Grails and the 1973 Citizen 8811 electro-mechanical quartz
Feb 15, 2018 5:17:01 GMT -8
leffemonster, dadistic, and 5 more like this
Post by rossr on Feb 15, 2018 5:17:01 GMT -8
This is a bit of a ramble, and I know I’m mixing themes, but here goes.
The word “grail” appears occasionally here, and it often gets me thinking about what the concept of a grail might mean to me in the context of watch collecting. First up, my initial response if asked would be that I’ve not pursued a grail watch - some may disagree! Sure, certain watches have held great interest to me, and maybe I have chased some down, and let others go. But is there, or has there been a single watch that has held such fascination that my daily searches begin and end with this one item? The white whale to my Ahab? To me, the grail is not about how much a watch costs. Yes, a very rare piece may be very expensive, but it is not the price that maketh the grail. It is the (possibly) endless hunt.
Maybe I could buy a relatively expensive watch. Maybe a 6159-700x. But would it be a grail to me? No. Perhaps I could buy one tomorrow if I had the money (I don’t) and the inclination to do so. They are not hard to find.
The orange dialled Citizen 52-0110 qualifies. Pricey if one came on to the market, yes, but perhaps doable. But easily obtainable. No. Are you kidding? I think I’ve seen three come up over the past 10 years. It is certainly graily. Other watches I’ve bought have become retrospective grails. If I’d known about them before stumbling in to them, they might have qualified. I might have hunted for them fruitlessly, but instead, I got lucky.
In this category I’d put the Citizen 8811. I was aware of this short-lived line of watches from the 1974 Citizen catalogue, a brochure I think is a great piece of work in itself. I recall seeing these strange looking, very expensive watches, and remember thinking that it would be interesting if one ever came up for sale. Was it a grail? Not strictly, as I wasn’t actively searching for one, but was the type of watch that I am very interested in. Unusual, rarely seen, and a very significant watch to the manufacturer. And a Citizen! Yes, ok, it was graily.
Whilst browsing watches on Yahoo Japan, as I do once every blue moon (!), a shiny, brown-dialled watch caught my eye. At that stage, it was 3 days from ending, and was sitting at around Y3000 or so. As the auction neared its end, the price had moved a bit further, but was still pretty low. By this stage, I’d done my research and knew what it was - only the second 881X calibre watch I’d ever seen come up for sale. And it was working. My searches had found a non-runner that sold a couple of years ago (I recall seeing this one), a very nice running example sold through antiwatchman at some indeterminate time in the past, and another that was sold at a vintage watch auction for an undisclosed amount. The photos weren’t great, but much better than some on YJ. It was worth joining the chase. But how big would the chasing pack be?
Anyway, after a couple of nerve-testing auction extensions (the Fisher King seemed to be guarding this one well) the watch ended up with me. The price wasn’t outrageous - Y32,500 - ok I think. It could have gone for anything. It was the price of a 6309, a good 7548 perhaps. But what would I rather have? No question.
By coincidence, I’d just been listening to the Time4apint podcast about the Beta21 early quartz watches. Well it seems that this was Citizen’s response to the Beta21, and this was available for a fraction of the cost of one of those blingy things.
There was a very informative post about the 8811 movement on The Watch Forum UK a couple of years ago. As I can’t describe it any better, I’ll reproduce part of Stromspeicher’s post;
“Citizen describe the coil/balance/index mechanism as a 'resonant motor' - the balance mass/spring has a resonant mechanical frequency and it is forced electromagnetically at this frequency by a coil pair attached to the output of the electronic circuit and four pairs of permanent magnets mounted on the balance. The balance is small and the spring is stiff providing a ridiculous 115200 A/h (16Hz) blur. It doesn't take much dirt or misalignment to stop this thing from running properly. It also provides the kind of smoothly sweeping second hand one usually associates with a hum.”
www.thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?/topic/99756-1973-citizen-quartz-cal-8811-high-beat-electro-mechanical/
One of the drawbacks of a watch like this is the lack of available parts should something go wrong, and the difficulty of finding someone to try and fix it. The Omega Megasonic effect. Oh well. That kind of comes with the territory. This one is working well, and is in great condition, so I’ll enjoy wearing it while I can!
