# Citizen Dating



## cogtocog

Hi !! is there a way to date a citizen wrist watch...if not does anyone have an idea of the year of manufacturer from the six lines of info from the bezel on the watch....citizen watch co......water resist......stainless...........4 - 039181 HST ....676078.....GN-4-S....any info is much appreciated..

..oh by the way i am very pleased with the watch ( boughy it from a very small antiques type shop down an alley way and it was in the bargain basket for a fiver or a tenner i think !! ) and even though it does need some work it is the watch i wear the most and to me seems really well made to me !! cheers.Dave.


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## Morris Minor

cogtocog said:


> Hi !! is there a way to date a citizen wrist watch...if not does anyone have an idea of the year of manufacturer from the six lines of info from the bezel on the watch....citizen watch co......water resist......stainless...........4 - 039181 HST ....676078.....GN-4-S....any info is much appreciated..
> 
> ..oh by the way i am very pleased with the watch ( boughy it from a very small antiques type shop down an alley way and it was in the bargain basket for a fiver or a tenner i think !! ) and even though it does need some work it is the watch i wear the most and to me seems really well made to me !! cheers.Dave.


Pictures are gonna help :naughty:

The key to dating vintage Citizens is to know what decade the watch was made in - if it's water 'resist' then it is post 1970. Info on dating Citizens can be found at the end of my Movement Table (page 11), see here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stephen.netherwood/Vintage%20Citizen%20Movement%20Table%20v2.0%20Secure.pdf

But it's pics of the dial and back that will be the most help.

Stephen


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## K.I.T.T.

Hello Dave.

I posted this quite a while back when I was still running around & posting on the forum on a daily basis... Now I run around after my child & post less frequently!!!!

Hope this is useful info! 

Dating Seiko & Citizen Watches:

Well it's pretty easy just so long as you know when the Movements were in production... So for example the Seiko SKX007 Powered by a 7S26 Automatic Movement. With a serial number of 1N0596 is easy to date...

Movement 1st made for sale in 1996

The 1st number of the serial number signifies the year which is '1' so that means it is 2001

The 2nd number or letter signifies the Month 'N' which is November

So this watch was produced in November 2001 ;-))

So for a 7S26 Powered Watch.

Seiko Year:

6 - 1996

7 - 1997

8 - 1998

9 - 1999

0 - 2000

1 - 2001

2 - 2002

3 - 2003

4 - 2004

5 - 2005

? - 2006 Oh this year is going to be Fun!!!!!!

Seiko Month:

1 - January

2 - February

3 - March

4 - April

5 - May

6 - June

7 - July

8 - August

9 - September

O - October

N - November

D - December

With Citizen Watches it was thought that the Serial number worked in the same way but it is now thought to differ with the month part.... This was mainly because it was noted that there were apparently a lot of watch serial numbers with the 2nd number of 'O/0' pointing to an October manufactured Month... (O/0 either being [O]ctober or 0 = the 10th month being err October!) So the current mode of thought is like this...

Citizen Serial Number 81107543

Movt. 1st made for sale in 1967

The 1st number of the serial number is '8' so 1968

The 2nd number is 1 [under the Seiko method we'd think January... However this is now thought to be wrong] it is the 2nd + 3rd number which is 1+1 = 11 so the Month is November

The watch was made in November 1968

Citizen Year:

Same year Method as the Seiko:

Citizen Month:

01 - January

02 - February

03 - March

04 - April

05 - May

06 - June

07 - July

08 - August

09 - September

10 - October

11 - November

12 - December

This method works well with my vintage Citizens...

I hope that it helps...

Mike

Edit just looked at your link Stephen that's an excellent resource!!!!


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## cogtocog

K.I.T.T. said:


