Citizen Caliber 3510

The Citizen caliber 3510 is a 12 jewels quartz chronograph/alarm movement, made in Japan. You may see this movement as 3S10 as well as 3510. If the movement is signed Citizen, it will be 3510. If it is signed Miyota it is 3S10. They are the same movement. Miyota is owned by Citizen Watch Co. Ltd.

Similar Calibers:

There are similar Citizen calibers, such as the 3530 and 3531. While these are all part of the Citizen 35XX family of movements, the main difference is that the 3530/3531 does not have a date – the 3510 discussed here has a date indicator (the position can be 6:00 or 4:00 depending on where the watch brand decided to place the date window cutout on the dial). Because these calibers are so similar, there is a lot of confusion caused by folks selling their watches and posting the incorrect caliber numbers.

Functions:

The Citizen caliber 3510 is equipped with 3 pushers (buttons), an alarm switch, and a standard crown.

• Button A (top right) starts and stops the chronograph.
• Button B (top left) is used to reset the chronograph.
• Button C (bottom left) is a chrono counter
• Alarm on/off is located at 3:00
• Crown – located at 4:00

Resetting the Chronograph to Zero:

If your chronograph and 1/10 seconds subdial hand are not aligned after a battery change, do not worry as this is common and easily fixed. Simply make sure the crown is in normal position (pressed in against the case), the push Button C (bottom left) twice. The second hand will move, press C again. Pull out the crown to time setting mode. Now you can adjust the two misaligned hands: Button A will advance the central second hand forward, Button B will advance the 1/10 second hand forward. Push the crown back in.

Date Complication:

As mentioned above, the date/calendar complication is what separates the 3510 from the similar 3530/3531. In order to set the date on this movement, simply pull the crown out one click and turn the crown clockwise. This will advance the date forward. It will not go backwards, so if you pass the current date, just go around once again.

As for the functionality of the date, it is not an instantaneous changeover of the date display. It is normal for your watch to change the date anywhere between 12:00am and 3:30am.

How to Set the Alarm:

Also featured on the 3510 is an alarm function. The on/off switch for the alarm is located on the side of the watch case at 3:00. Pull out the switch to turn the alarm on. Press the switch in to deactivate the alarm.

To set the alarm, pull the alarm switch out to “on” position then pull the crown out one click. The alarm time is displayed via the central main hands. Turning the crown clockwise will move the hands counterclockwise (turning the crown counterclockwise will move the hands clockwise). If you turn the crown rapidly, the quick setting will engage and move the hands quickly. To get out of quick setting mode, just turn the crown slowly. When you have the desired alarm time displayed on the dial, press the crown back in to normal position.

The alarm does not acknowledge AM or PM, therefore, the alarm will go off twice a day at the desired time. The alarm should ring for 20 seconds.

Accuracy:

Citizen states the accuracy of this movement to be +/-15 seconds/month in normal temperatures.

Battery Life:

The Citizen caliber 3510 is powered by a watch battery cell number SR927W (official Citizen part number 280-44). This is a 1.55V cell with a capacity of 55mAh, measuring 9.5mm in diameter x 2.7mm thick.

A fresh battery installed should get you about 2 years of power. This estimate is with the alarm function on and the chrono being used minimally. Not using the chronograph or alarm will yield a slower drain on the battery. Put it this way, Citizen documentation claims that the normal current consumption without the chronograph is 3.0uA, whereas with the chronograph activated, the current consumption is 80uA.

The caliber 3510 is equipped with an end of life (EOL) feature that will let you know when the battery is low. When this happens, the second hand will skip every 2 seconds instead of every 1 second.

Coil Spring:

You may have noticed that the caliber 3510 has a marking below Citizen Watch Co. that says Coil Spring with an arrow pointing at a hole. This spring makes a connection from the piezoelectric device for the alarm to the caseback. Without the spring, you will not be able to hear the alarm sound.

Alarm not working after battery change?

If you alarm stopped working after a battery change, then it’s likely that the coil spring flew out when you opened the caseback. Most folks open watches with the 3510 totally unaware of the spring, then upon swapping batteries and putting the caseback on, find that the alarm is no longer working. This raises concerns because everything should work properly after a new battery cell.

If this happened to you, don’t beat yourself up over it, not many movements have a tiny spring that just sits in a hole without anything holding it in place.

Here are some solutions if you lost your coil spring (if any of these worked for you, please comment below):

• Try to find a replacement coil spring on eBay.
• Look for an inexpensive quartz/alarm movement or parts watch with a similar spring. Casio and other brands also use coil springs for the alarm contact.
• If you just replaced the battery, you could try to use a magnet sweeper to sweep your floor.
• You could attempt to take a springbar apart and use one of the springs until you get a replacement. Springbar springs are about the same size in diameter, so it should fit, but will most likely need to be cut in half.

Pros and Cons of the caliber 3510:

Pros:

• Alarm feature
• Cool factor that a Citizen is found in genuine Breitling (and other “Swiss” watches)

Cons:

• The coil spring is easy to lose

Additional Resources:

• Instruction manual/specs from Citizen
• Also see: Miyota caliber 3S10