also known as bullhead, Easter rabbit or Mikey Mouse – due to its particular shape. It was first introduced in 1978. (on the caseback the first digit of the serial shows the year and the next two digits are for the month) The reference number is Citizen 67-9356. Regarding the shape, you can instantly see that this is not like all the other bullheads. This one has a beautiful octagonal shape that gives it personality, masculinity and a lot of  refined power.

The case is made of brushed and polished stainless steel and the case back screws into place. The round bezel is polished and the glass crystal is flat. The shape of the watch is octagonal with the lower part dropping towards the bracelet and the upper part, flat, hosting the crown and two push buttons that operate the chronograph function. The winding crown is a little bit longer than the usual so that it can be operated due to the special case design. It is signed “CTZ”.  Back to the shape of the case: – all the frontal part is brushed, from top to bottom. The top flat surface is also brushed but from side to side. The sides of the watch are mirror polisher reflecting the light in unexpected, beautiful ways. The caseback is also polished. The case alone has on the visible side alone, 21 different surfaces, not counting the bezel, crown and buttons so the visual effect of brushed and polished surfaces, with a lot of angles, gives a powerful feeling.

The dial is classic, with three contrasting subdials positioned at 3, 6 and 9. There are only two types of dial colors for this model – black with white subdials and white with black subdials.  (The metal base round case model has a lot of variation in dial color but for this model we have only black and white.) A lot of “restorations” are with aftermarket dials, so pay attention on this aspect when thinking of buying a Citizen chronograph. The indexes of the dial should be raised but the luminescent dot (green) should be on a lower part of the applied index. The Citizen logo is also applied. The hands are painted to better contrast with the dial. The subdial at 3 counts the elapsed minutes (30), the one at 9 – the hours(12) and for the seconds we have the central hand. The subdial at 6 is for the day and date. The day is in two languages, and sundays are painted red. For the white dial version the day and date wheels are black and for the black dial the wheels are white. This gives them a better integration in the general design. On the outside of the dial we have the classic tachymeter.

dsc_0003 copy

The movement is the Citizen automatic, 23 jewels,  calibre 8110A with hand winding capability. It was produced by Citizen starting from 1972. It is a vertical clutch chronograph (beating at 28.800 bph) with column wheel and fly back function. (how many modern chronograph do that, and what is their cost?) Lets don’t forget it has 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 (1 o’clock) button. It is 27 mm wide and 6.9mm high. 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.

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The bracelet (i saw different models but the one on the black dial in pictures is 100% sure it is original to the watch, and my favorite design for this model) is stainless steel, wider where it connects with the case and narrowing towards the signed “Citizen” stainless steel clasp. Each link is made of only one piece. Pay attention that most of aftermarket bracelet are with full links, the original is made of folded steel.

Conclusion: Beautiful to wear, beautiful to look at, interesting special design, wonderful automatic fly back chronograph movement that needs to be used… what else to ask for a vintage chronograph?

Here are some beautiful pictures of this movement: 

https://vintagecitizenwatches.com/2015/03/26/citizen-chronograph-calibre-8110a/