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Citizen 8110 Was that model a high end watch?

38K views 130 replies 24 participants last post by  SC-Texas 
#1 ·
I have had one since the 70's, and it has been working perfectly since then. It is so accurate and beautiful. What is your opinion on this Citizen 8110 Bullhead?
What would it compare to today? I would think it would be a high end watch.
Thanks in advance.
Here is a picture.
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#2 · (Edited)
Hi,
Nice bullhead! I don't know if this was a high end watch back in the day, but the 67-9119 (same movement but had a count down timer) had a catalog price of 23,000 Yen. I recall reading somewhere that the mid-range Citizens were about 12,000 Yen so this makes the 8110 a relatively expensive watch. Not sure about my assumptions though!:-d I also recall reading that you'll never get a true flyback automatic chronograph for less than $700 today! (the price range is a guesstimate!)
Regardless, it's a great watch. I'm still trying to locate a 67-9119 for myself though! These are harder to come by than the regular bullheads.
Regards.
 
#3 ·
Anyone else, has more info in this model? I really like the Bullhead and I am trying to find as much info as possible. In your opinion, is it a watch that deserves a restoration? Apart from the sentimental value I have with it. Is it really something worth spending money on it. I really think it is a great watch, but I am no expert.
Thanks in advance.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Im glad that this thread is here. I just finished restoring this 67-9054 chronograph. At this time i have 5 of the 8110a's on my bench. Originally this blue dialed one started out as the green dialed one. It came from Argentina and suffered a hard life. Even though the dial appears to be trashed, it actually looks really cool to me. So i bought another basket case 67-9054 from florida off ebay which should arrive today. I will post a pic of that train wreck in the next day or to. Its going to give up its pushers and parts to restore and create the green sun burst dialed one. This particular blue dialed one came from florida too as a parts watch for another one. I like this model so much that i bought other doner 8110a's to bring this one back to life. I bought 2 8110 Citizen Speedies a few months ago and decided to go buck wild and restore 5 different watches at the same time. These movements are the best Citizen mechanical chronographs even today. They can be timed very accuratly. This one is at about 6 seconds positionatly with a 0 ms beat error. I love the fact that they have fine regulators in them. On top of that they are heavily jeweled in all the right places and i have spent countless hours diagnosing problems with them. All the problems with the 8110a is all inexpierenced botch makers getting over their head with them with the exception of one. What was designed in the watch to create the flyback function is actually why almost all of mine didnt work and reset correctly. Hit the reset and (CRACK) it flys back but its such a violent action that it will loosen the hands off their pivots. After spending hours, and i mean hours trying to figure out why. Its turns out to be a piece that i believed to be a factory problem, which can be fixed no other way than to remove it. Believe it or not the only thing that happens i think is better than the fly back function. Push the reset after the flyback part removed and what you have is the smoothest reset one could dream of. It really makes the watch much better and in my opinion should have been made that way from new. But thats ok because its such a high quality movement that ill give it a high grade rating. Stay tuned for more. 31 Analog watch Watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Jewellery
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#11 ·
Great post '31 jewels'! And good to see someone working on these great movements. I'm not a watch mechanic, but I am a vintage Citizen collector so very interested in your comments and it would be great if you could take a look at my blog to see if there are things you could add to my article on the 8110 and 8100 chronographs, see here: Automatic Chronographs | Sweephand's Vintage Citizen Watch Blog