> Hello Dave.
> 
> I posted this quite a while back when I was still running around & posting on the forum on a daily basis... Now I run around after my child & post less frequently!!!!
> 
> Hope this is useful info!
> 
> Dating Seiko & Citizen Watches:
> 
> Well it's pretty easy just so long as you know when the Movements were in production... So for example the Seiko SKX007 Powered by a 7S26 Automatic Movement. With a serial number of 1N0596 is easy to date...
> 
> Movement 1st made for sale in 1996
> 
> The 1st number of the serial number signifies the year which is '1' so that means it is 2001
> 
> The 2nd number or letter signifies the Month 'N' which is November
> 
> So this watch was produced in November 2001 ;-))
> 
> So for a 7S26 Powered Watch.
> 
> Seiko Year:
> 
> 6 - 1996
> 
> 7 - 1997
> 
> 8 - 1998
> 
> 9 - 1999
> 
> 0 - 2000
> 
> 1 - 2001
> 
> 2 - 2002
> 
> 3 - 2003
> 
> 4 - 2004
> 
> 5 - 2005
> 
> ? - 2006 Oh this year is going to be Fun!!!!!!
> 
> Seiko Month:
> 
> 1 - January
> 
> 2 - February
> 
> 3 - March
> 
> 4 - April
> 
> 5 - May
> 
> 6 - June
> 
> 7 - July
> 
> 8 - August
> 
> 9 - September
> 
> O - October
> 
> N - November
> 
> D - December
> 
> With Citizen Watches it was thought that the Serial number worked in the same way but it is now thought to differ with the month part.... This was mainly because it was noted that there were apparently a lot of watch serial numbers with the 2nd number of 'O/0' pointing to an October manufactured Month... (O/0 either being [O]ctober or 0 = the 10th month being err October!) So the current mode of thought is like this...
> 
> Citizen Serial Number 81107543
> 
> Movt. 1st made for sale in 1967
> 
> The 1st number of the serial number is '8' so 1968
> 
> The 2nd number is 1 [under the Seiko method we'd think January... However this is now thought to be wrong] it is the 2nd + 3rd number which is 1+1 = 11 so the Month is November
> 
> The watch was made in November 1968
> 
> Citizen Year:
> 
> Same year Method as the Seiko:
> 
> Citizen Month:
> 
> 01 - January
> 
> 02 - February
> 
> 03 - March
> 
> 04 - April
> 
> 05 - May
> 
> 06 - June
> 
> 07 - July
> 
> 08 - August
> 
> 09 - September
> 
> 10 - October
> 
> 11 - November
> 
> 12 - December
> 
> This method works well with my vintage Citizens...
> 
> I hope that it helps...
> 
> Mike
> 
> Edit just looked at your link Stephen that's an excellent resource!!!!


Cheers lads !! i will traul through and try to work it out...what is the general feeling abouy citizens with you blokes on here ...i do not know anyone else with one .... are they seiko quality for example ?? ..cheers,Dave.


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## K.I.T.T.

Citizen are damned good watches, & you'll find Miyota movements in a vast number of watches that aren't branded as Citizen, you'll find many fans of the Citizen watches on here!

Some of their 1970s 150M divers & Chronographs are really great... I'm guilty of having a few of them! They can be picked up for less than their Seiko counterparts... Probably due to the Seiko marketing machine being more effective...

Both produce some very high quality movements that put some of the Swiss manufacturers to shame!!!

Buy the design that you like from either Seiko & Citizen... The quality will be there!!!!

Mike


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## Morris Minor

cogtocog said:


> Cheers lads !! i will traul through and try to work it out...what is the general feeling abouy citizens with you blokes on here ...i do not know anyone else with one .... are they seiko quality for example ?? ..cheers,Dave.


Given that the serial number on yours is six digits it's likely to be from the 1980's I would think.

The quality of Citizens is excellent - I have got quite a few vintage ones, my collecting focus is the period before the mid-1970's when quartz took off and the range of mechanical watches drastically reduced. I started a blog last month if you're interested and I'm featuring different models each week, some of which are not that well known: http://sweep-hand.org/

Stephen


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## cogtocog

Morris Minor said:


> cogtocog said:
> 
> 
> 
> Cheers lads !! i will traul through and try to work it out...what is the general feeling abouy citizens with you blokes on here ...i do not know anyone else with one .... are they seiko quality for example ?? ..cheers,Dave.
> 
> 
> 
> Given that the serial number on yours is six digits it's likely to be from the 1980's I would think.
> 
> The quality of Citizens is excellent - I have got quite a few vintage ones, my collecting focus is the period before the mid-1970's when quartz took off and the range of mechanical watches drastically reduced. I started a blog last month if you're interested and I'm featuring different models each week, some of which are not that well known: http://sweep-hand.org/
> 
> Stephen
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replys ....i will have to have a look out for some more citizens when funds permit...also i will check out you bog...cheers !!


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## bsa

I started a blog last month if you're interested and I'm featuring different models each week, some of which are not that well known: http://sweep-hand.org/

Stephen


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