Certina 288 ‘Certiday’ ref. 918 3476 41, cal. 25-682, 1974-75
Certina was the main brand of the Kurth Frères watch company at Grenchen (or Granges) in Switzerland. They had acquired a fine reputation for making robust watches, their “DS“ and “DS2“ series really raising the (…)
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Mido “Ocean Star” Automatic ref. 8030, cal. ETA 2836-1
Mido was one of the first Swiss watch manufacturers to produce seriously waterproof watches. The “Aquadura” system consists of cork gaskets around stem and crystal and a “monocoque” case, i.e., one manufactured in one (…)

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Citizen Chronograph ref. 67-9054, cal. 8110A, April 1974
Citizen was late to the race for the first automatic chronograph, with Seiko pretty much running the show by the time, Citizen came out with their self-winding chronograph.
But boy, what they brought: minute- and hour-(…)
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Junghans Automatic, cal. 653
German watch manufacturer Junghans paused the development of own calibers in 1964. From then on they assembled movement kits from Swiss and German producers with their own shock-proofing and regulation. In 1972 they re-entered the business in time(…)
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Citizen ‘Crystal Seven’ ref. 61-5013, cal. 5270, Oct 1969
Seiko had brought their “Five“ series of affordable water- and shock-proof automatic watches with day- and date display in 1959 and it was an instant success. Citizen, having restarted their business only a few years (…)
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I have this soft spot for wristwatches from Citizen’s “Funk Era” of the early 1970’s, with their solid, advanced middle class automatic movement, the 6501, packaged in weird shapes and flashy colors. The reference 61-6435 is referred to as “Reverse-D”, and it’s easy to see why.
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Zodiac Automatic, „Volvo 100.000 km“, cal. 135 (ETA 2878)
In the automobile‘s early days, affordable cars were not necessarily built for longevity and 6-digit odometer readings were something special. Special enough for Volvo Switzerland to commission watches from Zodiac, the(…)
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DUGENA Geneve “Azur” Automatic ref. 2828.005.10/225, cal. ETA 2789, mid 1970s
The 1970s were the heyday of “integrated” watch bands, meaning that prominent case features were optically “held in place” by appropriately shaped bracelet end pieces. This design element appeared (…)
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Precimax Aquamax Safety Automatic “Super Compressor” ref. 8891, cal. ETA 2782, Oct. 1969
This is one of my favourite watches. For one, it‘s all business - a no-frills diver in the field for exactly one purpose: to go under.
But it does so in style: A super-elegant Piqueret (…)
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Seiko Automatic Chronograph ref. 6138-0010, cal. 6138A, April 1970

Horologists have ever since 01/1969 fought over who was really the first one to win that final frontier of mechanical watchmaking - the self-winding chronograph. Be it as it may, Seiko was one of them.

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Today I show you a Minerva chronograph from the late 1950s, which runs the fabled Valjoux 72.
I received it from a friendly co-worker who had inherited it from her late uncle (whom she didn‘t know too well). She didn’t like to wear it but she knew I would, so this was that.😁
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Citizen Automatic Date, ref. 62-8719, Jan 1973
There is an old calling from the early days of wristwatches maintainig that “a watch is a man’s only legitimate piece of jewelry”, and look what Citizen made of it: like a large emerald the octagonal dial dominates this watch.
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Exponent Automatic, cal. Lorsa P76A, 1973
The first half of the 70s saw a plethora of wildly shaped and gaudily colored wristwatches. This is none of them.😁
But look at the bracelet it rides on - the chain motive was a common design element of the era and that’s why I bought it.
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