Here’s an example from 1963, which carries all the information to be found at that time except water resistance – see the labels for their meaning:ġ) ‘STAR’ – as far as I know this the mark of Citizen’s own case factory. After looking at a fully marked example, I’ll show some of the variations. Typically the early watches use snap / press on case backs, and case type markings therefore make their appearance on the ‘transitional’ and later formats.Īnd not all case backs carried all the markings – some were minimally stamped and very simple whilst some were decorated, often with scrolled engraved lines.

Not all watches had a serial number at this time, although sometimes they may be found stamped inside the case back. An ever wider range of hand winding watches was produced, and in 1958 Citizen launched their first automatic, soon followed by the ‘Jet’ rotored automatics of the early 1960s. During that period Citizen’s watch production accelerated enormously, particularly with the success in the domestic Japanese market of the ‘Deluxe’ hand winder. This section relates to watches made from around 1950 to the early 1960s. I’ll provide more information on the early case backs in a ‘Featured Watch’ post on the Type F.Īcknowledgement – in order to get a uniform type of image and size, I have primarily used the Japanese Domestic Watch volumes as a source, I wish to give due acknowledgement and credit here. Little information is stamped on the back – typically it may relate only to the case back material: More on that later.īefore covering the three basic designs, a word about the very early models. The late 1950s also saw the introduction of serial numbers, which are very useful to us of course, because we can determine the date of production. I have identified three core formats, and I’ll show these in the following sections, along with some of the variants that can be found – one of the joys of this for the collector is the variety of case backs that occur as result.

Each of these used various case designs, with different case materials, and the case back markings began to reflect this. I’ll cover special case backs on a separate page.Īfter the very early models using the ‘F’ type movement, Citizen began to develop a wider model range and towards the end of the 1940s and particularly in the 1950s a number of models were in production. This page attempts to show the basic types and how to interpret the information that case backs give – often crucial to determining the authenticity of the watch. Over the years Citizen have changed their watch case back markings, whilst they have also used special backs on their high grade watches and certain specific models.

Citizen watch serial number