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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph, 67-9143, 23 Jewels

June 1, 2020, 10:35 am
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After my second hand wind weekend, it’s back to chronographs this week, with today’s watch a bullhead type – this time it’s one of two models that use a gold tone dial, the 67-9143. This variant features a dark brown (rather than black) coated case and gold bezel. The other model is the 67-9020 which has a gold plated case and black bezel.

The 67-9143 has two case numbers, this dark brown one is 4-901134, whilst the other is 4-901088 – that may relate to a black finish to the case. My photo today clearly shows the white crystal gasket, something to look out for when you see either an 8100 or 8110 chronograph. The combination of black with the gold dial, main and sub-register hands is an effective and appealing design. My example is a late one, from July 1981:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph 67-9011 (#2), 23 Jewels

June 2, 2020, 11:32 am
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Staying with the ‘bullhead’ design today, and this is a nice alternative to the more usual 67-9011 that I featured on May 29th. This has a black dial and printed rather than applied Citizen logo. The white lumed main hands and hour markers, a multi-coloured minutes register and orange chronograph hands give it a sharp and very clear appearance, whilst the black day and date wheels blend in nicely. The nickel alloy case and black bezel are the same as the more common version. The movement is the 8110A of course, with hand winding, quick-set day and date and fly-back functionality.

My example is from August 1976 – interestingly the dial number (901051) isn’t in Citizen’s casing parts catalogue from 1977, so maybe this version had only a short production run. This would explain the relatively low number seen for sale these days:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph, 67-9356, 23 Jewels

June 3, 2020, 11:09 am
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Finishing the ‘bullhead’ style of 8110A chronographs today, with the fully stainless steel 67-9356. This model is instantly recognisable by its hexagonal case. With either silver/white or black dials, mine is the latter. Although not in perfect condition it is on its original sold link bracelet and runs very well indeed – it was serviced by Brian Leiser (aka 31 Jewels) so it has been in the right hands 🙂

Since this one is all stainless, it is a much more hefty piece than its alloy cased siblings. The lighting in my pic looks like it has a black bezel and black applied Citizen logo – it hasn’t of course!:

Good examples of these are hard to find, and are sought after by collectors. Here is more info about this one with better images: https://sweep-hand.org/2015/01/27/this-weeks-featured-watch-67-67-9356-chronograph/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph, 67-9054 #1, 23 Jewels

June 4, 2020, 11:34 am
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I’m ending the second chronograph week with two side buttoned models, in fact two variants of one model – the 67-9054. This ‘TV’ style watch is a hefty piece of stainless steel, and along with a solid link bracelet it feels very solid. It uses the 8110A movement of course – high-beat, hand-windable, fly-backable; it has it all. However, there’s a big ‘but’ to the design, and that is the external tachymeter bezel, which has been left unprotected from the knocks and scrapes of everyday life. This first example, the green dial variant, is a good example of this issue, even though it is far from the worst you’ll ever see! The attractive black bezel with cyan printed tachymeter scale actually sits slightly proud of the case, so it is very vulnerable. Otherwise, the case is very decent, and the dial nigh on perfect. It’s a shaded green base with black sub-dials highlighted with cyan and grey. The baton hour markers and main hands are lumed whilst the sub-register hands are white – finally the orange second hand creates a bright contrast as it sweeps smoothly round the dial. This one is from July 1974:

NB: that’s not me in the pic! It’s a book cover 😀

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph, 67-9054 #2, 23 Jewels

June 5, 2020, 9:18 am
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This is the second example of the 67-9054 model, this time with the alternative blue dial. As illustrated by yesterday’s green dialled version, the bezel on these is very vulnerable, so I was pleased to acquire today’s example with an intact one. It’s not a watch I wear for fear of damaging the bezel which is a great shame of course, but I’d like to keep this one in its current condition!

