Today’s Watch – Citizen 67-9551 Automatic Chronograph, 23 Jewels

Posted on April 27, 2020 by sweephand

Gone for a single sub-register chronograph today, i.e. with the 8100A 23 jewel movement. This is a 67-9551, with black coated case and a stainless steel bezel – so the case material code is BLS. This one is from March 1973, and is on an original resin strap. I’m not sure if this was the strap for this model though, so please let me know if you have seen an original catalogue scan or advert. The dial design is similar to the more familiar 67-9119 (8110A) model although it does not have the inner rotating ring featured on that one. I’ve not seen very many examples of the 67-9551 over the years, so it’s a nice one to find if you can:

Here’s a pic of the clasp – this type of strap does split over time, so finding on in good order is difficult:

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More info on all of Citizen’s automatic chronographs here: https://sweep-hand.org/citizens-vintage-chronographs/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen X8 Cosmotron, 4-480040

Posted on April 26, 2020 by sweephand

I noticed yesterday that there was a watch ready to run with today’s date, so effectively it chose itself 🙂 This is an X8 Cosmotron from January 1971, with the date version of the 0480 movement, the 4840. This model, also produced with a silver dial, has a black dial which contrasts nicely with the orange second hand, and the wire framed hands work well over a dark background. The case is a chunky curvaceous steel affair, and has a very solid feel since it is quite deep. It’s comfortable to wear, and the dial is easy to read, with a date window placed, unusually but effectively, at the 6 o’clock position. Although the bracelet is a Cosmotron one, the catalogue pic I have of this model shows it on a mesh bracelet:

The silver dial version and more information is here: https://sweep-hand.org/2014/11/23/this-weeks-featured-watch-64-cosmotron-x8-4-480040/

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Today’s Watch – the Citizen X8 Cosmotron

Posted on April 25, 2020 by sweephand

Well, it’s not one watch today in fact, but a group shot to celebrate Citizen’s line of hybrid watches first launched in 1966. The X8, just called the Electric Watch at the very beginning, was Citizen’s first battery powered watch, but retained a relatively conventional hairspring oscillated by magnets. The Cosmotron name was introduced in 1969, as Citizen developed the technology and raised the beats per hour to 36,000 in the 78 series and 43,200 in the 58 movement. The magnet driven hairspring was even retained for Citizen’s first quartz watch in 1972 which geared the quartz oscillation down to 57,600 beats per hour – a design produced only for a couple of years at most when it was replaced by fully electronic modules. The X8 Cosmotron line was produced only for about 10 years, its days were numbered as soon as quartz technology was applied to wristwatches, which for me makes it all the more interesting. There is an odd one out in the Cosmotron line-up though, and that is the GX. The movement in this is unlike any of the others since it is an in-house single coil tuning fork design. Citizen’s commercial arrangement with Bulova allowed them to make tuning fork movements under licence, and indeed they made and supplied parts for Bulova. But the GX’s 3701B movement was designed as well as built by Citizen – visually the difference from Bulova’s single coil version, the 319, is that the coil is placed on the opposite side. I don’t know why Citizen chose to call this ‘hummer’ a Cosmotron, rather than Hisonic – maybe it was linked to the contract terms with Bulova.

This group has examples from the evolution of the X8 Cosmotron, from the X8 Chronomaster (08 calibre) to the Cosmotron Special (78 calibre), the 58 calibre high beats and the GX (3701 calibre). Notable pieces here are the Chronomaster in the box, the rare chronometer model just left of centre with the light tan strap, and the GX just right of centre on its original beads of rice bracelet. And in the centre, with its blue dial, is the world’s first watch to be housed in a titanium case. This is an X8 Officially Certified Chronometer and is one of the less than 2000 pieces that were made in 1970:

More info on the X8 Cosmotrons here: https://sweep-hand.org/the-x8-cosmotron/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Crystal Date, 17 Jewels

