Old school solid build....

                       

In March of 1966 Citizen presents the first electronic watch in Japan, the 'X-8 Cosmotron with spring balance and transistor. The X-8 was a watch with four magnets on the balance and two fixed coils. Movements like cal. 0802, 0820, 0884, 0840, 0880 and 4840 were even sold to about twenty foreign companies including Bulova, who manufactured complete watches under their own name. Citizen itself was faced with strong competition of course from the cheaper Seiko-Electronic EL 3300 and the Elnix later on.

   

Launched in 1967 with 12 jewels and beating at 6 beats per second (21600 bph), this Citizen was produced for 5 years only. While the 4840 caliber is almost the same as the 0840 before that, the X8 for the first time had a date complication. 
This particular rare blue dialed watch is from 1971, depicted in this catalogue page, note the bracelet / strap types and case numbers for the different case designs, to wit cushion or with protruding lugs.

   

1972 saw the launch of new models with both date and day complications, now using the 78 movement. With jewelling reduced to 8, and now powered by 1.3v silver oxide batteries, the movement design had been refined, with more functions. The rate increased to 36,000bph, and movements were designated 7801A, 7802A, 7803A, 7804A and 7806A. The X8 name had been dropped, so dials are marked Cosmotron, Electronic and carry the Cosmotron applied logo.

   

The Seiko Sportsmatic (automatic) was introduced in 1961 by Seiko's Suwa division as a cheaper and more sporty alternative to the Seikomatic. As with the Seikomatic, the Sportsmatic was produced during most of the 60s in many variants and with different calibers, including diver models, 5 Sports, Deluxe and the 820 calendar. 
Inside the Seiko Sportsmatic is an interesting engine. The 6619 movement from Seiko is automatic, thus the “matic” in Sportsmatic, and features 21 jewels – or does it? Actually, the 6619 movement actually contains 18 working jewels and 3 placed there for no reason other than having 21 over the more common 17 must have seemed like a good idea! 

   

It’s a rare step away from the typical no-nonsense efficiency shown by the Japanese brand. Otherwise, though, the 6619 movement, which was introduced in 1963 as the 410 prior to 4-digit naming conventions, is a great and reliable unit. It features Seiko’s magic lever design and that allows winding as the rotor spins in either direction. It’s because of this that the watch actually cannot be wound via the crown. It features a date function that is quick set by pushing the crown and a day function that must be manually set by laboriously winding through the days.
It should be noted that even though this watch was usually considered to be one of the cheaper automatics from Seiko, all Seiko movements were produced entirely in house; the Sportsmatic 5 Sports for example was produced as part of the Seiko 5 line – featuring the 5 horological hallmarks: automatic, day/date, water resistance, recessed crown and durability. One can only assume that the Sportsmatic without the 5-logo is not worthy of this hallmark since it does not have a daydate window. Moreover what sets this 9070 model apart especially are the crosshairs, which give a very high legibility usually reserved for the better than average sporty watch in the product line-up.. In that light it makes sense to also have a contrasting date wheel, in combination with the single symbol Kanji day wheel it provides an excellent view of the daydate window.

       

Overall, the dial layout is very well balanced, in three places text elements have been distributed expertly. There are two lines of text top and bottom; the black and white 5 symbol is right below the top lines leading up to the black and white daydate window. Going down to the two bottom text lines we finally end up on the left with a single line that is, well, a line. Still, that lone line holds its own with the rest of the layout because it is the one that is not broken up by dial elements and points directly to the daydate window..
This Sportsmatic is just a very enjoyable sight and a great daily wear, as it was intended, for the active man about town.

   

https://www.watchiwant.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=86

Virtually nothing is known about this Seiko Alarm Quartz - a quick comparison to the analogue Bell-Matic is obvious but the inner workings of this special quartz can be nothing like its old school counterpart. Indeed, after this Seiko went to town on the alarm quartzes, branching out into a great variety of calibers and eventually functions. 

   

This quartz however is refreshingly simple, it has a scale with center marker to set the alarm in increments of 5 minutes. That however makes the alarm inherently less accurate and thats why the scale is there. Within that zone the hour hand must be to trigger the alarm, also when the time is not set exactly by a five minute signal the alarm may ring sometime between 5 minutes to and from the designated alarm time.
To set the alarm one has to pull the alarm crown to the second click and the little pinhole on the dial shows orange meaning that the alarm can be set. Do your bussiness and then push the crown back to the first click - on a white dial the pinhole will show blue, with white meaning of course that the alarm is off.

   

Check to see if the alarm goes at at all (alarm test) by operating the alarm crown within 4 seconds as follows: from normal position pull out to first or second click, push to normal, pull out again - the alarm rings. Push back in to stop the alarm.
There is no winding mechanism for the alarm crown since this is a quartz. Freqent alarms do impact the battery life, but you will be happy to see the battery hatch on the caseback to easily swap it yourself. Most watches from the eighties had abanoned this feature as battery life had increased so much that customers felt no resistance visiting a jewelry store every couple of years to have it done. Even then, when the watch started jumping two seconds to indicate "battery change necessary", it just kept on ticking for another 6 months. Anyhow, customers might even buy a new Seiko...

In 1978, when the Lord Quartz was introduced and positioned just below the King Quartzes, it was more expensive than a lot of the King Quartz 4823 calibers. Admittedly the 482x was showing its age, but was still perfectly adequate, indeed 40 year onwards these calibers just keep on ticking precisely. But so do the LQ’s. The Tank styled watches in particular, with calibre 7853 were at the top of their range and first to see the light of day. They were depicted in the catalogue right below a modernistic introductory advert. Seiko always did this to present the most prestigious product line watches.

   

There was no mistake here, this caliber ran at 10 seconds per month! Just like the King Quartz. But unlike the Kings, these Lords are very rare watches to obtain. Either because of the value of the high rollers (costing about 560 euro, inflation corrected) or because the lower range, at 36% percent less (costing about 380 euro), was just cheap enough to simply wear into oblivion. It doesn’t help of course that these watches were produced only in a three year span between 1978 and 1980.
That this product line spoke to the imagination is apparent as Seiko has revived the Lord name in a current line of watches, these are much easier to obtain of course. The vintage Lord Quartz however remains a bit of a unicorn - it does not sit in the house of commons with the other types (II) just below it, but is definitely a backbencher these days while the kings get all the glory. Buy them while you can, they won't last forever.

   

Some nice pics of this watch....

       

Hello all, I thought this was worthy of a separate thread. Without further ado, I present:


  Seiko Battery_Accuracy.pdf (Size: 648.58 KB / Downloads: 5)

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That's 32 pages of great Seiko caliber information!

Time for some straps for the green boy - with green.

Would this be too much?

   

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I suppose better than this? These colors do not complement or match!

   

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Hmmm.... maybe.

   

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Oh well, the more I see them the more I think "brown"!

       

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Let me know what you think will you...

It is rip-off time! Lots of prestigious brands are doing it too, mind you... It can get the innocent buyer a bit exasperated... who got there first? Was it Laco or Steinhart? Or was it Steinhart or Rolex or, or? I will just put a few pics online and you gentlemen can decide for yourself.

This one from the watch memes thread is a worthy first pic...