Sunday, June 17, 2018

Citizen Homer Second Setting - Railroad Watch

Happy Fathers' Day!

Easily one of my favorites is this Citizen Homer Second Setting manual wind watch. I chanced upon it being sold by its previous owner who was letting go of some of his collections. I was actually inquiring about another watch until he posted photos of this watch and I became curious when he labeled this as a railway watch.

Simple watch face with dauphine hands and arabic numerals. The brand and model are written in cursive script. It is a very functional, practical design given that train drivers and station staff use this for what could be the most punctual train services in the world.
Side view of the watch
Side view showing the crown, which bears the brand logo 'CTZ'
The engraving reads: Top - Showa 48 (Refers to the 48th year of the reign of Emperor Hirohito = Showa and translates to 1973). Middle - watch number (this was issued to railroad staff, particularly to those running the trains). Bottom - First two kanji reads 'Koku Tetsu', which is an abbreviation of Kokuritsu Tetsudo (National Railways). The Kanji in parenthesis refers to the Japan National Railways division where the watch was issued; in this case the first kanji is likely to be for Kanazawa and the second is 'division'.
It's easy to fall in love with the simpler, non-luxury watches like this Citizen Homer. And to be honest, I would prefer to wear these kinds of watches for most days, which is also the main reason why I have preferred to wear my old Seiko Kinetic after all these years.
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