Posted on April 24, 2020 by sweephand

Back to a watch with a date function today, and it’s a Crystal Date from March 1967. The Crystal Date is the date only version of the Crystal Seven, getting its name from Citizen’s use for the first time in 1965 of hardened mineral glass. As with the 540, Compact and the export auto-dater models featured previously, this one uses the 5401 movement. Although this is the base Crystal Date model with 17 jewels, it features a very nice pair of slender lumed main hands and small lume dots on the outside of the hour markers. The dial is finely printed with an applied ‘A’ logo, and the fluted bezel is typical of the mid 1960s. It’s running well and keeping good time:

More details here: https://sweep-hand.org/2012/05/10/this-weeks-featured-watch-32-the-crystal-date-17j/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Auto 1958, 20 Jewels

Posted on April 23, 2020 by sweephand

I’m ignoring my own criterion today – this one has no date window. It’s a favourite in my collection though, and it was not a simple purchase. It is my example of Citizen’s first auto, simply known as ‘the Auto’ which was launched in 1958, and they rarely appear for sale. The few I have seen have been in far from perfect condition and when I saw this one it looked very nice, cosmetically at least. There was a clear issue though, since it had no second hand. I took a risk though and bought it, based on an optimistic belief that a certain master watchmaker, namely Brian Leiser, aka 31 Jewels, would come to the rescue. That optimism proved well-founded, but it was not a straightforward process, not least because an obscure donor watch movement was needed. When I received the watch it wasn’t only the second hand that was missing, the gearing was also absent, and later Brian discovered as well that a very important screw was broken, which meant the auto winding wasn’t working. When I got it, the movement did run but only via hand winding – nevertheless that bode well for a positive outcome. Rather than go through all of that here, I invite you to read the page on I’ve done about this watch, which shows what Brian had to do – and how his skills came to the fore: https://sweep-hand.org/the-citizen-auto-1958/

The Auto came with either 20 or 21 jewels – mine is the 20 jewel version, in a stainless steel case with gold hour markers and hands:

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I chose to feature this one today because I found just yesterday that a French watch company – ‘Ultra’ – has recently been resurrected…..what’s that got to do with an early Japanese automatic I hear you ask! When I researched the Auto, and particularly the self-winding mechanism, I discovered the same design that Citizen used had been designed and patented by a Frenchman, Gerard Langel, some years earlier – he also patented an alternative ‘magic lever’ design, the type used by Seiko in their early automatics. I concluded that Citizen must have acquired the design to enable production of its first automatic in 1958 but I wasn’t able to find proof of this at the time – I researched this in late 2013/early 2014. But now I have been able to confirm what I thought – the new Ultra company, which has launched homage pieces to their original ‘Superautomatic’ model, refers to the design being sold to Citizen on their web site home page:
https://ultra1911.com/
I also found a YouTube video about the new Ultra watches, which includes an interview with one of the founders of the company and he refers to the link with Citizen (from 4:19 if you want to go straight to that bit): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNTO6FHaWfU
It’s good to be able to sew this one up – although it’s a shame Ultra are using Seiko movements in their new watches! I imagine Citizen bought the design to enable them to launch a competitor to Seiko before their own ‘Jet’ automatic design launched just three years later.

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Leopard Leod’or Special, 28 Jewels

Posted on April 22, 2020 by sweephand

Today’s watch is something of a curiosity – although it’s a Leopard high beat, it does not have the standard dial. Instead it is marked with the logo ‘Leod’or’ – which I believe was a fashion brand at the time, i.e. the early 1970s. When it first came to light, and I don’t think I’ve seen another example, it was checked out in Tokyo by its previous owner. The watchmaker had not seen another, but was convinced that the dial is an original Citizen one – it is certainly of the right quality and has an appropriate dial code. A forum discussion included reference to a pic of shoes with the Leod’or logo, so it does seem that the marking on the watch is a brand name. The watch is from April 1973, and is powered by the 7720 movement with 28 jewels running at 28,800 bph. This is easily distinguished from the earlier 72 range since it has the crown at the 4 o’clock position rather than 3 o’clock. This also means that it has the unusual day and date change mechanism, as found in Cosmotrons with the 78 movement – the date is changed by pressing the crown when the watch is held vertically, with 12 0’clock high, whilst the day is changed by inverting it to 6 o’clock high and pressing the crown. It can also be hand wound of course, and can be ‘hacked’, i.e. the movement is stopped when the crown is pulled out to help set the time very accurately.

