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Amazing Citizen "Multizone"

7K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  TheTigerUK 
#1 ·
Hi all, this is my first posting on the new website. Getting used to it, but it already looks amazing.
here's a watch my friend, Horst Knebel, from Germany told me about. he has an enormous collection of very unusual watches including Seikos and Citizens.
Here's what he has to say about his latest acquisition:

This watch was the first radio controlled watch with integrated antenna in the world! Its 7 hands technology and the extraordinary design of the antenna positioned in the middle of the dial earned a space in the Museum of Modern Art
Specialities: Multifrequency receiver, receiving all three clock signal stations in germany USA and Japan, 2 Local Times, 24 hours display (GMT) day / date diaplay with two hands. Bezeichnet vorn: “Citizen, Japan, 7400- C70101 KA”, innen: “ Citizen, Watch Co., Japan, Sixteen Jewels, 7400H”, hinten: “Citizen Watch Co., Water resist, Base Metal SGUHC, 7400-C70007 TA, 303210,GN-0W-S”.
 

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#3 ·
Actually, I beg to differ. The very first radio controlled watch in the world was the German made Junghans Mega 1 LCD digital released in 1990:










[size=1em]The Junghans 'Mega 1' wristwatch, introduced in 1990, was the world's first radio-controlled wristwatch. An antenna buried in the strap receives a long-wave radio signal every morning broadcast on 77.5 KHz (call-sign DCF) from Mainflingen, Frankfurt, carrying time information from Germany's national atomic clocks at Braunschweig. These radio transmissions automatically set the watch right. Similar watches and clocks are made which receive the UK's national time signal broadcast from Rugby, originating from the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington.
[size=1em]Since the earliest days of radio communications, it was realized that radio waves are an ideal means of distributing precise time. From January 1905, the US Navy broadcast regular time signals at Noon (Eastern Standard Time) from Washington, D.C. Germany and France followed suit in 1910, the French signal being transmitted from the Eiffel Tower at midnight.
[size=1em]These early time signals required a special receiver, but in 1922, with the first public radio broadcasts by the British Broadcasting Company, the opportunity was taken to provide precise time, with the announcer playing the Westminster chimes on a piano. Two years later the BBC introduced its six-pip time signal, the brainchild of electric clock manufacturer Frank Hope-Jones and the Astronomer Royal, Sir Frank Dyson.
[size=1em]From the early 1970s, battery-driven quartz clocks have been made which automatically correct themselves on a daily basis using one of the digitally coded time signals now broadcast across the world.
 
#6 ·
True, Axel. However, I have seen Citizen's claims that this 2003 release was the first ever R/C wrist watch.


I love Citizen to bits, but this is one bold claim in their part that I have never been able to agree to.


Cool watch, not pretty, but very significant nevertheless.
 
#7 ·
minidriver said:
Actually, I beg to differ. The very first radio controlled watch in the world was the German made Junghans Mega 1 LCD digital released in 1990:





[img]




[font=helvetica][b]The Junghans 'Mega 1' wristwatch, introduced in 1990, was the world's first radio-controlled wristwatch. An antenna buried in the strap receives a long-wave radio signal every morning broadcast on 77.5 KHz (call-sign DCF) from Mainflingen, Frankfurt, carrying time information from Germany's national atomic clocks at Braunschweig. These radio transmissions automatically set the watch right. Similar watches and clocks are made which receive the UK's national time signal broadcast from Rugby, originating from the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington.[/b][/font]
[b]Since the earliest days of radio communications, it was realized that radio waves are an ideal means of distributing precise time. From January 1905, the US Navy broadcast regular time signals at Noon (Eastern Standard Time) from Washington, D.C. Germany and France followed suit in 1910, the French signal being transmitted from the Eiffel Tower at midnight.[/b]
[b]These early time signals required a special receiver, but in 1922, with the first public radio broadcasts by the British Broadcasting Company, the opportunity was taken to provide precise time, with the announcer playing the Westminster chimes on a piano. Two years later the BBC introduced its six-pip time signal, the brainchild of electric clock manufacturer Frank Hope-Jones and the Astronomer Royal, Sir Frank Dyson.[/b]
[b]From the early 1970s, battery-driven quartz clocks have been made which automatically correct themselves on a daily basis using one of the digitally coded time signals now broadcast across the world.[/b]
[/quote]All true, but the original claim (in the OP) was:

[color=blue]"This watch was the first radio controlled watch [b]with integrated antenna[/b] in the world!" [color=black](bolding mine.)

[color=black]The antennae of the Mega 1 was in the leather strap.
 
#8 ·
minidriver said:
True, Axel. However, I have seen Citizen's claims that this 2003 release was the first ever R/C wrist watch.


I love Citizen to bits, but this is one bold claim in their part that I have never been able to agree to.


Cool watch, not pretty, but very significant nevertheless.
Are you positive of this? The only claim I have ever seen made by citizen on this regard is that they introduced radio controlled watches to the marketplace in 1993 (not 2003). They never actually state that they were first to market (though admitedly the statement is a bit ambiguous and can be misinterpreted without further explanation).
 
#9 ·
According to Citizen they started development of a radio controlled watch in 1989, thought that a single frequency version based in Asia would not be commercial enough (and no doubt having seen the Junghans one come out first!), so then developed one that could use British and German frequencies as well and launched it in 1993.

Sweephand
 
#10 ·
Sweephand said:
According to Citizen they started development of a radio controlled watch in 1989, thought that a single frequency version based in Asia would not be commercial enough (and no doubt having seen the Junghans one come out first!), so then developed one that could use British and German frequencies as well and launched it in 1993.
I think that was German, US, and Japanese transmitters. The Brits (at that time) got their signal from Frankfurt.
 
#11 ·
Isthmus said:
Are you positive of this? The only claim I have ever seen made by citizen on this regard is that they introduced radio controlled watches to the marketplace in 1993 (not 2003). They never actually state that they were first to market (though admitedly the statement is a bit ambiguous and can be misinterpreted without further explanation).
I believe you're right. Here is a Citizen document that makes it clear (I think) that Citizen never claimed to have produced--or brought to market--the first radio-controlled watch, but instead the first multizone radio-controlled watch--that is, one that could receive the radio signal from more than one transmitter in the world. Scroll onto Page 2 and go about midway down in the left column to see:

May [1993] World's first multizone “Radio-Controlled Watch” marketed.

http://www.taschenfernseher.de/doku/citizen-history.pdf

In another document from Citizen, I've seen the reference to this watch given as 1989 (but still described as above), which is, as Sweephand has pointed out, when they began development.
 
#14 ·
Hi guys, I think Horst (the owner of the watch) was particularly making the comment that the Citizen was the first with the antenna built into the watch rather than the bracelet.
I really like the look of it even though it won't receive anything here in South Africa...
 
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