The combination of the mid-blue dial with the blue highlights on the tachymeter bezel and sub-dials is very pleasing to the eye, and the orange second hand strikes a great contrast. The original solid link bracelet is a familiar design, and can be found on a number of other 8110A models. I suspect the 67-9054 had a short production run since both of mine are from 1974 (this one is June of that year) and they are not listed in my 1977 original Citizen casing parts catalogue:

The weekend approaches, so a couple of hand winding models will be selected, then I think it will be back to 8110A’s for a third Chronograph Week 🙂

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Ace, 21 Jewels

June 6, 2020, 10:52 am
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This weekend’s hand winders feature the Ace – launched in 1961 it uses a derivation of the 9200 movement first seen in the Deluxe in 1958. The Ace movements are the 9210, 9230, 9231 and 9232 and run at 18,000 bph. Unlike the Deluxe, they are not marked ‘3 Adj.’ so I assume they are not quite at the same grade. Made with either 21 or 23 jewels, they were in production for about 5 years. Today’s example is from October 1962, and is a typical design of that era, with narrow dauphin hands and a fluted bezel, all in stainless steel. The case/model number the older style A1407051, and the lugs are drilled right through. It still runs very well:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Ace Discus, 21 Jewels

June 7, 2020, 9:33 am
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The Ace weekend is completed with an interesting version, called the Discus. No doubt the fishy name celebrated Citizen’s ‘parawater’ (water resistance) system introduced in 1959 – Citizen was the first Japanese company to do this with the Deluxe Parawater. Like yesterday’s Ace, this has the 21 jewel movement inside but adds ‘Discus’ to the dial. Water resistance is prioritised as ‘Para Water’ is placed at the top of the dial, with ‘Citizen Ace’ relegated to the 6 o’clock position. ’21 Jewels’ printed in capitals is a nice variation. My example is from July 1961, and I managed to get a Discus hang-tag for this one:

The back on these is great, but is only lightly engraved, so many are pretty well worn smooth and illegible, except for the more deeply stamped serial number. By the way, ‘STAR’ is found on case backs through to the mid-1960s – it was the company/factory that made cases:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph, 67-9119, 23 Jewels

June 8, 2020, 1:28 pm
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Back to the 8110A calibre for Chronograph Week 3. And it’s the 67-9119 today, a fairly well known model sometimes called the ‘spider’. The dial is interesting since it is plastic I believe, with an inner rotating ring turned by a small crown at the 10 o’clock position. The original bracelet has black coloured indents which give a distinct look. The black dial and ring with white lumed main hands and hour markers give a monochrome look, nicely contrasted by the orange chronograph hands. Although the case code is ‘SSB’ the case is actually nickel alloy and is described on the back as ‘base metal’. These were produced through to at least 1980, mine is from October of that year:

Here’s more detail of the bracelet:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph, 67-9071, 23 Jewels

June 9, 2020, 11:03 am
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Another 8110A auto chronograph given the Brian Leiser treatment is today’s choice. This is the 67-9071, a ‘monaco’ style piece with green main dial straight from the 1970s. It needed a lot of work, but Brian, as usual, did a great job – there’s a link below to a blog page where you can read Brian’s notes and see his pics of the restoration.

This model is fairly rare and it’s hard to find a good one – the black case is often quite worn and the dials can fade and flake over the years. I managed to source new hands for mine which really brightened it up. And what I believe is an original bracelet is a great addition to this one – it’s a laminated resin material, and not for serious use these days since there is some splitting apparent although it remains nice and flexible. Mine is from December 1973, so it’s fairly early in the 8110A production run which started in October 1972. Like other rarer models I suspect it had a short production run – it isn’t listed in 1977 in my casing parts catalogue:

Here’s Brian’s picture rich write-up of his work on this one:

https://sweep-hand.org/brians-restorations-the-citizen-67-9071-monaco/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph, 67-9151, 23 Jewels

June 10, 2020, 11:01 am
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Another very 1970s watch 8110A today – the all stainless steel 67-9151. This is one of the rarer models, again having had a shorter production run than other more familiar ones. It’s eight sided case, with four of them curved, gives it a distinctive and pretty well unique look. The main dial colour is green, shaded lighter in the centre, with (as seen on the 67-9178) hexagonal sub-dials. The main hands are white with lumed centres and black ‘tails’, with white sub-register hands and an orange second hand (one variant has a yellow second hand – more info below). One side of each sub-dial on my example is shaded orange. Mine is on its original solid link bracelet, and is from January 1975:

There were three dial designs for this model, one of which also had a yellow second hand – this scan provides all the info needed to check authenticity:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph, 67-9038, 23 Jewels

