This watch is really rare — Googling it will return a couple of results at best, from old eBay auctions.
It’s based on (and the module is 100% identical) to the Citizen 9560, which is a bit more common, but not much.
These modules are notorious for having either cracked LCDs or damaged-beyond-repair circuitboards. In my case it was the latter. The best I could get from this watch (and that was after a lot of work) was a few segments displayed periodically, but it wasn’t anywhere close to what you’d say was usable. The circuitboard was running, but it wasn’t driving nearly enough power to get the segments lighting up as they should.
So I took a punt on a €5 module with smashed LCD screen all the way in Spain, with little optimism that it would actually work.
With the Covid situation as it is, the module took several months to arrive and I had almost given up hope of ever seeing it. Still, it did arrive and was in pretty poor condition (although 100% accurate to the description and photos in the eBay ad – so I knew what I was getting). Gave it a clean, removed the smashed LCD, and replaced it with my good one, and – WOW – with a battery in, and reset performed, it worked. Not just worked, but 100% worked. All segments clear and present, alarm sounding, functionality all perfect.
The case, crystal and bracelet I had were almost mint so I was keen to get this one working if I could, and you can see the result here. It looks great, and wears well too.
Function-wise, ‘normal’ mode is analog hour/minute/second and digital date/month/day. Next mode is local time/dual time, so you can have a digital (12 or 24 hour) and analog display of the time (but no digital seconds; you only see these when you’re setting the time). Then alarm mode, stopwatch and countdown timer. You can set an hourly chime too.
The calendar goes from 1980-2019 (darn it!) so setting for 2020 onward means choosing a different year in the range with the same dates. It’s got a backlight too (just for the digital).
An excellent, and very collectable, watch — if you can find one working, grab it! If it’s not working, you *might* find a replacement circuitboard from a donor watch, but don’t count on it, there’s a lot of dead ones around…
Quero um