Citizen Automatic Flyback Chronograph 8110A

Now I have not updated the blog or made any post for like 3 years! I apologize for that. Other priorities and commitments in life just took over. And I had not bought watches for a long long time.

Today, I just suddenly have the impulse and I remembered a particular watch that I hunted for, found and bought on ebay 5 years ago. I wrote about it here:
http://anton-c.blogspot.sg/2008/06/bad-ebay-purchase.html

And yes, back then the watch arrived damaged and was returned. But I never really forget my fondness for that watch however decided that I should be more cautious with my vintage adventures, coz its not just ebay but on flea market buys I been disappointed too.

So today I just feel like buying a watch, remembered this lovely vintage Citizen Automatic Flyback Chronograph I had for a while, ebay searched, found one. Clicked BuyItNow and paid immediately without much thinking.

I hope 5 years down the round this time, the purchase will be a smooth one.

Seller dates the watch to October 1976 and wrote that it is professionally serviced and running well with original parts. Good luck to me. (Seller's photo).

WATCHES FOR SALE

Selling three of my personal watches, you might be interested in these. Here goes:

Debaufre Nav B 48mm Flieger
Discontinued model from Debaufre. The pilot watch we raved about. Decorated Swiss Unitas movement.
* Stainless steel case
* Diameter 48 mm, including crown 53 mm, 13.8mm thick.
* See-thru case back with blue screws and a special "Cote de Geneve" engraving
* 3 ATM
* Sapphire crystal
* Black dial, and sub dial
* Figures with Super LumiNova
* Leatherstrap 22 mm with thorn buckle with screws.
* Unitas 6497 hand wind movement with 17 jewels
* Nickel plated with blue screws
* "Cote de Geneve" design
* 17 jewels
* Stainless steel case
* Diameter 48 mm, including crown 53 mm, 13.8mm thick.
* See-thru case back with blue screws and a special "Cote de Geneve" engraving
* 3 ATM
* Sapphire crystal
* Black dial, and sub dial
* Figures with Super LumiNova
* Leatherstrap 22 mm with thorn buckle with screws.
* Unitas 6497 hand wind movement with 17 jewels
* Nickel plated with blue screws
* "Cote de Geneve" design
* 17 jewels

Condition is Timezone Scale: LNIB 100% for the watch. Box and papers all intact.

The leather strap is slightly darkened from wear on the inner side (normal), looks new on the outer side.

Price: US$448
Payment: accepts Paypal - fees my burden
Shipping: Registered airmail from Singapore Post (around $12 to $18)
Email: antonc108 at gmail.com

Seiko Orange Monster
So popular and well known even among the wives of watch enthusiasts I got nothing much to say.
Condition is Timezone Scale: Mint 98% Light swirls on the bracelet and thats it!

Time keeping is very accurate however the only issue is the crown is a bit finicky when trying to pull it to position 2 for date changing, sometimes its hard to 'feel the notch' for position 2, but this had never been a problem, you may not even notice it.

No box, no papers. Zulu strap in picture is not included.

Price: Sale Withdrawn
Payment: accepts Paypal - fees my burden
Shipping: Registered airmail from Singapore Post (around $10 to $15)
Email: antonc108 at gmail.com

Seiko 6138-3003 Automatic Chronograph
Vintage Seiko automatic chronograph that dates from February 1978. Needs no introduction for enthusiasts. Folded link bracelet is original Seiko, but I suspect not original to the watch, full sized though.
Condition is Timezone Scale: Good 78%

Please expect dings, nicks and scratches on crystal and watch case, light swirls on the bracelet. Scratches on the dial (probably from past servicing), faded small hands and alga-ed lume from aged. Water resistant not expected. Once again this is a 32 year old vintage watch.

Time keeping is very accurate however, I had it last serviced in 2007. All chrono functions work properly and resets to zero.

FREE: Includes an unused NATO bond strap seen in the picture.

Price: SOLD!
Payment: accepts Paypal - fees my burden
Shipping: Registered airmail from Singapore Post (around $10 to $15)
Email: antonc108 at gmail.com

(PS: Compare prices on ebay, this model usually closes from $200 up for a beat up, to $400 for a pristine mint conditioned one.)
Thanx for the read, drop me an email if your interested.

BANG FOR BUCK PILOT CHRONOGRAPH

A good looking mechanical pilot chronograph watch for only USD300/- new? Yes, its possible if you forget the Swiss and German brands with four figure price tags and go Russian instead. Poljot is known to make lookalikes of many famous Swiss and German watches and this one looks just like Fortis' awarding winning Flieger Chronograph.

In fact, many of Poljot's Aviator series watches resemble models from Fortis' Flieger line. So much so that Fortis took Poljot to court, with the results of the lawsuit being an injunction prohibiting Poljot from selling their Aviator line of watches in Switzerland and Germany.
Of course, we are not comparing the USD300/- Poljot to the Fortis Flieger (retail USD2050/- street USD1400), but we'll just take a look at an example of what a Poljot's Aviator watch got to offer.

