Sweephand's Vintage Citizen Watch Blog

Further to my last post about Bill’s Chronometer, and Marko’s comments about the Japanese certificate, here are some more scans of Citizen’s standards for this watch in the 1960s. First is a certificate showing the standards that had been met:

Next is the Rating Certificate which shows how the watch being tested performed against these standards – as you can see it achieved significantly better results:

Note that the ‘mean daily rate’ variation was less than a second 🙂

The date at the bottom of the above certificate is in the ‘Showa’ period, and equates to 29th September 1965.

The next document shows results against the different tests:

Finally, this scan, although in Japanese, shows how the standards were changed from 1955 to 1961:

The Swiss COSC chronometer standard from 1961 to 1973 required a mean daily rate in five positions of -1/+10, so Citizen were using the same approach. As far as I know (unlike Seiko) they never entered any movements in the COSC competitions in the 1960s. The certificates in these scans look to be Citizen’s own – in 1968 the Japan Chronometer Inspection Institute was founded, but I’ve not seen any standards / certificates published by the JCII. I would assume that they at least matched the Swiss standards.

Following Jim’s diver, here’s another watch from a blog visitor. Bill commented about his 31 jewel hand wound chronometer and kindly gave permission to use the photos he sent me 🙂 Full credit goes to Bill for the four watch images posted here.

Citizen’s first true Chronometer was produced in 1962 and is now a sought after piece. It is rarely seen outside of Japan – in Japan they sell for big money! The majority I’ve seen are gold filled, occasionally solid gold, with fewer in stainless steel. Bill’s is a steel one:

The dial is of a classic design, and carries the Eagle emblem, which is repeated on the case back medallion:

The serial number gives a production date of April 1965 – these models were probably not made much later than that as automatics became more the norm. Here’s the inside of the case back:

And here’s a great shot of the high grade movement – note the unique movement number and fine adjuster on the balance:

As far as I understand it, these Chronometers were made to Citizen’s own standards, which probably exceeded the Swiss COSC measures at that time. Here’s a scan of the relevant certificate:

I’m very grateful to Bill for allowing use of his photos – this is a significant watch and it’s great to be able to show it in this post.