Vintage Citizens - why so many crown swaps?

[dapellegrini]

Just a point of curiosity I thought I would share....  While collecting old Citizen watches I have been surprised at what big a topic an "original crown" seems to be.  I mean I know crown swaps exist, but with some of these models, it seems crowns were replaced more often than crystals or bracelets.

Well, I stumbled on a comment somewhere, where it was mentioned that one of the biggest flaws with these old Citizen watches was the "chrome" plating on their crowns wearing down and looking terrible... ohhhhhhhhh!  So maybe that is why.  It looks like many of these crowns have a brass-toned base metal look once the finish is worn off - for instance:

[inboost]

dapellegrini - yes I've seen this myself. I'd also suggest that crown replacement was part of a regular service as they typically have trapped o-rings in them via a crimped in washer so your well supplied Citizen service center would just toss the old and replace it with a new from the drawer replacement. The problem of course is that many are signed and the logos changed over the years. The latest 'CTZ' I bet is easily and often faked. The old 'Circle-C' is my favorite.

[gaspardcoligny]

I've found that nothing wears out like vintage Citizen crowns. I count myself lucky if the original crown is in decent shape!