The watch arrived with a very scratched faceted crystal, but I was able to find an oem replacement, and show off the sparkling dial and that unusual logo:

For information here is the 77 Movement ‘Family Tree’ with the high beat variants highlighted:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Super Flat Auto Dater, 23 Jewels

Posted on April 21, 2020 by sweephand

What would you call a Crystal Seven that doesn’t have a mineral glass crystal? Well, ‘Plastic Seven’ doesn’t have much of a ring to it, so let’s try ‘Super Flat’ instead! Still a slightly odd choice, but the name reflects the slim nature of the 52 movement compared with earlier automatics. Today’s piece was made in July 1966, (unrelated info – the month England won the World Cup 🙂 ) and other than the plastic crystal, it is the same as its more expensive Crystal Seven sibling. The model/case number is APSS52703 – the Crystal Seven version was ACSS52703. The movement is the 23 jewel version of the 5203 calibre, which was produced with a variety of jewelling. It runs at 18,000 bph and has a quick-set date, along with hand winding of course which Citizen provide in most of their movements. This one is running very well:

More info here: https://sweep-hand.org/2014/05/04/this-weeks-featured-watch-59-super-flat-seven-23j/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Seven Star Custom Deluxe, 23 Jewels

Posted on April 20, 2020 by sweephand

December 1968 was a good month. Why? Citizen made today’s watch 🙂 This is one of my favourites, since it offers big lumed markers and main hands against a black dial, but doesn’t have an external bezel. Since I’m not a huge fan of the many look-a-like divers to be found, I do like that this one has the legibility qualities of a diver dial – it is in a large cushion case, measuring about 44 mm across, which is very comfortable to wear. The ‘Deluxe’ moniker shows it is one of the upper tier of Seven Star watches, powered by a 23 jewel 5270 movement, whilst separate day and date windows give it the ‘Custom’ name. Mine has the older style model/case number of ACSS3201, but it may also be found with the later style of case number of 4-520211. Although not on an original Citizen bracelet, I’ve used a vintage Maruman which I think suits it well:

It’s running very well, and time keeping is excellent. More info here:

This Week’s Featured Watch #74 – Seven Star Custom Deluxe

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Today’s Watch – Citizen 540 Auto Dater, 17 Jewels

Posted on April 19, 2020 by sweephand

The third example of a watch using the 5400 movement was probably the first model to come to the market with this calibre when it was launched in 1966. This one is from July of that year and is simply called the ‘540’. It is typical of the design approach seen in the early to mid-1960s with plain steel dagger hands, baton hour markers and a fluted bezel. It is distinguished from the Crystal Date through the use of a plastic crystal. No applied logo on this one, just fine printing of the model name, jewel count and ‘parawater’:

Here’s a look at the movement:

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and here’s the 5400 movement number stamped near the balance wheel:

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Each of 5400 examples featured over the last three days show how the same calibre can be found in quite different case styles.

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Autodater, 21 Jewels, 4-540298/62-5132

Posted on April 18, 2020 by sweephand

Yesterday’s watch was the ‘Compact’ with the 5401 movement inside. I thought it would be interesting to look at another model with this very same date only calibre, but with 21 jewels this time, so today’s watch is an export model. And it’s a very different style – made in October 1970 it has what would have been then a much more modern look, with an elliptical bezel and stylised horizontal hour markers. We can identify it as an export piece because it carries no model name on the dial and is marked ‘waterproof’ rather then ‘parawater’. That’s only on the dial though, since the case back retains the parawater stamp. The radially brushed bezel is rather nice, and the red print of the day wheel adds a little highlight amidst the dark grey of the dial, although I find the plain steel hands are a bit underwhelming. It has a mineral glass crystal though and overall I reckon it is a nice looking dress watch. It’s running well, with accurate time-keeping:

Here’s a scan from a 1974 German catalogue, showing the same design, but with the later 72 movement inside (running at 21,600 bph compared with the 18,000 bph of the 52):

Tomorrow I’ll finish this ‘mini-series’ with one more example of the 5400 models, and it will be oldest of the three….

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