The Citizen Compact 7 Autodater is part of the 5200 movement family (the 5203) which features the upgraded Crystal Seven or even the Chrono Master. The movement hand winds, but no hacking, and has quickset date with the crown pulled one step out. Day is set by winding back and forth between 12 and 9 o’clock: Finally, there is the fluted bezel design as was often seen in the mid 1960’s.

This Autodater watch however as a little known relative of the Crystal Seven and Crystal Date is also a ‘Compact’ with the same 520 movement used as in the regular Compacts. The Compacts don’t have the hardened mineral glass crystals either so these would have been a cheaper range of watches, launched in 1966.

But here the plot thickens, the dials of the Compacts feature an applied shield shaped logo, marked ‘A’ (i.e. automatic) with printed decoration around it, as found on Crystal Date dials. But this watch has the 7 on the shield as in "Crystal 7"... The Citizen Crystal 7 featured a toughened glass in its product line giving the watch a sharp and scratch-resistant look; the 7 comes from the type of borosilicate glass called BK7. It seems likely that this watch originally came with that type of glass.