Citizen Parawater – The Oceanic Tests Update

Posted on June 30, 2020 by sweephand

English language sub-titles are now included in this excellent YouTube video:

Posted in Vintage Watches | Tagged , | 19 Comments

Today’s Watch – Citizen Diamond Flake

Posted on June 27, 2020 by sweephand

It’s the weekend so today’s watch is a hand winder 🙂 The Diamond Flake was Japan’s thinnest watch when it was launched in 1962. The 25 or 31 jewels 0700 movement was a mere 2.75mm deep, beating the Seiko Gold Feather by just 0.2mm. My example is from September 1963 – I haven’t had chance to do a fresh photo today, so this is an old one:

There’s more on this and the very nice movement here: https://sweep-hand.org/2013/05/15/this-weeks-featured-watch-51-the-diamond-flake/

As the ‘lock-down’ is eased and life gets busier, I’ll be doing fewer ‘Today’s Watch’ posts – still got more to show you though 🙂

Advertisement
Posted in Vintage Watches | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Citizen’s Case Numbers – the Mysterious Case Number Letter

Posted on June 26, 2020 by sweephand

A change today from a watch feature to something that’s always been a bit of a mystery – the letter stamped at the end of Citizen’s case numbers. Although not needed as a part number since the case number alone, e.g. 4-123456 provides that, I have never pinned down just what the additional letter indicates. I wrote to Citizen Japan about it – didn’t get a reply! So I’m left to my own theory 🙂

Most vintage Citizens with the above case number format, typically from the late 1960s and on through the 1970s have ‘TA’, ‘K’ or ‘Y’ stamped alongside the case number:

My theory is that these letters are factory codes – relatively recently I got hold of a scanned catalogue from the early 1970s, and that includes a list of factories:

My best guess is that ‘TA’ is the Tanashi or Tama Seimitsu factory, ‘K’ is the Kawaguchiko factory (dials were made there and dial codes often include ‘KA’ too), and ‘Y’ is …… not so obvious! You can see as well the ‘Star’ Seimitsu Company – older watches have ‘STAR’ marked on them since they initially made cases for Citizen, but later produced smaller parts, particularly screws.

Posted in Vintage Watches | 11 Comments

Today’s Watch – Citizen Cosmotron GX

Posted on June 25, 2020 by sweephand

Today’s piece is another battery powered model, and although it’s a Cosmotron, it’s something of an anomaly. Unlike any other Cosmotron this one does not have a magnet driven hairspring – in fact it is a ‘hummer’ – a tuning fork watch. I don’t know why Citizen branded this as a Cosmotron – my only theory is that the design of the single coil 3701B movement was their own, and not made under licence from Bulova as was seen with their Hisonic range. There’s no mistaking it’s a hummer either – it hums very loudly, and is not the best thing to have on your bedside table if you want a good night’s sleep! I’m not a great lover of roman numerals on watch dials, but they work well on this one in my opinion. The finely printed black hour markers contrast well with the clear white dial (not very well shown in today’s photo), whilst the slender hands also have a fine black centre line – it’s a very smart look. The GX is a fairly rare watch, so a nice one to add to any collection. This one is from November 1975:

More on this one here:

https://sweep-hand.org/2012/05/21/this-weeks-featured-watch-33-the-cosmotron-gx/

Posted in Vintage Watches | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Today’s Watch – Citizen’s First Quartz, 8811

Posted on June 23, 2020 by sweephand

Today’s watch was a very significant one for Citizen – launched in mid-1973 it was their first quartz model. Using the 8810, 8811 and 8821 movements, they were electro-mechanical calibres, like the Cosmotrons before them. In other words they were battery powered, with a quartz crystal regulating a magnetically driven balance wheel via mechanical gears. The result is a remarkable 115,200 beats per hour oscillation, and accuracy for the 8811 & 8821 variants of +/- 10 seconds per month, and just +/- 5 seconds per month for the ‘EFA’ 8810. These hybrid movements were soon replaced by full electronic movements – I have read that they may have been produced for little more than 6 months. They are rare, especially the EFA models, and are high quality pieces – they were very expensive to buy new. They all have a ‘jewel’ at the 12 o’clock position, with two more at 6 and 9 o’clock on the EFA version. Mine is from October 1973 and is one of the 8811 models:

This is the range of models, from a 1974 catalogue

And the movement:

Posted in Vintage Watches | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Today’s Watch – Citizen X8 Chronometer

Posted on June 22, 2020 by sweephand

Continuing with the electric theme, today’s watch is a rare Officially Certified Chronometer version of the electro-mechanical X8 line. The 0820 movement runs at 21,600 beats per hour, has 19 jewels and mine is uniquely numbered X00294. The case is a very unusual shape, and I think it is unique this model. Mine was made in August 1970:

More on this one here: https://sweep-hand.org/2013/04/19/this-weeks-featured-watch-49-the-x8-cosmotron-chronometer/ (NB I refer to this one and the titanium cased X8 as the only two chronometer grade X8’s – there was in fact one more model, not (yet anyway) in my collection.

Posted in Vintage Watches | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Citizen Parawater – The Oceanic Tests

Posted on June 19, 2020 by sweephand

There’s a change today from my daily and weekend watch features, since a new video documentary has just been published about Citizen’s testing of their parawater automatics in the 1960s. And I want to leave this post at the top of the home page for a couple of days. You may know that Citizen put their parawater system to the test with a campaign of releasing Jet Automatic watches into the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, using special buoys to hold them. I was very happy to provide some of my reference material to help in the production of the video, so rather than my usual watch post, I would invite you to take a look at the Italian language video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keIC983zWzc

I am very impressed with the quality of the film – it’s a shame my Italian is very limited since I would love to follow the narration. It is a very professional piece of work.

Posted in Vintage Watches | 2 Comments

Today’s Watch – Citizen Quartz 8600 ‘Blinker’

Posted on June 18, 2020 by sweephand

Citizen moved into quartz technology in a big way in the early 1970s, and their early quartz models are high quality pieces, designed to be serviced, and used for many years. They are collectable things as a result and a few in particular have extra features that make them a little more desirable. And today’s piece is one of them – with the 8600A movement inside it is a ‘blinker’ – a small LED lamp at 12 o’clock flashes every 60 seconds. Rather like the Cosmotron Special, the button at 8 o’clock enables accurate time synchronisation and with a +/- 10 seconds accuracy per month this was of course far more accurate than any mechanical piece at that time. As well as the nice applied CQ logo, my example is marked ‘QUARTZ’, so it’s an early one, since from around October 1974 they were marked ‘Crystron’. It was produced in August of that year, and is running very well, including the LED flashing every minute:

Posted in Vintage Watches | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Today’s Watch – Citizen X8 Chronometer, Titanium

Posted on June 17, 2020 by sweephand

Citizen was the first company in the world to make a watch case fully from titanium. Although common these days, manufacturing challenges made it difficult to work with in the early 1970s. Citizen made and sold less than 2000 of this X8 model, all of which I believe were produced in May 1970. Using the 0820 movement, it is an Officially Certified Chronometer measured against the Japan Chronometer Association’s standards at the time. The 99.6% titanium case is a dull grey, not polished like many watches typically seen today:

You can find more info on this model here: https://sweep-hand.org/2013/12/22/this-weeks-featured-watch-55-the-x8-titanium-chronometer

Posted in Vintage Watches | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Today’s Watch – Citizen Cosmotron, 4-480279

Posted on June 16, 2020 by sweephand

Another Cosmotron today, and one of the more unusual ones – the movement is the 4840 date only version of the 0840 calibre. The unusual bit is the crystal, since it has the ‘Citizen Electronic’ logos and minute markers printed on the inside and not on the dial itself. The plain black dial just carries the applied Cosmotron motif, along with nicely shaped hour markers. Although my example is not in very good condition, these are rarely seen so I grabbed it when I could. I suspect a replacement glass would be rather hard to find! This is one of the middle generation of Cosmotrons, running at 21,600 bph, before the 78xx series replaced them, and was produced in November 1971:

More info on this one here: https://sweep-hand.org/2019/02/17/cosmotron-from-1971-whats-so-unusual/

Posted in Vintage Watches | Tagged , | Leave a comment