Today’s Watch – Citizen Crystal Seven, 27 Jewels

Posted on May 7, 2020 by sweephand

The Crystal Seven line was an important one for Citizen, as it introduced a wide range of models using their 52 movement in 1965, featuring hardened mineral glass for the first time. It was this that put ‘Crystal’ in the name, and it proved a successful line, with many movement variants from 21 jewels to 43 jewels – Citizen’s highest ever jewelling, and now a sought after piece. With a ‘Custom’ line featuring more colourful dials and cushion cases, there was something for everyone. Today’s example is a 27 jewelled model, ACSS2923, from April 1968. This was one of my first purchases, and I have seen other dial designs with the same model/case number, so I can’t be sure that it is fully original – it feels it somehow though 🙂 And the original bracelet is a classic, and very nice, beads of rice type:

More info here: https://sweep-hand.org/2011/06/23/this-weeks-featured-watch-8-the-crystal-seven-27-jewels/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Leopard, 67-2050 (4-720903), 28 Jewels

Posted on May 6, 2020 by sweephand

The Highness models, as featured yesterday, can be elusive – and expensive! – so a good alternative that is both easier to find and not so costly to buy, is one of the 36,000 beats per hour Leopards. So here is one of those today, case number 4-720903 and it was one of my earliest purchases. The oval dial and crystal on these is an attractive design, and the movement is the same as the ones used in the Highness, but not tweaked quite to chronometer standards. The 28 jewel variant in today’s piece is a 7230 – 72 because it has day and date complications, with hand winding of course, as well as quick-set date and hacking capabilities. With silver dial and a neat tail-less second hand that sweeps smoothly round the dial, it sits well on the wrist. The main hands are lumed on this model and there are lume dots on the outer ends of the hour markers – if you see a watch with lumed hands but no lume on the hour markers, or vice versa, then more likely than not the hands are incorrect (or the dial has been replaced/refurbished). After a rotor repair when I first got it, this one runs well, although I would always recommend a service first if you want to wear a high beat watch regularly. This one is from November 1973:

More on this watch here: https://sweep-hand.org/2012/01/29/this-weeks-featured-watch-21-leopard-36000/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Highness, 28 Jewels

Posted on May 5, 2020 by sweephand

After the Seven Star V2 yesterday, I thought I’d feature on of the high grade watches to which it is related, although this one is in the 72 family. This one is a date only version of the 72, and is the 28 jewel 7430, running at 36,000 beats per hour. The ‘Highness’ is top of the Leopard range (well almost – the Glorious tops them all!) and is a chronometer grade piece, although not ‘officially certified’. Citizen themselves described it as an ‘excellent class of chronometer’, and they are desirable pieces for collectors. The first Highness models had their own special dial logo, and a medallion on the back, then Citizen dropped those and introduced an applied ‘CH’ to the dial or a printed ‘Highness’ in a unique gothic style of font – and that’s what we see here. Although some of the ‘CH’ models had colourful dials, more unusual case shapes and faceted crystals, this one is a classic design, with simple baton hour markers and slender dauphin hands, all with black centre lines. With quick-set date, hand wing and hacking, and a compact size – about 37mm excluding crown – it is a smart automatic dress watch. The Highness line emerged in 1970, and this one is from July 1971 (sorry for getting the second hand just there!):

And to finish it off, it’s good to have the right buckle:

Here’s the 72 Moveemnt ‘Family Tree’ which shows this one along with its siblings:

Click to access 72leopardsevenstarfamilytreesecure.pdf

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Seven Star V2, 24 Jewels

Posted on May 4, 2020 by sweephand

Citizen’s second generation Seven Star watches replaced the original 52 family of movements with the 72 or 77 calibres just four years later, in 1969, and added the ‘V2’ moniker. In line with watch technology development at the time, the later movement ran at 21,600 bph rather than 18,000. Today’s example is from December 1972 and uses the 7710 calibre, so the winding crown is at the 4 o’clock position and it has a quick-set mechanism for both date and day. There were 10 or so versions of the 77 movement, whilst the 72 numbered over 20 variants, so you are likely to see fewer of the 77 models for sale these days. And they are good quality movements, used in high end pieces with up to 31 jewels. The least number of jewels used in the 77’s is 22, and mine today has 24 jewels – in good condition these can run very accurately and this one is no exception:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Cutlass, 27 Jewels

Posted on May 3, 2020 by sweephand

Citizen used their 52 movements, first used in the Crystal Seven line in 1965, in the Cutlass range. These traded on the slimness of the calibre, hence the name, and a number of different models were produced from 1968. They typically introduced some innovative (at that time) designs for the cases and dials, and used 27, 30 and 33 jewelled variants of the 52 (day & date) and 54 (date only) movement. I featured a 33 jewel model with a fancy dial on 12/04/20, whilst the one today empathises the case shape. The Cutlass is a good quality watch, and this is demonstrated here by the slender hour markers with black centre lines around a pale blueish grey dial. It’s finished off nicely be a contrasting set of slender black hands. The movement has a quick-set and ‘hacks’. The case numbers for these is unusual since they are in the form of 4-26xxxx rather than 4-52xxxx or 4-54xxxx which reflect the movement in the Crystal series. The bracelet looks to be an original for this model:

