Vintage Citizen 'Bling'

[anilv]

Hi guys,

Thought I'd share pics of an old Citizen automatic which I got recently.

Its an automatic with the cal. 6501, the serial number starts with 411xxx so its from Nov 1974. Citizen's dating system is slightly different from Seiko's in that the 2nd and 3rd digit denote the month of production, here 11 = November. For Seikos, while the year is indicate by the first digit, only the second digit reflects the month, 0=October, N=November and D=December. You still need to estimate which decade though.

Crown is an original Citizen which is nice and the bracelet is the correct one for the lug width and the bracelet matches the case-shape.

It has a Rado feel, the dial reminds me of some of the stone dials in the diastar range.

The case is an aluminum one and usually doesn't wear well as it seems to react badly with sweat. There is a black coating which has worn thru in places , the back in particular is pretty worn. I thought of getting it painted on the edges and top where it shows. I won't paint the lower surface as I don't want any paint getting thru my skin, besides, it'll only wear off again.

 

 

 

The bezel seems to be stainless steel, I'll be polishing that first, if it comes up ok then I'll paint it. No point painting it if the bezel is all scratched up!

 

Citizen went through a phase where they used a lot of aluminum cases. I have a few but they usually don't last well.

Have a good Easter weekend!

Anilv

 

[Lantalon]

Thank you for sharing -I like the dial very much!

This week I also received my first  "blink" vintage from the Seventies which fits very well to your Citizen :-) - therefore I will add it here.  It's a Tissot PR-518. Almost in perfect conditions. Unfortunately the crown is not the original crown. It was replaced by a Tissot crown but the replacement crown does not allow to quick change the day by pressing.

What is somehow funny - the day changes twice within 24 hours. Therefore every day is double. You can see it here: Tissot 2571

I haven't checked yet if there is really Tissot inside - you never know what you get from auctions but it runs very accurate.

[anilv]

Hi Lantalon,

NiceTissot, I've have a few where the day changed twice, probably a design shortcut!

Anyway that's one good sign that the machinery is original as not many movements have that 'feature'!

I like the bracelet as it matches the watch very well...probably original?

Thanks for sharing!

[Lantalon]

1 hour ago, anilv said:

NiceTissot, I've have a few where the day changed twice, probably a design shortcut!

Anyway that's one good sign that the machinery is original as not many movements have that 'feature'!

Thank you for this information! That's good to know. The bracelet seems to be original - it's very solid. A few links are probably missing, but I still have to remove one link for my wrist.

[anilv]

Great..an original bracelet adds value to the watch... not in $ but in looks!