Cheers,
Stephen
 
#13 ·
Thank You (Morris Minor) for your posative reply. I think its about time the Citizen members and fans get a chance to see some of the well made products their company has made in the past. I want to keep (Vsansbajos) thread alive as long as i can untill an official thread can be started on the 8110a movement. I get the chance to bring back to life these very cool movements and their respective cases and models they were put in. Im a big fan of these "motors" and i hope everyone will enjoy the thread so far. It was a great idea. Here is pics of the 67-9054 train wreck that washed ashore today. It looks like it was laying in a mud puddle. It was so dirty that i didnt clean anything on the bench. I ultrasonicly cleaned the movement twice and was amaized to find was the movement was in really original non botched condition. I should have it running today and will post a pic and some results. Stay Tuned 31 Watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Metal Jewellery
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#15 · (Edited)
Thank You (Morris Minor) for your posative reply. I think its about time the Citizen members and fans get a chance to see some of the well made products their company has made in the past. I want to keep (Vsansbajos) thread alive as long as i can untill an official thread can be started on the 8110a movement. I get the chance to bring back to life these very cool movements and their respective cases and models they were put in. Im a big fan of these "motors" and i hope everyone will enjoy the thread so far. It was a great idea. Here is pics of the 67-9054 train wreck that washed ashore today. It looks like it was laying in a mud puddle. It was so dirty that i didnt clean anything on the bench. I ultrasonicly cleaned the movement twice and was amaized to find was the movement was in really original non botched condition. I should have it running today and will post a pic and some results. Stay Tuned 31
I think I saw that particular watch on eBay a couple of weeks back. The seller had about three 8110s & one 8100 for sale.
I also have a 67-9119 with a 8110 movement that I got for cheap. It requires attention so I'm in the process of restoring it. My watch is a real basket case that is missing one sub-dial hand & has the wrong dial! (from a 67-9038). On the plus side, the hands are original and in excellent condition. The day-glo orange on the seconds hand looks fabulous! The inner bezel does not rotate on mine, a closer inspection revealed that the cog wheel and stem for that is missing. Any idea where I can get one? I'm after a parts watch to get all the parts I require, but these don't come up very often. A good dial is even harder to find!

Here are some photographs-





Now some wrist shots-


Regards.
 
#14 ·
I actually was offered one for sale today but the guy want way too much (like three times as much) money. It is a harder edged Octo version, gold face with black sub dial. If you know one (preferably a face of a diff. color) for sale, please let me know.

I noticed a eBay seller is selling one (Vintage Citizen Bullhead Chronograph Stainless Steel Wrist Watch Automatic | eBay ) I wonder if he is a member here.
 
#17 ·
Hi Stephen,
Yes, I plan on restoring this to factory specifications! My task would be much easier if I found a donor watch, but I'm going to have to be patient!
In the meantime, I'm going to acquire tools I would require to remove the hands and dial. This is my first watch restoration project as well.
Wish me luck!
 
#18 · (Edited)
Jaliya, check your PM on my parts 67-9019. Finished green sunbursts 67-9054 motor tonight and got it running. It had excellent amplitude, im still amaized that it runs that good. I didnt even get it on the timing machine yet. It did have a bent minute recorder pivot which i was able to straighten on the lathe. I fitted the dials on both and kept the black speedies day of the week wheel for the sunburst. Check it out. I dont know what language its in but i like fridays. That should be on ladies watches too to remind them what friday really is. LOL. Sunbursts case is polished and the tachy bezel, which the printed numbers are long gone but it polished nice. I have to do some minor resto work to the sunbursts dial yet. The 67-9313 black dialed speedy is ready to have the hands put on and cased today. The white dialed speedy had the nicest parts of the two so it got the priority restore. Stay tuned, 31 Watch Fashion accessory Pocket watch Metal
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#21 ·
I am so happy there are a lot of people interested in this amazing Citizen movements and watches. I got my 1st Bullhead from my uncle. It was bought in Spain and It still running perfectly. Now I have three.
I have a question, Did these bullheads come with black and white calendar and day wheels? I have 2 with black and one with white ones. Does anyone know for sure?
 
#22 · (Edited)
One interesting thing about the 67-9054 is the use of the movement holder. Its the only Citizen chronograph that uses this type. Its a very heavy steel movement mount protector that the movement is screwed into. It offers some protection, and all the Bulls and Speedies use a plastic ring movement holder. What i did with the dial on this one since it had damage, was to use flat black enamal around where the crystal rests on the dial. This is so when you looked at the crystal at an angle, it didnt draw attention away from the dial. Which almost seems at a glance that it was made this way. The tacky bezel is made of aluminum. The train wreck in the above threads provided this part and its needed to center the crystal. The pushers, are also different for this model. The Speedies pushers are shorter, and the Bulls are longer. I will admit that i really like this model. I really like the blue dials of this model more than the green, but the greens are even rarer. The other thing i struggled with on this one was decideing the color of the sweep seconds hand. I believe it should be yellow. The pics i can find of this model show yellow, not flourecent orange. The yellow was hard to recreate and i didnt want it to scream out from the dial. So i restored the flourecent orange which was tricky. When you resurect watches that are worn this hard, creativity patience and carefull planning can make for some neat stuff. I always liked ratt worn watches. There is something appealing to me about them that tell a story. I hoped you liked this so far. My crystal press broke so i couldnt post black dial Speedy. I will in the next couple days. This 67-9054 will get one more upload. Positional timing, a rotor install and a new case back gasket. Stay tuned, 31 Watch accessory Watch Fashion accessory Metal
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#24 ·
Do you have a tip on what paint to use for the florescent orange sub-dial hands? In aeroplane modeling, we call it "Day-Glo orange" and it's not easy to recreate! I would love that colour on my 67-9119 hands when I'm restoring it. I have a selection of acrylics, but these are impossible to brush on.
 
