# Japanese Electronic Watch Servicing



## stromspeicher (May 28, 2015)

I have quite a few old battery powered Japanese watches - mainly Citizen, but also a few others - and some non-Japanese distractions - I work on most of them myself but tuning fork watches are somewhat beyond me. Can anyone recommend specialist servicing / repair people? My watches are in the UK, as am I occasionally... I don't want to send them to the US...


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## PDXWatchCollector (Nov 15, 2013)

Are these electric/electronc watches (i.e. with balance wheels) or are these quartz watches? If the former (i.e. Citizen Cosmotrons, Seiko Elnix/EL, Ricoh electric/electronics, etc) then you'll want to talk to Paul (Silver Hawk) at http://electric-watches.co.uk/


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## stromspeicher (May 28, 2015)

PDXWatchCollector said:


> Are these electric/electronc watches (i.e. with balance wheels) or are these quartz watches?


 Well yes, quartz, balance and tuning fork movements... and a few rare quartz+balance movements. But its really the tuning forks that I need help with.

I must admit that I've seen the website you referred to before - its extremely informative - but I never connected it particularly with tuning fork movements or servicing. Once I've worked out what I've got that's worth looking at I'll send Paul a message.

Thanks for the info,

Mark.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Quote said:


> but I never connected it particularly with tuning fork movements or servicing


Oh dear....90% of the work I do is on tuning fork watches.... :sad:


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## stromspeicher (May 28, 2015)

I think before I just spent time ferreting around on the pages of info about old electric watches, Makers and Movements - a pretty comprehensive and interesting resource



Silver Hawk said:


> Oh dear....90% of the work I do is on tuning fork watches.... :sad:


 ... so hopefully a few Hisonics / GXs won't be too troublesome for you.

In any case I'll send you a message through your website in a day or two, first I just need to spend a moment or two working out what to keep and what to shift out of my non-quartz pile


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## PDXWatchCollector (Nov 15, 2013)

Sorry ... I should have mentioned tuning fork watches. I forget sometimes that Citizen did them as well. If it's got a balance wheel or tuning fork, Paul's your man for electric/electronic watches. He's probably done in excess of 40 watches for me by now across a wide range of movement types, and always top notch work.


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## stromspeicher (May 28, 2015)

No worries, your information was helpful... the Citizen tuning forks are probably only really interesting for Citizen fans anyway... as I'm sure you already know their tuning fork movement designs were basically just borrowed from Bulova.

It does seem a shame to have a Forum thread without photos.

So perhaps I can fulfil my role as a 1960s/70s Citizen advocate by reminding you that in addition to tuning fork and electronic balance wheel watches Citizen also produced, for some months during 1973, a rather well executed and very Japanese *quartz controlled balance* *wheel* movement (... I believe they called it a 'resonant motor' system). It didn't last long - by the start of 1974 the successful and longer lived 86xx series quartz (... rotor / stepper motor) watches were in production


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## PDXWatchCollector (Nov 15, 2013)

Yep, I own a few Hisonics and GXs myself. And yes, the movements tie in to specific models of Accutron movements as well - while the coils are exchangeable between Citizen and Accutron movements, in order to achieve the hacking that was standard on the Citizens, 218XG coils must be sourced, for example.

On the quartz controlled balance-wheel front, Citizen was one of only a few manufacturers who produced them (Timex was another notable maker of them), so definitely an interesting type of movement/watch.


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## stromspeicher (May 28, 2015)

PDXWatchCollector said:


> ....while the coils are exchangeable between Citizen and Accutron movements, in order to achieve the hacking that was standard on the Citizens, 218XG coils must be sourced, for example.


You're right that *most *Hisonics have the 218~G power disconnect when the crown is fully pulled out, but not all....

Citizen Cal 3700A (Day/Date) and Cal 3710A (Date) have 'normal' second-hand-stop-hacking but no power disconnect. They're rather uncommon though and the vast majority of Hisonics are either Cal 3701A (Day/Date), Cal 3711A (Date) or 3721A (-) ...all with power disconnect.


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## PDXWatchCollector (Nov 15, 2013)

Yep ... all kinds of variations out there if you want to get down to individual use cases.

When you get a chance, show us some pics of your Japanese electric/electronic watches -- they're a bit under-represented here!


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## stromspeicher (May 28, 2015)

Yes, I'll try and put a few pics up in the next week or so, but I'll warn you in advance that I'm not a very good watch photographer!

For information, I've attached a scan of the Hisonic movement table I have in case anyone is interested - first [xo] column in the table is 日付 (Date) / second column is 曜日 (Day) / the last column is 電源スイッチ (Power Disconnect) which is also indicated for crown position C on the small watch diagram below the table.


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