Citizen introduced the ‘Junior’ in 1958, a development of the ‘Center Second’ line. Using the 2S/910 movement, it came in 9, 11, 15 and 17 jewel variants. There was a wide variety of dial styles, including some quite fancy designs (how does a tartan dial appeal?!) and three now sought after models picturing respectively a sailing ship, the Matterhorn and a map of the world. The same movement was also used in Citizen’s first ‘Shine’ model, for use by blind people (i.e. a hinged glass with braille type hour markers).

Most of the model range carry the Parashock logo, after the shock resistance system was introduced in 1956. Some models though were made without this and simply show ‘Phynox’ on the dial – this is the alloy used in watch springs.

My example is the lowly 9 jewel model. However, despite this it has some nice features often seen in watches of this age, notably the gold plated engraved hour markers and the hand set:

The number on the back is I believe a case or model number rather than a serial. No serial number is stamped on the inside either:

Here’s the movement, you can see that there is no anti-shock system on the jewel above the balance spring pivot:

Typical of its time, the lugs are drilled:

Finally, we’ve seen the second hand design on this before…on the first electronic watch in fact, which cost around 10 times that of the Junior:

The Junior is a good example of an inexpensive early watch that, despite its price, was produced to a decent quality level.