Citizen Leopard 24J

This 7710 caliber Leopard variant has a near perfect dial and hands. The dial has very fine vertical brushing and reflects light in an unexpected way; at some angles it appears like matte white paper, and at other like finely brushed silver. The stick-hands are chamfered and striped with black enamel, as are the hour markers. This makes for very legible time keeping. The case has its fair share of dings and scuffs, however the original factory polish is bright and the case lines are still quite sharp. Additionally, the Crystal is extremely unique. Citizen favored a very short rehaut(the spacer between the dial and crystal) which requires that the crystal clear the height of the handset stack. Acrylic crystals are often used for this purpose because of ease of fabrication. However, in the 70s Citizen produced many unique box dome and double domed mineral glass crystals for these short rehaut watches! This was a fabrication challenge Seiko(and others) avoided nearly entirely(besides the 6130 pogues for example) during the 1970s. Additionally, no third parties produced these special profiles because they weren’t much in demand. It isn’t entirely unlikely that a replacement crystal for this particular model won’t show up on the second hand market again.

This is a very functional and legible every day watch with day/date calendar. It can easily be dressed up or down as its styling is understated. However, as a replacement for the crystal isn’t easily found, this watch may be best for special occasions and ideally low impact scenarios.

• Tight hand winding (typical of vintage Leopards)

• New Old Stock Citizen Crystal

• 28,800 Beats Per Minuet

• 24 Jewel

• Seconds Hacking

• Automatic and Hand Winding

• Push to set Quickset Day/Date

• Kanji/English Day

• New Old Stock Citizen Crystal

• 4 o’Clock Crown

• “CTZ” Signed Crown

• Mesh Metal Bracelet

Average Deviation:

(+) 4.8 s/d, 0.1 ms, 275 deg