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Small-ER, Fast-ER, Thinn-ER… CITIZEN watches expresses our commitment to making better watches. That fits with our brand slogan “Better Starts Now”. We will keep pursuing the essence and possibilities of the watch to keep making better watches which people loved by people all over the world.
VIEW MOREThe first CITIZEN pocket watch
Kamekichi Yamazaki, the managing director of the Shokosha Watch Research Institute, which was founded in 1918, was keen for Japan to become a watch-producing nation and built this pocket watch from his own designs. As a member of the House of Peers, Yamazaki knew Tokyo mayor Count Shinpei Goto and asked him to come up with a name for the new watch. The mayor chose the name CITIZEN “in the hope that the new watch would be loved by the citizens for many years.” On May 28, 1930, Shokosha Watch Research Institute became a commercial company and changed its name to the Citizen Watch Company. And that is how our company came into being.
The first CITIZEN men's mechanical watch
The first men's watch we manufactured got off to a difficult start, struggling to sell in the face of foreign imports. A major shift in the exchange rate was needed before sales began to pick up in 1932. Thanks to various improvements and structural changes, the CITIZEN F enjoyed a long life, remaining in production until 1957.
The world's thinnest mechanical central seconds watch
On its release, Diamond Flake was the thinnest men's central seconds watch on the market. The mechanical part is just 2.75 mm thick and fully assembled models were ultra-thin at between 4 and 5 mm. This thinness was achieved by the use of a unique gear train structure different from the standard central seconds gear train. Some versions used as many as 31 stones to increase gear train efficiency.
World's first quartz watch with movement under 1.00 mm thick
This was the first ultra-thin men's luxury quartz to break through the 1.00 mm movement barrier. CITIZEN developed the integrated circuit and the crystal oscillator in-house. Accuracy is ± 10 seconds per month. The oscillator is a thin tuning-fork crystal oscillator vacuum-enclosed in glass.
Watch with ultra-small movement
What sort of expression can we achieve by arranging multiple watches side by side? With its ultra-small 5 mm x 6 mm movement, this world time watch provides an answer to that question. In 2007, the movement of this watch earned a place in Guinness World Records.
The world's thinnest light-powered watch
Eco-Drive One has a movement just 1.00 mm thick containing 85 components, all enclosed in a 2.98 mm case. Superfluous functions and ornamentation are stripped away to express the fundamental beauty of the watch with maximum simplicity. This flagship model was announced to mark 40 years since CITIZEN debuted the world's first analogue light-powered watch.
The first Super TitaniumTM watch that contains the world's thinnest light-powered movement at just 1.00mm.
Eco-Drive One made of Super TitaniumTM, a CITIZEN-exclusive material that is beautiful, scratch resistant, light and gentle on the skin. It contains the world’s thinnest light-powered movement at just 1.00 mm inside a 3.53 mm case of titanium material.
The world's first titanium watch
With its 99.6% solid titanium case, the X8 Chronometer was a groundbreaking model for its time. It defined an epoch by applying titanium—a glamorous material that had played a crucial part in the Apollo 11 moon landing—to the everyday wristwatch. The X8 Chronometer was our last electronic product to get official certification from the Japan Chronometer Inspection Institute. It was manufactured for a short time and sold fewer than 2,000 units.
Japan's first electronic watch
The X8 had an ultra-small silver battery for its power source and used a moving magnet-type balance motor driven by a transistor. Its ability to keep running for a full year was quite astonishing in a period when mechanical or self-winding watches were still the norm.
The world's first light-powered analogue quartz watch
Eight single-crystal solar cells arranged on the dial to charge a secondary battery made the Crystron Solar Cell the first ever light-powered analogue quartz watch. Nowadays there is widespread awareness of environmental issues, but CITIZEN was quick to wake up to the problem and to develop a product that could be powered by light and that did not require battery replacement.
The world's first light-powered satellite-synchronised watch
This was the first analogue Eco-Drive watch to incorporate a technology that receives time signals from GPS satellites to automatically set the time and date.
Japan's first shock-proof watch
We held public demonstrations to highlight the efficacy of Parashock's shock-proof mechanism. In one instance, Parashock was dropped from a helicopter hovering at a height of 30 metres to the street in front of a department store.
