Today’s Watch – Citizen Leopard Superbeat 8, 26 Jewels, 4-770111

Posted on May 17, 2020 by sweephand

Back to another Leopard today – from April 1971, this is a 26 jewelled model using the 7700 day and date movement. With quick-set day and date and the characteristic 4 o’clock crown position, this may have been the first Leopard I purchased. With 28,800 beats per hour and a fine adjuster on the balance, it runs well and accurately. It has a silvery white dial with smart hour batons and hand set, and is marked ‘Superbeat 8’, i.e. 8 beats per second:

Here it is, bottom left, in a 1971 catalogue:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen SM Auto Dater, 17 Jewels

Posted on May 16, 2020 by sweephand

Here’s the second of Citizen’s two movements used in the SM models – this time with 17 jewels. The other has 21, but both use the same date only 2410 calibre. The day and date version of this, the SM 7, uses the 4600 movement with 23 jewels. They were all launched in 1965, and share the same unique date quick-set, namely it’s set when the crown is pulled out to set the time and then the hands moved backwards to advance the date. It’s odd at first, but actually works very well. The dial and hand set is the same as the 21 jewels version, with slender lumed hands and lume dots out side the hour markers. The bezel is plain on this one though – and maybe all the better for that, since it gives a smart and uncluttered overall appearance. These were reasonably priced watches but nonetheless seem to be of a decent quality – both are functioning and running well after nearly 55 years. This one is from February 1966:

Here’s the 21 jewel example:

Today’s Watch – Citizen SM Auto Dater 21 Jewels

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Adorex 8050 Automatic, 21 Jewels

Posted on May 15, 2020 by sweephand

Time for the second of three Adorex models today – the first one I featured was the lowliest of them, with its 8200A movement. Today is the middle one in the hierarchy, namely the 8050 movement. Although this is a high beat movement, running at 28,800bph, it has only 21 jewels so is unusual in that respect – typically Citizen’s high beat models have higher jewelling. Like the Leopard movements, the 8050 has a fine adjuster on the balance so it can be tuned for very accurate timekeeping. The notable thing about the 8000, 8050 and 8200 movements (but not the 8100 and 8110 chronographs) is that they introduced uni-directional auto winding for the first time, for Citizen at least. The dial colour on my example is an unusual pale greyish green, which looks quite appealing. The smart main hands and hour markers have black centre lines, and the movement hand winds and hacks. Both date and day are quick-set as well – pull the crown out one step and the date changes when turned in one direction or the day when turned the other way:

And here is the movement, showing the winding direction of the rotor and the fine adjuster:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Seven Star 100m Dual Crown Diver, 21 Jewels

Posted on May 14, 2020 by sweephand

Bert’s comments yesterday included a pic of his beautiful dual crown Seven Star Deluxe diver, and this inspired today’s piece. My Seven Star export model, with red dial. It’s marked ‘waterproof’ rather than ‘parawater’ and the Seven Star name is not printed on the dial, so it was not for the Japanese domestic market. With a 52 day/date 21 jewel movement as per the Crystal Seven it runs at 18,000 beats per hour, and features an inner rotating ring moved by the crown at 2 o’clock along with large lumed markers and a classic diver handset, including a nice ‘lollipop’ second hand. Date is quick-set, and it hand winds, and it is rated to 100 meters, so only designed for swimming and maybe a bit of snorkelling. This one is from April 1969:

For info on all Citizen’s vintage divers, including other variants of today’s watch, have a look here:

Citizen’s Vintage Mechanical Divers, 1962 to 1980

And Bert’s lovely watch is in the comments of this post:

Citizen’s Vintage Mechanical Divers, 1962 to 1980

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Leopard, 4-720458, 26 Jewels