#25 ·
AFAIK the 67-9054's had an orange second hand - they can fade and look more yellow. There are some 8110 models with black day/date wheels other than the bullheads, rather than list them here, see my blog article: Automatic Chronographs | Sweephand's Vintage Citizen Watch Blog

Here's my green one, pretty sure it's in original condition:

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Stephen
 
#33 ·
AFAIK the 67-9054's had an orange second hand - they can fade and look more yellow. There are some 8110 models with black day/date wheels other than the bullheads, rather than list them here, see my blog article: Automatic Chronographs | Sweephand's Vintage Citizen Watch Blog

Here's my green one, pretty sure it's in original condition:

View attachment 609692

Stephen
Wow, that is a sweety. I have to start an official 8110a thread for the Speedy restos. I ran out of pic space here. I have to do a family photo shoot there. 31
 
#28 · (Edited)
There are 2 things that give the modern watch makers the advantage today than the years before. Modern lubricants ( Mobil 1) and the digital timing machine. No longer if you want to really time a watch, and i mean really time one is to not have 5 miles of paper clacking away. With digitals, now it can run for hours and even turn off the sound so you can get right to the business of your business. What is that,some may ask? Accurate mechanical watches. I was trained by a 40 year swiss master and a 25 year Rolex Vet. The goal, and i have done this, is chronometer accuracy. 1 in 10 watches make it there and im not about to spend 2 weeks doing that on this watch. But i want the best this watch can deliver. Because hey, thats what a watches job is to do. The industry standard of today is 12 seconds/day. Rolex is 4. Let me tell you straight up, it takes alot of time to get 4 seconds even with a really good quality watch. Now, take a ratt for example. I wont say more. This job to get this model watch timed to where it is took (1 hour) of hair by hair adjustments. If you notice that the beat error in the first pic is 1.1ms. Dont even bother to (fine) time it if thats what you have. You have got to set the "tune" before trying to positionally time the watch. If your hearts out of beat you wont be right. Turns out thats the same for a mechanical watch. Notice the 2nd timing pic. 0ms. You can actually hear a hair spring "ring" when a watch is "in beat." After setting all positions, its about 6 seconds a day. Quite frankly, its the best you are ever going to get in a 8110a and thats "high end to me." I have(7) 8110a Citizen model watches and these 2 ratts turned out the best as far as timing is concerned. I will admit though, i was on a mission for these 2 Citizens to proove a point. You can get high end accuracy results in watches that some would consider, "lesser watches." Hope you guys enjoyed this as much as i did. The last 2 pics are the finished restored results of what was bone yard recovery watches. Whats nice is if you scroll back up and look at Morris Minors green dialed 67-9054, you can see whats virtually show room 70s era time capsule condition. I ran out of pic space as per the forum. I want to reply to your questions and answer my blown up in box. I will start new threads and see what happens. Stay tuned, 31 Electronics Product Technology Electronic device Gadget
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#35 ·
Jaliya, thank you. I am looking forward to seeing your resto. We have to start a 8110a official thread here. I will help you in anyway i can to help you make your watch a reality. I am sending you the pics today. Let me know if you get them. The hand resto tip to get that color orange is to carefully clean off all of the paint on the hands. I use a dull model exacto razor blade knife. I will then carefully with one stroke, paint it with (flat white model enamel.) This provides a bright base coat for the orange. Semi gloss and gloss are almost impossible to use because it has too much oil in the paint. I dont know if you can access this semi gloss flourecent paint where you are but it is called (model master acryl #4703.) 31
 
#34 ·
The black outside bezel. You have the glass placed on the bezels..
View attachment 610361
V, on the Bulls the Tachymeter is printed on the dial. On the 67-9054 it is that aluminum ring thats bezel set in the case. Im not sure what paint type is used, but almost always dial damage is caused by inexpierenced people that do not know how to clean a dial properly. Hope this helps, 31
 
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