After covering later technology utilising electronics in the previous couple of featured watches, this week I return to the humble hand winding tradition, and a significant watch for Citizen. Generally the ‘Deluxe’ was important because it was a commercial success, selling many millions in Japan, but this model was notable because it was the first, in 1959, to carry the ‘Parawater’ logo. After that, until around 1970, ‘parawater’ was Citizen’s term for ‘waterproof’ and many of its models carried the logo until then.

As the first waterproof model, this one tends to be described as the Parawater.

It uses the stock 2B/9200 Deluxe movement, but for the first time Citizen used waterproof gaskets and most importantly, a new design for the crown and tube assembly:

The system was tested in June 1963, when an example was floated across the Pacific on the Kuroshio (the Black Current) in a special buoy, to prove it’s effectiveness when swimming (this was not designed for diving of course).

My example is far from pristine, but has a nicely aged cream dial:

The Parawater logo has pride of place on this model, reflecting the importance of the new feature. The logo is applied, whilst the ‘Deluxe’ name is printed at the 6 o’clock position:

The worn case back at least shows the serial number, showing production in January 1960:

Produced in 19, 21 and 23 jewel variants, this one has 23:

More info on the Deluxe, including a couple of examples of the Parawater, can be found on the Deluxe page, here: https://sweep-hand.org/the-deluxe/