Posted on May 13, 2020 by sweephand

Back to a high beat model today – and one of my favourite Leopard Superbeats. From March 1970, this one is case number 4-720458 with a 7210 26 jewel hacking movement, which runs at 28,800 beats per hour. The black dial with contrasting white hour markers and main hands is highlighted by orange on the 12 o’clock marker and an orange second hand. These sit in a softly round case held by a steel mesh bracelet. The result is a comfortable to wear piece that is easy to read quickly. It’s hard to fault the Leopard range – good quality pieces with a variety of dial designs and case styles, that make for very collectable watches. Mine is running well, and is on its original bracelet:

Here it is in a catalogue from 1971 showing the ￥16000 price – Leopards ranged from ￥15k to around ￥30k in that particular catalogue:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Seven Star V2, 23 Jewels

Posted on May 12, 2020 by sweephand

Posting a bit later today, so only a short note – this is an interesting V2 Seven Star from April 1970. The hacking 7280 movement has the day and date in a single window at the 12 o’clock position. And the nice thing about that is it changes instantly at 12 midnight – no slow change over several hours:

More info here: https://sweep-hand.org/2012/09/26/this-weeks-featured-watch-41-the-seven-star-v2-7280/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Seven Star Deluxe, 21 Jewels

Posted on May 11, 2020 by sweephand

Since it uses the same 52 movement as the Crystal Seven, the Seven Star series was also launched in 1965. The range included Deluxe and Custom models, and today’s is a Deluxe with 21 jewels. With it’s own applied logo, the Seven Star is easy to distinguish from the Crystal Seven one, and they are usually reasonably priced compared to higher end models. A bit like yesterday’s watch, the Seven Star range included a nice variety of dial designs, and this one has a contrasting chapter ring, lumed hands and hour marker dots and a neat blue second hand. This one is from October 1969:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Crystal Seven Custom, 21 Jewels

Posted on May 10, 2020 by sweephand

Citizen introduced its ‘Custom’ line alongside the more conventional cases and dials of the standard range in the mid 1960s with the Seven Star and Crystal Seven models. Today’s piece is one of the latter, a Crystal Seven Custom with 21 jewels – the case is not a typical circular shape and the pale grey/blue dial has split day and date windows and a contrasting black chapter ring. The primary hour markers are faceted steel squares, whilst the secondary ones are rivet shapes, so quite a lot going one deign-wise. The movement has quick-set date and hand winds, and runs at 18,000 bph. This example is from April 1969:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Jet Auto Dater, 17 Jewels

Posted on May 9, 2020 by sweephand

After the somewhat technical Challenge Golf yesterday, I’ve gone back a decade or so to a 17 jewel Auto Dater with the Jet circular geared rotor – Citizen introduced the Jets in 1961 with the 031 calibre. The movement in this one was launched a year later in 1962, and is designated 113 and is best known in the Jet ‘Rookie’ models. This is the base movement, so doesn’t have hand winding. This example has a black dial, fairly unusual for its day, with slender dauphin hands and polished baton markers. Although its case/model number begins with ADR which defines it as a Rookie, the dial is not marked as such, rather it carries a 40m depth rating. The case appears to be plated rather than solid steel, and is far from mint, but I have a real soft spot for this one, which is from April 1965:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Challenge Golf, 26 Jewels

Posted on May 8, 2020 by sweephand

Today’s piece might be mistaken for something of a novelty watch, the Challenge Golf. But it is far from that – it’s a serious bit of kit, with an automatic high-beat movement (28,800bph) with fine adjuster, hacking, hand winding – and a special, indeed unique feature – a golf score counter. The 7760 derivative of the 7700 movement is also unique to this watch, with the crown positioned at the 8 o’clock position. It is date only, set by winding back and forth at the 12 0’clock position, whilst pressing the crown moves the score counter found at the 12 o’clock position. Two case design were used, both black coated with either steel or gold plated bezels – a ‘TV’ style one and a round one, which is what I have here, from October 1973:

The other case design is shown here. with more information:

This Week’s Featured Watch #6 – the Challenge Golf

Here’s a marketing image from 1972, showing the two bezels – on their white straps which are very rarely found these days:

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Finally, here’s how to use the score counter:
Citizen Challenge Golf Manual

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