The watch came with a rather nice leather box. This actually varies from seller to seller and you don't always get the box, but who needs the box anyway?
The dial is very legible with a military look. The indexes are marked with arabic numbers in both hours and five minutes/seconds increments. The chronograph hands are in red, while the normal hands are in white. The size of the hands are very well balanced and suits the dial very well. In addition to being very functional, it is also very attractive. Well, who designed it in the first place? :D
The original Poljot strap (not shown) doesn't look very promising. I switched it to a Di Modell Chronissimo immediately. I feel that the Chronissimo strap enhances the look of many pilot watches and chronographs.
The crown is big enough for a handwind watch and its signed with the letter A, which probably refers to 'Aviator'. The chronograph buttons felt tactile enough even with gloved hands.
The watch is powered by the Poljot 3133 movement. The 3133 movement is based on the Swiss Valjoux 7734 movement and in fact its made with Swiss tooling. In the 1970s the Russians bought the machine and tooling over from the Swiss and made modifications to it, raising its thickness from 7mm to 7.35mm, adding 6 jewels to the original 17, and increasing the beat rate from 18000 bpm to 21600 bpm.

It is a very reliable movement that was eventually used for space flight missions. Although its rated for a power reserve of 42 hours, I am getting over 60 hours actually, which is pretty common. Accuracy is constant and very good, I am getting about +15 secs a day for this watch.

The watch came with both glass display back and steel back options. Mine came with both, here's the glass case back showing the P3133 movement; raw, unrefined, undecorated, but reliable and tough like a soldier.
With the steel case back, the water resistant is 50 meters instead of 30 meters. Oh yeah, Poljot often made 999 pieces of each model.
Lume is not something the Russian watches are good in. The application isn't very good nor consistent and the glow is weak. It also does not last long. I never had high expectations for Russian lume in the first place so I'm not really disappointed. This watch comes with white lume paint, there is another version with green lume paint, though both glows green however.
Here's a wrist shot of it on my 6.5" to 6.75" wrist. The case size is 39mm without crown, but actually wears bigger because its all dial and bezel-less. Someone with large wrists can always boost its size with a BUND strap if desired.
Here are the specs:
Case size 39mm without crown, 44mm with crown
Lug to lug 46mm
Lug size 20mm
Dial size 35mm wears big coz its all dial.
Case height (thickness) 12.5mm
Water Resistant 30meters with glass display back, 50 meters with metal case back
Mineral glass crystal
Sandblast stainless steel case with a pearly finish
In my humble opinion, this is an ideal watch for those in service. How many active servicemen wear expensive USD2000/- Swiss watches out there in the field?

Russian watch prices had been raising crazily in recent years, so I find these are really good buys before prices soar further.

Thanx for the read!

UPDATE ON BAD EBAY PURCHASE

If you remember my bad Ebay purchase sometime ago where I bought a vintage Citizen chronograph which crystal pops off on arrival. I had shipped the watch back to the seller who promised to repair it.

The seller, Bill Spathis from the Aussieland (ebay ID: ibico0_0)was a great guy with greater business ethics. He sourced for a correct sub second hand for me but the crystal can't be affixed back properly to the case without using glue. He could had just glued it back and sent it to me, but he chose to reveal the situation fully and offered me a full refund.

Bill deserves a two thumbs up!

BAD EBAY PURCHASE

I recently bidded on a vintage Citizen Automatic Chronograph from the 1970s. Its running on the Citizen 8110 movement so it's a Flyback chronograph.

These vintage chronographs are extremely good deals because you pay small money for very good movements. A Swiss equivalent of a Flyback chronograph would probably cost 20 times as much, conservatively. The more common ones are the Citizen Bullhead chronographs, which are always on Ebay. I guess they are in abundance because collectors prefer the larger Seiko Bullheads instead of the smaller Citizens.

So this piece caught my eye (seller's pic) because it looks really like those German pilot watches. Think in the lines of Tutima, Bell & Ross, Sinn, etc. It is also less common, compared to the Bullheads. I won the bid and so the watch arrives today.

However when I put it on my wrist and press down the snap on clasp, the crystal popped off. I was seated and the crystal landed on the coffee table in front of me. The sub-second hand at 6 O clock dial also went missing. I looked high and low, but couldn't find the sub-second hand.

It seems that the friction fit ring around the crystal had already worn off and when I examined the inner rotating bezel attached to the crystal, there are brown stains underneath. I am not sure but maybe its dried glue. I fear that the crystal is attached to the watch via those glue.

It's a real pity, cause the watch is really nice and is in good condition cosmetically. Although I think the case had been refurbished to a mirror polished surface. I think it should be a brushed surface originally. In fact I had been thinking of sending it to Jakub for a bead blasting job, but now I guess I should scrap the plan.

I have notified the Ebay seller about the problem, it seems that he is willing to work out a solution with me. I hope he will make things right. I will post again on the outcome later.

Whatever it is, I guess it seems likely that more cost would have to be incurred. Oh well...