I finally added one of these to the bag, and my sample has an odd feature that I have not heard mentioned before. The focus knob is a very large knurled chrome job, and it feels as though it is spring loaded. It seems to want to want to move the focus CLOSER very easily, and moving it towards infinity takes noticably more effort. It is as though you are fighting a spring in one direction, and the spring is helping you in the other. I've been playing with it for a while and I am convinced there is some kind of odd arrangement here. The knob, the focusing scale, and everything else looks original, so I do not think this is some aftermarket modification.

SO, is this some screwball "improved model" idea that someone at Ciro had? Does anybody else have the big knob Ciro, and does it act weird like this?

It seems that you have a Ciro Model A, the forerunner of all of the later Ciro, Grapflex 22 and De Jure clones.