Description
Citizen electro-mechanical wristwatch
MADE IN JAPAN
The Citizen Legacy: A Pioneer of Precision
Founded in 1918, Citizen is now one of the largest watch and movement groups in the world. The Japanese brand is known for its highly accurate and reliable Eco-Drive solar-powered watches. The Citizen group owns Bulova, Alpina, Frederique Constant, and Arnold & Son, as well as movement manufacturers Miyota and La Joux-Perret.
About the Cosmotron Line
Before quartz took over the watch market, Citizen spent a decade on the hybrid electro-mechanical watch, and the Cosmotron was the most technically advanced analogue watch the company built in that period. It keeps a conventional balance wheel and gear train, but the mainspring is replaced by a battery and the balance is impulsed by a transistor-switched coil instead of an escapement. At 36,000 beats per hour the seconds hand advances ten times a second.
Caliber 7803 was the last and most developed of Citizen’s 78-series electronic movements. Watches built on it are known as the Cosmotron Special: the name belongs to the Just Setting button at 8 o’clock rather than to anything printed on the dial, which reads only CITIZEN ELECTRONIC COSMOTRON.
About This Watch
This Japanese Domestic Market Cosmotron Special sits in a big, squared-off cushion case of brushed and polished stainless steel, with a deep green sunburst dial that shades darker towards the edges. Polished steel baton hands and applied baton markers carry over it, and the day-date window at 3 o’clock has a bilingual day wheel in English and Kanji. The serial number on the case back dates it to January 1976.
Inside is caliber 7803A, gold-plated and signed on the plate CITIZEN 8 J JAPAN 7803A, with its balance wheel and drive coil in plain view once the back is off. The button at 8 o’clock is the Just Setting reset: press it and the seconds hand flies back to 12, and if the minute hand is within about three minutes of the hour it returns to the hour as well, so the watch can be started exactly on a time signal.
Inside the case back is a Japanese watchmaker’s ink stamp dated 55.3, Shōwa 55, which is March 1980: a record of an earlier service in Japan, four years after the watch was made.
Technical Specifications
- Brand: Citizen
- Line: Cosmotron Special (Electronic)
- Reference Number: 4-790995 Y (dial 7803-791727-Y)
- Movement: Caliber 7803A, battery-powered electronic balance, 8 jewels, 36,000 bph, Just Setting reset at 8 o’clock
- Serial Number: 60111261
- Production Date: January 1976
- Case Material: Stainless steel
- Case Diameter: Approx. 42 x 37 mm (excluding crown)
- Dial: Green sunburst, applied baton markers, day-date at 3 o’clock with English/Kanji day wheel
- Crystal: Mineral glass
- Case-back: Stainless steel snap-on, marked ALL STAINLESS STEEL / WATER RESISTANT
- Country of Manufacture: Japan
Condition Report
The green dial is clean and even, with its sunburst intact and all printing sharp; a few tiny specks sit right at the edge of the dial under the crystal rim. The hands and markers are bright. The case shows light scratches on the brushed top surfaces and on the polished bezel, consistent with careful use, with no dents. The case back has light surface scratching and the engraving is crisp.
This watch has recently been serviced by a professional watchmaker and keeps good time.
Comes complete with a new black leather strap*.
(*)Note: Prefer another colour? We match the strap to this watch’s lug width, so there is nothing for you to measure — just pick a padded leather strap for Citizen from the options at the top of the page.
This watch ships from 🇺🇦 Ukraine with tracking number
Why Collectors Want This Watch Today
- The transition-era hybrid: A short window in watchmaking when a balance wheel was driven by a transistor and a battery, between the mainspring and quartz.
- 36,000 bph sweep: Ten beats per second, the same hi-beat rate as the best mechanical watches of the period, and unusual in a battery-powered watch.
- The Just Setting button: The 8 o’clock reset is the feature that makes this a Cosmotron Special.
- Mid-70s design: The green sunburst dial and the broad cushion case are pure 1970s Citizen and wear with real wrist presence at 42 x 37 mm.
Cosmotrons were made in quantity for the Japanese market and turn up regularly; the appeal here is the dial colour, the condition and the technology, not scarcity.
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We guarantee the item you receive looks and works exactly as advertised — or your money back.
Citizen lug-width matched leather straps — 18 / 19 / 20 mm
About the watch factory
The Spirit of Innovation: The Citizen Legacy
Founded in 1918 with the mission of creating timepieces that are “Citizens” of the world, the Citizen Watch Company has spent over a century redefining the boundaries of horology. From its origins as the Shokosha Watch Research Institute, the brand has remained steadfast in its philosophy: “Better Starts Now.” This belief—that it is always possible to make something better—transformed a local Japanese workshop into a global powerhouse of precision and craft. By controlling the entire manufacturing process in-house, from the individual components to the final assembly, Citizen ensures an uncompromising standard of quality that few manufacturers on earth can match.
What truly sets Citizen apart is its relentless pursuit of pioneering technology paired with environmental consciousness. The brand made history by introducing the world’s first light-powered analogue watch — the Crystron Solar Cell of 1976, the technology Citizen later branded Eco-Drive, which eliminated the need for battery replacements and forever changed the industry’s approach to sustainability. Beyond its eco-friendly milestones, Citizen’s history is decorated with “world firsts,” including the first professional diving watch with an electronic depth sensor and the most accurate satellite-synchronized timekeeping systems. When you wear a Citizen, you aren’t just wearing a watch; you are wearing a piece of history engineered for the future.
Why Choose Citizen?
- In-House Manufacturing: Citizen designs and builds its own movements — its Miyota calibers are among the most widely used in the world.
- Built to Last: Citizen engineered its 1960s–70s calibers to be serviced rather than discarded, which is why so many are still keeping good time today.
- Heritage of Firsts: The first light-powered analogue watch (1976, the technology that became Eco-Drive), the first dive watch with an electronic depth sensor, and satellite-synchronised timekeeping.
