Identifying older Citizen Quartz watches

[MF60]

Hello all,

I was successful in restating two older watches that I had set aside.  I bought new batteries a week ago and they both restarted.

I admit to having left the old batteries in them (I know better now).

a little background - 

I liked this model because the appearance was nice, it was water resistant and the best was the overall thickness was about 8 mm.  It was nice to wear with the stretch band and lasted a long time. I never changed the pattery myself but always took it to JC Penney where I bought it and either dropped it off and walked around the mall or came back a day or two later.

Eventually the repair guy at JC Penney told me he could not fix it (I did not remember the symptoms) and I bought another and always had him change the batteries.  Eventually in 2017 bought an Apple Watch and never wore the second Citizen watch.  But I kept them.

So now both are working but I do not understand the age of each watch.  I downloaded the Citizen Watch app and it's not finding the watches using their app.  Maybe I'm not the only one with the problem:

https://support.citizenwatch.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015206713-Why-doesn-t-the-Citizen-app-recognize-my-watch-

I think I am reading the case backs correctly and one is s/n 590888 and the other s/n 967716.

I see this as they are both caliber number 5500 for each watch.  

Is the difference only the case number, and how would I know the model number of each watch?

While both work, the one I think is older (590888) has more problems the crown is difficult to turn and and I can't easily feel the two clicks when pulling out the stem, and the gasket is deformed.  It's almost impossible to get the date and day set.

The time onn both watches over time match very closely to the time I set them to on my desktop PC.

Many thanks in advance for suggestions on getting part number list and maybe a manual or instruction guide.

Mark

 

[watchweasol]

Hi fid attached the tech sheet for the citizen  also contains the user instructions. Hope you find it useful.  Decoding the serial numbers is a bit vague.

5500.pdf

[JohnR725]

Usually for both Seiko and citizen the movement number is on the case back. It's usually the Four digit number with the – in another four digits or some other numbers then there's the serial number that is subject to interpretation but there's websites out there that people will tell you how to do that.

4 hours ago, MF60 said:

While both work, the one I think is older (590888) has more problems the crown is difficult to turn and and I can't easily feel the two clicks when pulling out the stem, and the gasket is deformed.  It's almost impossible to get the date and day set.

Problem with vintage watches especially a quartz watch is the gaskets will disintegrate with time. Disintegrating gaskets allow bad things into the watch. Is a common belief that quartz watches run forever and never need to be serviced so they're less likely to ever get serviced versus the mechanical watch.

[MF60]

4 hours ago, watchweasol said:

Hi fid attached the tech sheet for the citizen  also contains the user instructions. Hope you find it useful.  Decoding the serial numbers is a bit vague.

5500.pdf 328.38 kB · 0 downloads

This is great.  Everything I would need.  It looks like I will have to open it up and read the number off the case to figure out the model number.  Its not surprising that the Citizen Watch app in the Apple Store was not able to find the watch.  But now I can possible figue our why there are problems withsetting the DAY on the older watch (590888). I can sent the time and the Calendar Date but not the day. It's set to "MAR" which is the abbreviation for TUE or Tuesday, but in French.  Not sure what other languages use "MAR" and the abrreviation for Tuesday

I appreciate getting the PDF.

Mark

[MF60]

1 hour ago, JohnR725 said:

Usually for both Seiko and citizen the movement number is on the case back. It's usually the Four digit number with the – in another four digits or some other numbers then there's the serial number that is subject to interpretation but there's websites out there that people will tell you how to do that.

Problem with vintage watches especially a quartz watch is the gaskets will disintegrate with time. Disintegrating gaskets allow bad things into the watch. Is a common belief that quartz watches run forever and never need to be serviced so they're less likely to ever get serviced versus the mechanical watch.

Thanks JohnR725.  I was pretty surprised to see the condition of the gasket.  Fortunatly I've kept it is a dry environment.  If I can find a gasket I look forward cleaning the cast and back and installing the new gasket.  I suppose since I have the technical manual I could inspect it a little further and possible figure out why the mechanism is so stiff.  
Mark

[JohnR725]

1 hour ago, MF60 said:

possible figure out why the mechanism is so stiff.  
Mark

Depending upon the model there are several gaskets. The classic back gasket that were all familiar with. Sometimes the crystals held in with the gasket and that can get brittle with time. Or even the glues they use can break down with time. That's where he go to wash the case you might be surprised with the crystal falling out which strangely enough happen to me the other day the glues had just disintegrated. Then one of the problems a lot of times for setting would be the crown gasket auto times for citizen and Seiko it's easy to get the crown gasket off and replace that. You won't know until you get the movement out of the case whether it's a casing problem causing your setting issues or a movement problem