Citizen

Citizen is a Japanese watchmaking powerhouse, and like Seiko is fully vertically integrated (meaning they make everything in-house, from bracelets to dials to lubricants). Initially founded in 1918 as the Shokosha Watch Research Institute in Tokyo, first producing a pocket watch in 1924. The development of the brand was supported by Tokyo Mayor, Count Shinpei Goto, who hoped it would become accessible to "citizens" worldwide. In 1930, Japanese and Swiss investors took over the company, along with some manufacturing facilities, launching the Citizen Watch Company Ltd.

Citizen's growth spurt really came in the post-war period as they began to position themselves as reliable and affordable timepieces on the international market, while at the same time pushing technological developments. They also expanded into professional tool markets, such as dive watches, flight watches and chronographs, again offering strong build quality and designs that were affordable.

Nowadays Citizen has a host of subsidiaries, including Bulova and Frederique Constant, as well as movement specialists like La Joux-Perret.

What makes them special?

Innovations

As a company, Citizen always seem to be pushing boundaries. They produced Japan's first shock-resistant watch - the Parashock - in 1956, and Japan's first water resistant watch - the Parawater - in 1959.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Citizen were one of a number of companies experimenting with different electronic watches (such as the Cosmotron, a battery powered electric watch, and the Hisonic, using tuning fork technology from Bulova).The innovative mindset meant citizen were right at the forefront of the Quartz Revolution during the 1970s and 80s which upended the mechanical watch industry and put Japan right at the top table. Citizen's quartz marque was called the Crystron, and in 1976 Citizen made the world's first analog quartz watch powered by sunlight (the Crystron Solar Cell). This would later evolve into the Eco-Drive - solar powered watches, which has been a huge part of Citizen's strategy in recent times since the word first appeared on a dial in 1978. In the 90s they also launched the world's first 'Multi-band Atomic Timekeeping' watch, which used radio signals from atomic clocks.

Currently Citizen produce one of the most accurate quartz watches on the planet, the Caliber 0100 which is accurate to within one second in a year.

Why do we like them?

Underrated designs

One of the problem with modern citizen is that they tend to produce a lot of products at different price points, with a bewildering array of colors. They then tend to stuff as many of these into small retail spaces as possible which can give the impression of cheapness. Within there will of course be designs that go out of fashion and a handful that will probably look as good in 30 years time as they do today. It's perhaps because today's Citizen has a cluttered portfolio that varies in tastes that they aren't usually considered classics of design.

The advantage of this is that they're often overlooked. They were producing some beautiful watches in the 1960s-1980s, with my favorites coming from the 1970s.

Some of the 1970s from their electronic Cosmotron and HiSonic ranges or their mechanical V2, or Crystal 7, Crystal 7 Deluxe, their Spyder Chronographs, or the famous Bullheads were seriously fun and can be picked up at very very attractive prices (especially the V2s and Cosmotrons). They also experimented was crazy cut crystals, case materials like wood and stone, and some wacky dial patterns. There's a huge amount of personality in vintage citizens and they are absolutely worth seeking out.

Sustainability

Though the eco-drive concept which relies on absorbing light through panels located on the dial isn't compatible with painting over them, we love Citizen's early adoption of and commitment to the idea of sustainability with their eco-drive technology (which they estimate has negated the disposal of millions of batteries). Though it's not a perfect solution to the problems we face, it's commendable how prominent Citizen have made it to their brand.