Scan from late 1960s marketing:

SONY DSC

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Today’s Watch – Citizen 6501 Automatic BLTI, 21 Jewels

Posted on May 2, 2020 by sweephand

This watch asserts its 1970s heritage – Citizen introduced more colourful designs at that time as tastes changed and customers looked for something different from traditional design. Citizen pioneered the use of black coating on light alloy cases, and today’s watch combines that with a titanium carbide bezel and gold dial, so the case material code is BLTI. Previously I thought that the ‘TI’ referred to tungsten, but subsequent research confirmed it to represent titanium carbide. The gold hands and hour markers are nicely highlighted with black, and it’s finished off with horizontally faceted glass. The steel crown is not original to this model – it should be a gold plated one. The movement is the 6501, the day and date version of the 6000 calibre, with 21 jewels. An English only day wheel suggests this might have been aimed at the export market. The burgundy bracelet is an original, made of soft resin, I suspect not necessarily to this model. Black would have made more sense – this example is from October 1972:

More info on this watch here: https://sweep-hand.org/2011/10/19/this-weeks-featured-watch-15-6501-with-tungsten-bezel/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Leopard, 4-770498, 24 Jewels

Posted on May 1, 2020 by sweephand

Back to one of Citizen’s range of high beat ‘Leopard’ watches today – launched in 1969 there is no doubt that the movements used in these are of a high quality. Running at either 28,800 bph or 36,000, they offer a wide range of designs and, in good condition, they are great timekeepers. In the past at least, they could be found at reasonable prices (all prices seem to have risen recently unfortunately), unless you were after the top of the range ‘Highness’ models which have always been sought after and, therefore, have been expensive. Today’s model is a 24 jewel 7700 calibre piece with case number 4-770498, this time in a gold plated case. It features black italicised Arabic hour markers, which are very easy to read against a white dial with elegant gold and black hands. This one is in generally good condition, and runs very well and accurately – the crystal has some deep scratches unfortunately, but I’ve not been able yet to find an OEM replacement:

This is the third Leopard I’ve featured so far during the ‘lock-down’ series – there will be a few more yet 🙂 Here’s some marketing material from 1969:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Custom V2 Yacht Timer #2, 4-720474, 23 Jewels

Posted on April 30, 2020 by sweephand

As trailed yesterday. today’s watch is the last of the three 4-720474 sports watches from the very early 1970s. This one is from April 1970, and is a grey dialled version. Again the movement is the 7290, this time with day and date at the 6 o’clock position. The grey dial with blue highlights, shared with the main hands, is a nice combination and is certainly more legible than yesterday’s version. In common with yesterday’s watch the dial doesn’t carry the ‘Yacht Custom’ name as was seen on the first version, initially made with the 52 calibre. But it has the same features – an inner rotating timing ring, a second setting movement, and a depth rating of 10 ATM. The catalogue also describes it as having a yacht racing register ring. It seems that Citizen dropped model names on its dials for at least some of its second generation watches – it was the same with the Rally Custom, originally a Seven Star model like the Yacht Custom, but it only carried the Custom V2 logo when it was made with the 72 movement. The watch is running well and keeping good time:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Custom V2 Yacht Timer (4-720474), 23 Jewels

Posted on April 29, 2020 by sweephand

I’m sticking with the Custom V2 sports watches today, following yesterday’s post – and there’ll be another one tomorrow 🙂 This one uses the same 7290 calibre and the exact same case – also with an inner rotating ring, this one is specifically designed for sailing. It has the 5 second countdown marked, ready for the start of the race. This one has (in my opinion at least) a much better colour palette than yesterday’s watch. But, despite the neat ‘tail-less’ blue second hand, the choice of main hands leaves a lot to be desired. They are hard to read, to say the least, and are a strange choice for this dial. They are original by the way! The 72 movement is a nice one, running at 21,600 bph, with second setting (hacking) and quick-set for the date. Citizen called it ‘rapid date change’ in its briefing leaflets for dealers back in the day. The 720474 was used on three models, and although there is no depth rating on the dial, it was in fact rated at 10 bar/ATM, i.e 100 feet. So it was good for swimming and snorkelling, and makes sense therefore for use out on the water on your dinghy or yacht.:

Here’s a catalogue image from 1971, showing those badly chosen hands 🙂 The last line of text above the price, translates as 10ATM water resistance:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Custom V2, 4-720474, 23 Jewels

Posted on April 28, 2020 by sweephand

I confess that this is not my favourite dial colour! Sandy brown would perhaps most kindly describe the main colour….It’s quite a rare one though, so I had to get it 🙂 It’s one of the second generation of sports watches Citizen started with the Yacht and Soccer Customs using the 52 movement. And as with those this one uses the 7290 ‘hacking’ calibre. It has the same case number as its V2 siblings:

A bit more info can be found here:

This Week’s Featured Watch #24 – the Yacht Custom

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