One of the joys of collection and researching Citizen’s vintage watches is that you can be sure you’ve not discovered everything! Just the other week, ‘Martin’ visited my blog and, as many visitors do, asked for more information about his watch…

Martin kindly sent photos, and with his permission, and with full credit to him for the images, he asked me about this:

Although I’ve not seen this watch before, the quality of  the dial, for example the fine printing and the applied logos, suggest to me that it is an authentic model. The 23 jewel movement is also in good order and is marked as a 5270, usually found in Seven Star models, as reflected in the ‘7’ crown logo on the dial:

But the most intriguing part of the watch is this case back:

So far in my experience, this is a unique design – and I believe it is an authentic one, given the quality of the markings and the information it provides. The movement number is present, along with ‘-71’ which I reckon is the production year. That fits with the use of ‘proof’ since that term was used until around 1973 when ‘resistant’ became the norm. The 000226 serial number suggests to me low volume production, which might well explain why I’ve never seen one of these before! The nicely stamped eagle motif in the centre is pretty much the same as the Chrono Master dial emblem:

Finally, the back is stamped with ‘HMC’, which I have seen occasionally before on several watches. I have never fully got to the bottom of its meaning, but my best guess is that it relates to Citizen’s Korean casing and assembly factory, which was acquired in the early 1970s – and was known as the Hanmi Citizen Precision Industry. Here is an exceptionally rare Chrono Master case back I spotted some years ago:

So here we have it – a ‘new’ vintage model, in my opinion at least 🙂

Thanks again to Martin for allowing me to post about his watch and for his photos.

Comments welcome!