The world's first watch with annual accuracy of ± 3 seconds
This ultraprecise quartz watch was the first to achieve accuracy of ± 3 seconds. 18-carat gold was used for the exterior and the band.
The world's first multi-band radio-controlled watch
The first multi-band radio-controlled watch, it works in Europe (including the UK) and Japan. The placement of the antenna on the dial makes for a very striking and unusual design. Thanks to its non-volatile memory, the integrated circuit remembers the position of the hands, so that the time resets itself as soon as a signal is received even after the battery is changed.
World's first light-powered watch with annual accuracy of ± 10 seconds
World's first light-powered watch with annual accuracy of ± 10 seconds. CITIZEN developed the first ultra-thin men's light-powered movement with annual acccuracy of ± 10 seconds for this model.
The ultraprecise Eco-Drive movement Calibre 0100. Accurate to ± 1 second per year, it tells the worldʼs most precise time
By optimising every possible element, CITIZEN develop watches that mark the individual seconds in their purest form. That is what pursuing the essence of the watch means to us. And that is our mission as a watch company. The ultraprecise Eco-Drive movement Calibre 0100 keeps telling the precise time from the moment it ships without depending on anything outside itself.
The first CITIZEN ladies' watch
The first ladies' watch we produced combined two hands and a small sub-second hand. As our house brand, it retailed under a variety of names including Opera, Erian, Newton and Lucky. Considerable volumes were sold internationally.
The world's first ladies' self-winding day-date watch
The Cosmo Star V2 went on to become a long seller thanks to a series of continuous improvements. It was designed in an innovative way, being the first model to incorporate handmade prototyping from blueprints that reflected test results.
Japan's first digital watch with calculator function
The Digital Calculator has an eight-digit display and was able to perform the four basic arithmetic operations. The placement of the push buttons on the rim around the display makes for a truly unique design.
World's first rotary precision constellation dial watch
The world's first precision constellation-display watch, the Cosmosign displays fixed stars of 4.5 magnitude or above based on the year 2000.0 (i.e. the display is based on the stars' positions as of the year 2000). We released two models: one Constellation Display of Southern Sky at 35°N Latitude model which shows 610 stars (including variable stars), and one Constellation Display of Entire Sky at 35°N Latitude model which shows 740 stars (including variable stars).
The world's first Bluetooth® watch
i:VIRT uses the Bluetooth® hands-free functions of mobile phones to notify users of incoming calls by vibrating or flashing.
The world's first combination quartz watch with altimeter using an electronic sensor
This was the first combination watch featuring altitude and barometric pressure measuring functions. It displays altitude readings in 10 metre increments at 5 minute intervals from 300 metres under sea level to 5,000 metres above sea level. Attainment time and altitude for seven locations can be recorded. The watch also has a function to measure and record the length of time for activities which can double as a chronograph, and automatically measures barometric pressure once per hour. It can withstand harsh temperatures as low as -20℃.
The world's first light-powered saturation-diving watch, water resistant to 1,000 metres
We performed a barrage of rigorous verification tests covering everything from the watch's structure and materials to our own hand-assembly techniques to achieve water resistance and helium gas resistance (mixed-gas resistance) capable of standing up to the ferocious pressure at 1,000 metres underwater. This is the world's first diver's watch powered by light.
Japan's first fully waterproof watch
Parawater is the forerunner of all the water-resistant watches CITIZEN manufactures today. It achieved water resistance through special O-ring gaskets used to seal the glass, the back cover, the jointed parts of the body, and the crown. Moisture (along with dust) is the arch-enemy of the watch, but Parawater neatly solved both problems. Swimming in the sea with your watch on suddenly became all the rage.
Diver's watch water resistant to a world-record 1,300 metres
At the time of its release, this was the first diver's watch to achieve water resistance at a depth of 1,300 metres. It has a non-rusting titanium case and a highly precise structure resistant to helium gas. With the crown placed at 9 o'clock and a dive table on the band buckle, the emphasis is all on dive functionality.
The world's first combination quartz watch with depth meter using an electronic sensor
This was the first diver's watch to feature an electronic depth meter. (It measures depth in 10 cm increments to a maximum of 80 metres.) We had to develop both cutting-edge electronics technology and a high-spec miniature pressure sensor specifically for this product.
This model was added to the PROMASTER MARINE category after originally being launched in 1989.