Been about a month since my last post – grand children and other commitments certainly keep me busy! – I’ve had a couple of pieces arrive this week. And they are very different in character even though only two years separate them. First is a hand winding Crystate Deluxe, a higher quality (and somewhat rare) model using the o2 (‘Homer’) movement. Unusually, it has 22 jewels, a dial uniquely marked with the Crystate font and one applied star, and has ‘second setting’ (usually called ‘hacking’). This one is now on an original bracelet:

It was produced in July 1968, and has the older style model number of HOOS3003:

Moving on just two years and here’s a very different look:

This Custom V2 is one of the first models with Citizen’s black coating on a light alloy case. They were launched in May 1970, with Citizen pioneering this finish and introducing new case and dial designs to appeal to the changing fashions of that era. (NB: the applied ‘Citizen’ logo is polished steel, but the lighting didn’t show this).

These ‘Blacky’ models used the 72 automatic movement with 23 jewels. No model number on this one, just the later style case number. The production date is March 1970:

So two watches of a similar age, yet far apart in terms of design 🙂