Regards,
Ross
The original catalogue shots.
The word “grail” appears occasionally here, and it often gets me thinking about what the concept of a grail might mean to me in the context of watch collecting. First up, my initial response if asked would be that I’ve not pursued a grail watch - some may disagree! Sure, certain watches have held great interest to me, and maybe I have chased some down, and let others go. But is there, or has there been a single watch that has held such fascination that my daily searches begin and end with this one item? The white whale to my Ahab? To me, the grail is not about how much a watch costs. Yes, a very rare piece may be very expensive, but it is not the price that maketh the grail. It is the (possibly) endless hunt.
Maybe I could buy a relatively expensive watch. Maybe a 6159-700x. But would it be a grail to me? No. Perhaps I could buy one tomorrow if I had the money (I don’t) and the inclination to do so. They are not hard to find.
The orange dialled Citizen 52-0110 qualifies. Pricey if one came on to the market, yes, but perhaps doable. But easily obtainable. No. Are you kidding? I think I’ve seen three come up over the past 10 years. It is certainly graily. Other watches I’ve bought have become retrospective grails. If I’d known about them before stumbling in to them, they might have qualified. I might have hunted for them fruitlessly, but instead, I got lucky.
In this category I’d put the Citizen 8811. I was aware of this short-lived line of watches from the 1974 Citizen catalogue, a brochure I think is a great piece of work in itself. I recall seeing these strange looking, very expensive watches, and remember thinking that it would be interesting if one ever came up for sale. Was it a grail? Not strictly, as I wasn’t actively searching for one, but was the type of watch that I am very interested in. Unusual, rarely seen, and a very significant watch to the manufacturer. And a Citizen! Yes, ok, it was graily.
Whilst browsing watches on Yahoo Japan, as I do once every blue moon (!), a shiny, brown-dialled watch caught my eye. At that stage, it was 3 days from ending, and was sitting at around Y3000 or so. As the auction neared its end, the price had moved a bit further, but was still pretty low. By this stage, I’d done my research and knew what it was - only the second 881X calibre watch I’d ever seen come up for sale. And it was working. My searches had found a non-runner that sold a couple of years ago (I recall seeing this one), a very nice running example sold through antiwatchman at some indeterminate time in the past, and another that was sold at a vintage watch auction for an undisclosed amount. The photos weren’t great, but much better than some on YJ. It was worth joining the chase. But how big would the chasing pack be?
Anyway, after a couple of nerve-testing auction extensions (the Fisher King seemed to be guarding this one well) the watch ended up with me. The price wasn’t outrageous - Y32,500 - ok I think. It could have gone for anything. It was the price of a 6309, a good 7548 perhaps. But what would I rather have? No question.
By coincidence, I’d just been listening to the Time4apint podcast about the Beta21 early quartz watches. Well it seems that this was Citizen’s response to the Beta21, and this was available for a fraction of the cost of one of those blingy things.
There was a very informative post about the 8811 movement on The Watch Forum UK a couple of years ago. As I can’t describe it any better, I’ll reproduce part of Stromspeicher’s post;
“Citizen describe the coil/balance/index mechanism as a 'resonant motor' - the balance mass/spring has a resonant mechanical frequency and it is forced electromagnetically at this frequency by a coil pair attached to the output of the electronic circuit and four pairs of permanent magnets mounted on the balance. The balance is small and the spring is stiff providing a ridiculous 115200 A/h (16Hz) blur. It doesn't take much dirt or misalignment to stop this thing from running properly. It also provides the kind of smoothly sweeping second hand one usually associates with a hum.”
www.thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?/topic/99756-1973-citizen-quartz-cal-8811-high-beat-electro-mechanical/
One of the drawbacks of a watch like this is the lack of available parts should something go wrong, and the difficulty of finding someone to try and fix it. The Omega Megasonic effect. Oh well. That kind of comes with the territory. This one is working well, and is in great condition, so I’ll enjoy wearing it while I can!
Regards,
Ross
The original catalogue shots.