June 11, 2020, 9:45 am
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Today’s watch is the penultimate 8110A model to be featured in the three chronograph weeks – and it is the blue dialled version of the 67-9038. This model also came with white (well silver really) and black dials. Mine is in excellent condition on its original solid link bracelet – one of Citizen’s nicest bracelets in my opinion. The stainless steel case has a polished finish with a black coated bezel. The blue dial is encircled by a white tachymeter ring, whilst the silver sub-dials sport cyan highlights. The orange chronograph hands combine well with the predominantly blue dial – something of a classic combination in fact. The white day/date window frame is also a nice touch – on the white dial this is a black frame. It looks like white and black day and date wheels were available for these – certainly Australian market version all had black wheels in the catalogue I have. Mine is from April 1974:

More on this one here: https://sweep-hand.org/2011/11/17/this-weeks-featured-watch-16-67-9038-chronograph/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Automatic Chronograph, 67-9313, 23 Jewels

June 12, 2020, 10:55 am
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The last of the three week auto chronographs series is the 67-9313, nick-named the Speedy due to its resemblance to the Omega Speedmaster. There are two dials found, white and black, both with the external tachymeter bezel. All stainless steel this is a classic design which is very collectable and sought after as a result. My two examples are from November 1976 (black dial) and October 1976 (white dial). Brian Leiser serviced the black one, shown here on an original Speedy bracelet. The white dial is in close to mint condition. Great looking watches, with a design that will stand the test of time well:

Here you can see Brian’s work on various Speedies:

https://sweep-hand.org/brians-8110a-restoration-the-speedy-67-9313/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Junior, 9 Jewels

June 13, 2020, 11:09 am
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Back to a nice simple watch for this Hand Wind Weekend. And today it’s the Junior – this was the penultimate in the line of ‘Center Second’ watches Citizen made for many years. It came with 9, 11, 15 & 17 jewels, and although mine is an example of the 9 jewel one, with no anti-shock system, it is still nicely finished and has aged pretty well. These were launched in 1958 and the most sought after are those with fancy dials. There’s no serial number on this, so I can’t be sure of the exact production date, but it will be close to 1958:

More info and pics about this model here: https://sweep-hand.org/2012/03/14/this-weeks-featured-watch-26-the-junior/

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Today’s Watch: Citizen Master, 19 Jewels

June 14, 2020, 12:12 pm
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Today’s hand-winder is the Master, made only in 1959 as far as I know and was the last in the long line of what Citizen called its ‘Center Second’ watches. The 910/913 19 jewel movement was a higher grade version of the Junior seen yesterday, and was marked as having three adjustments at the factory. Unlike yesterday’s 9 jewel movement the Master does have the para shock system introduced by Citizen in 1956. Good examples of these are hard to find, due no doubt to their very short production run. The dial on mine is not so good, although the case has worn well:

More info on this watch here: https://sweep-hand.org/2012/10/24/the-weeks-featured-watch-42-the-master/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Cosmotron Special

June 15, 2020, 9:12 am
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I think we’ll have an electric week this week – starting with the last in the line of 7800 calibre Cosmotrons, the Special version. The Special, calibre number 7803, is immediately identifiable by the button at the 8 o’clock position, which enables accurate time setting of the seconds and minutes hands, i.e. it not only zeros the second hand (to 12 o’clock) but also the minute hand when it is within + or – 3 minutes of 12 o’clock. The quality of many of the Cosmotrons is high, and particularly so on the Special variants. This example is from August 1973, and is an all stainless steel model with a ‘tv’ style case. The white dial features smart polished steel markers and hands, highlighted with slender black centres. There is no ‘X8’ on these later models, with ‘electronic’ printed beneath the Citizen mark and an applied Cosmotron logo above the 6 o’clock marker. The second hand is characteristic of the Cosmotrons, with its coffin shaped tail. The solid link bracelet is a familiar design also seen on a number of the 8110A automatic chronograph models. The case and bezel are generally polished, but it has brushed lug ends to match the bracelet:

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Cosmotron, 4-480279

June 16, 2020, 10:38 am
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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/

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Today’s Watch – Citizen X8 Chronometer, Titanium

June 17, 2020, 11:19 am
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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

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Today’s Watch – Citizen Quartz 8600 ‘Blinker’

June 18, 2020, 9:19 am
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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:

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Citizen Parawater – The Oceanic Tests

June 19, 2020, 9:44 am
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There’s a change today from my daily watch feature, since a new video documentary has just been published about Citizen’s testing of their parawater automatics in the 1960s. 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.

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Today’s Watch – Citizen X8 Chronometer

June 22, 2020, 11:09 am
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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.

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