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Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

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elceedee

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Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post16 Jun 2013, 00:53

Hey guys,
Im restoring a citizen 9070A (50-6079, pictures follow later)
I have the movement back to functionality, but I have a hard time figuring out the setting date. In 'time' mode pushing the setting button sets toggling through sec min hours, no problem. Doesn't toggle through to date though. When selecting date and pushing setting button toggles a weird square on or off on the right, but doesn't seem to toggle to date setting.
Any advise is welcome,
Thanks in advance
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elceedee

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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post16 Jun 2013, 15:33

This is the watch with its 9070A movement. It was Citizens first digital movement for 'dress watches/thin' (according to the dwl).
I particular like this model because of the balance in the design ; the crystal and black inlay are reasonable small which gives a good match with the small lcd panel.
Still looking for a way to set date ;)

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peachykeen

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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post16 Jun 2013, 20:12

Still looking for a way to set date

Mine (NOS 50-6117, acquired a while ago in a bundle) cycles through second - minute - hour - month - day when pushing the "select" button in time mode. In date mode, pushing the "select" button does nothing at all.
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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post16 Jun 2013, 20:36

Thanks for your info. Its strange, cause my movement seems to differ somehow from yours. When nothing would have happened in date mode I would have thought of a faulty chip.
But as it doesn't toggle through to date (from the time screen) but does give a result in date mode (this square on and off; which is actually the last number of the two seconds - o to 9-. Picture the lower part of the '8') im having a hard time figuring it out.

Also, the watch doesn't give PM or AM, but selects the lower or upper dot between hours and minutes, where I assume the upper dot is AM and the lower dot is PM.
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peachykeen

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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post16 Jun 2013, 21:35

seicitizitch wrote:Thanks for your info. Its strange, cause my movement seems to differ somehow from yours.

Can you rule out a short circuit or something like that? Last week I had an MSA 087A movement which behaved funny (light and chrono button reversed, chrono button toggling only at every 4th push) and it turned out to be a faulty chrono button which caused a high-resistance permanent connection even if it wasn't pushed.
Also, the watch doesn't give PM or AM, but selects the lower or upper dot between hours and minutes, where I assume the upper dot is AM and the lower dot is PM.

Correct, mine does that as well.
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elceedee

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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post16 Jun 2013, 23:20

Hmmm.. I cant rule it out. However, in 'normal state' the watch functions fine: time mode; pushing date button toggles date; pushing light button gives light. Setting button toggles 'setting mode'
Are there different layouts for the 9070 ?
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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post17 Jun 2013, 00:35

Sounds bizarre....

I've played around with one or two of these Citizen 9070 and they all behave as peachykean says. There are two other Citizen movements that could physically fit in the case -

- 9150 has no backlight
- 9170 has year and day of week functions

Neither of these would function as you have described and both would date to about 1978. The 9070s were around from about Q1 1977 until 1978. I'm not aware of any increments of the 9070 design as they quite quickly had year / leap year / DOW added in the move to the very similar but improved 9170.

The toggling 'square' you describe is a 'legitimate' Citizen display function - if you were talking about a 1976 Cal 9021 Crystron Alarm! In the Cal 9021 (and only the 9021....) the lower Button selects the Alarm Time - then pressing the set button in this Alarm Time mode toggles a square in the the last seconds column exactly as you describe to indicate whether or not the alarm is on or off. FWIW the Cal 9021 also indicates AM/PM with the colon as you describe.

Theres no way that you could fit a 9021 movement / PCB /parts / etc in your case - wouldn't fit, way too big. So you either have a very odd failure mode on your 9070 PCB. Or you have a 9070 PCB that, for whatever reason, has been cut and shut during manufacture with left-over 9021 silicon to produce an approximately working watch - perhaps before the 9070 silicon was available. If your watch has a late 1976 or very early 1977 (like Jan/Feb) date code then this second theory becomes vaguely plausible.
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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post17 Jun 2013, 01:00

Its januari 1977.. (7102677)
But I'm having a hard time believing Citizen would fit a "non-functional' PCB (porcelain) in this model, as wouldn't be functional as sold.
The movement is stamped 9070A.
Im having two similar movements. Both PCB's look 100% similar.
At first I intended to combine parts of the two movements, but as this movement turned out functional after cleaning from battery leaking damage, I kept it 100% as acquired. I did however notice that the momevent was taken apart before. Nevertheless; two fully similar PCB's (on first glance)

Update:
An interesting note confirming your theory though: the 'date' hasn't changed in over 24 hours. This makes it plausible that im actually looking at a alarm setting time,
This makes your theory acceptable, and this watch pretty unique.
As its keeping time fine, I will keep it like this (the other PCB isn't functional, also battery damage). I will keep my eyes open to a 9070A movement.

Thanks for all the info!
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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post17 Jun 2013, 02:16

seicitizitch wrote:Its januari 1977.. (7102677)
But I'm having a hard time believing Citizen would fit a "non-functional' PCB (porcelain) in this model, as wouldn't be functional as sold.
The movement is stamped 9070A.
Im having two similar movements. Both PCB's look 100% similar.


If it is a 9070 PCB fitted with 9021 silicon then it probably wouldn't have ever actually been meant for sale. Companies often produce a lot of product for internal use that is never intended for end-user sale - during product development, during pre-production and production, for various engineering purposes and for various marketing purposes, etc. Certainly seems odd but from your description it really does sound like there's a 9021-ish chip in there.

BTW 7102677 serial number indicates October 1977 In Citizen-speak - 1st number is year then 2nd and 3rd go from 01, 02, .... 11, 12 to indicate the month. Its possible that the PCB arrived in the case by round-about means particularly as you indicate that the movement showed signs of having been worked on previously.
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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post17 Jun 2013, 02:47

Thanks again. Considering the behavior of the chip vs the size of the pcb I am somehow positive now that this 9070A PCB was fitted with a 9021 chipset, which is very special. Though not really functional ;)
As I decided this watch to be a 'stayer' (makes a great fit on my small wrist, and I really like the model) I will use it 'as is', just time, no date.
The 'fact' that im actually wearing a 'prototype' PCB of one of the LCD brands I admire is a great thought!

Another thing I love about this model is the way its designed to bring light to the full lcd display from one lightbulb (lets say an early Casio 'illuminator' mode) by using 3 layers below the panel; silver backpanel, blanc transparent panel, another 'purple' transparent panel, and finally a stainless steel bended thin frame to keep all in place below the lcd panel.

Basically I prefer the Seiko's (and Casio's), but these early Citizens have great movements (as well as the somehow later Citizen multi-alarms).
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Re: Citizen 9070A; how do i set the date

Post17 Jun 2013, 06:14

seicitizitch wrote:Another thing I love about this model is the way its designed to bring light to the full lcd display from one lightbulb (lets say an early Casio 'illuminator' mode) by using 3 layers below the panel; silver backpanel, blanc transparent panel, another 'purple' transparent panel, and finally a stainless steel bended thin frame to keep all in place below the lcd panel.

That 'purple' panel -- which should be neutral grey, but almost all of them exhibited a colour shift after some 20 years -- is actually the rear polarizer.
Most of those old Citizen watches came with replaceable front and rear polarizers. Some time around 1978, Citizen started to glue the front polarizer to the LCD and in the early 1980s the rear polarizer was also glued in place. Must have been cheaper than a separate polarizer, I have no other explanation why else they would have glued it in favour of keeping it separate.

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