Citizen launched its Homer series – like this full-serviced mid-1970's Citizen Homer Second Setting here, issued by the Japanese National Railway (JNR) in 1970 – in 1960 and produced it through circa mid-1980s.
 
High-tech, high-speed Japanese transport solutions are not exclusive to the country's nearly 1.3 million milometers (that's 800,000 miles for you Americans) of highways and expressways.  The means of rapid transportation most familar to gaikokujin (foreigner) is the bullet train, an eduring icon of Janpan's innovation, modernity, and enviable efficiency.  Seems like these bullet trains would make a great backdrop for a good film, no? Maybe staring Brad Pitt - known for wearing other vintage Citizen - as a hitman having an existential crisis?  Nah, never happen...
 
Of historical note, the Second Setting variant was officially issued by JNR to their staff in the 1960s and 1970s, and – per our research – unlikely to anyone else, public included.  Although its well known Seiko pocket watches dominated the notoriously punctual railways in Japan, Citizen owned the 1960s and 1970s in this aspect.  The example for sale here bears a JNR inscription that states the watch was issued by the JNR in the year Showa 45 (1970), the 35th issued that year.
 
In 1964, Japan was chosen to host the Summer Olympics, which were a global sensation thanks to the arrival of satellite broadcasting.  That year, the JNR's Tokaido Shinkansen - the high speed bullet train - began operation.  The hikari service could do the 515km (320 miles) from Tokyo to Osaka in a mere four hours - a year later, it was cut to three.  Commuters in Europe - let alone the U.S. (which still lacks a bullet train, any bullet train, half a century later) - could only gaze in disbelief.
 
It wasn't always this way - during WWII, many rail lines would be dismantled for their steel, in support of the war effort. In mid-1949, by U.S. General Headquarters, Tokyo order, the JGR was reorganized into the JNR as s a public corporation. The JNR would go from strength to strength in the years that followed, to include the inauguration of high-speed lines
 
Per Roadrat automotive magazine, the Shinkansen - literally "New Main Line" - is a Japanese high-speed rail network begun in 1964, after which it evolve rapidly thanks to successive Japanese Government support and link the major urban areas in Japan. 
 
"In 1987, it was broken up and into privatized into six separate passenger rail companies and one freight company.  Incredibely busy and, with trains recording speeds in excess of 200mph, incredibely fast, the Shinkansen has grown to symbolise Japan's progressive, exacting and madcap approach to engineering."    
 
In contemporary times, the JR Group (as the JNR is now known) has rid itself of the serious management inefficiencies, profit losses, and fraud that plagued the JNR - it runs over 20 thousand kilometers of tracks, and some bullet trains - the world's fastest - travel at rates nearly 400 km/h.  
 
JR Group is famously punctual (hence, the watch), with trains departing on time to the second and also quiet, spacious, and safe - not a single fatality has been recorded in its 60-year histoty.
 
Within the design of this JNR-issued Citizen Homer, simplicity reigns, along with its “second setting” feature (more commonly called hacking), a feature not normally found on other Citizen Homers.  The hacking feature – predominant in military-issued watches – allows the watch to be synchronized, no doubt a requirement on the famously reliable and punctual Japanese railway network. 
 
The white dial has quite clear and legible numbers, with lumed hands and pips outside the hour markers – all allow the watch to be read easily, as designed.  More impressive, the Calibre 911 movement Citizen used in these were the same base movement that powered the Citizen Chrono Master, which was basically Citizen’s response to Seiko’s King Seiko and Grand Seiko.
 
The impressive Citizen Second Setting hasn't escaped notice - noted Fratello Seiko and Citizen guru Michael Stockton notes, "If I were to tell you that there exists a prevalent vintage 36mm stainless steel watch with an in-house manual winding movement, a hacking feature, a wonderfully simple dial sans date, you’d probably point me towards any number of Swiss brands ranging from Patek Philippe, Longines, and even Omega." 
 
"But if I told you it was an officially issued watch, I’d bet that number would drop considerably...you’d probably tell me to lay off the hard stuff.  I’ll keep drinking my beer and bourbon – thank you very much, but I do have the suggestion for you: the Citizen Homer Second Setting."
 
This 1970s Citizen Homer comes on a leather strap, and with a nylon strap, rugged travel case, and springbar tool.