Description
Citizen quartz 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 Exceed Line
🕰️ The Citizen Exceed
Exceed was born in 1977 as Citizen’s dedicated dress-watch line — the range where the company put its best finishing and its most restrained design, aimed at the adult professional rather than the sports or tool-watch buyer. The stated brief was “reliable quality and refined design,” and Exceed has carried that positioning ever since.
The line made its name almost immediately. In May 1978 Citizen launched the Exceed Gold, built around a quartz calibre just 0.98 mm thick — the first watch movement in the world to measure under a millimetre, and Citizen’s decisive shot in the “thin watch war” that Japanese and Swiss makers fought through the late 1970s. The 79xx calibre family introduced with it went on to serve as Citizen’s mainstay dress movement for the following decade.
Through the 1980s the Exceed catalogue settled into what the line does best: slim, gold-toned dress watches with clean baton dials, a date, and finishing a clear step above Citizen’s ordinary quartz range of the same years. Exceed is still in production today in Super Titanium and Eco-Drive form, which makes the vintage quartz examples an unusually affordable way into a line Citizen has never positioned as anything but premium.
About This Watch
This is a Citizen Exceed from June 1989, in the slim gold-plated case with sculpted, waisted lugs that the line wore through the 1980s.
The case back carries the reference 4-795580 and the serial 9060197. In Citizen’s system the leading digit is the year and the two that follow are the month, so this reads as June of a year ending in 9; the calibre inside places that in 1989. The back is also stamped EGP 30MIC — the gold is electroplated to a thickness of 30 microns, a heavy plating by the standards of the period — over a stainless steel back, with the case designation GN-8-S.
The dial is a warm champagne with a fine sunburst finish, applied baton markers and a framed date window at 3 o’clock. It is signed EXCEED above the centre and CITIZEN QUARTZ below it, with the dial code JAPAN 7990-795943-Y printed at the foot. The crown is gold-toned and set with a small black cabochon, a dress detail Citizen used across the Exceed range.
Inside is Citizen’s calibre 7990E, a six-jewel analogue quartz movement with date, stamped CITIZEN WATCH CO. JAPAN / SIX 6 JEWELS / 7990E / UNADJUSTED. It belongs to the 79xx family Citizen built for Exceed in the wake of its record-setting sub-millimetre calibre of 1978. The case back is a snap-on type — a plain steel disc with a smooth rim and no wrench notches.
The watch comes on a brown lizard-grain leather strap with a plain gold-tone buckle.
Technical Specifications
- Brand: Citizen
- Line: Exceed
- Reference Number: 4-795580
- Movement: Citizen calibre 7990E — quartz, 6 jewels, date
- Serial Number: 9060197
- Production Date: June 1989
- Case Material: Gold electroplated (EGP, 30 microns) with stainless steel case back
- Case Diameter: Approx. 33 mm (excluding crown)
- Dial: Champagne sunburst with applied baton markers, date at 3 o’clock
- Crystal: Mineral glass
- Case-back: Snap-on stainless steel, engraved 4-795580 / GN-8-S / 9060197
- Country of Manufacture: Japan
Condition Report
The gold plating is intact across the bezel and case top, with honest wear on the high points: the lug tips and outer case edges have rubbed to a paler tone, and there is light wear along the case flanks. This is a watch that was worn, and it shows it — but it presents well on the wrist.
The dial is clean and bright. There is one small dark blemish at the outer edge of the dial near the 1 o’clock marker, visible in the close-up photographs. The printing is crisp, and the applied markers and hands are unmarked. The date disc is white with black numerals and changes correctly.
The crystal is clear, with no cracks or chips.
The stainless steel case back is fully legible, with the light surface scratching normal for its age.
The watch is on a brown lizard-grain leather strap with a plain, unsigned gold-tone buckle. The strap is vintage and used, with creasing at the fold and wear around the keeper — serviceable, though a fresh strap is worth considering.
This watch has recently been serviced by a professional watchmaker and keeps good time.
Comes complete with vintage leather strap*. (*)Note: The strap is vintage and shows wear consistent with its age. We recommend adding a new Citizen lug width matched leather strap with your order.
This watch ships from 🇺🇦Ukraine with tracking number
Why Collectors Want This Watch Today
Exceed is the Citizen line most buyers outside Japan have never heard of, and that is much of its appeal. It was built for Citizen’s home market, in the register where the company chose restraint over technology, and the finishing on a good example is a clear step above the ordinary Citizen quartz of the same years.
There is no rarity story here — Citizen made these in quantity through the 1980s and they still turn up regularly. What makes one worth owning is a combination you rarely get at this price: a heavy 30-micron gold plate rather than a thin flash, a properly finished sunburst dial, a cabochon-set crown, and a case slim enough to disappear under a shirt cuff.
It also sits on the right side of a genuinely interesting piece of watchmaking history. The 79xx calibre family in this watch descends directly from the movement Citizen used in 1978 to build the thinnest watch movement ever made — a record set by this very line.
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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 watch, the 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.
