Teddy Baldassarre
"Are Citizen Watches Good?" In-Depth With The Japanese Brand
How much do you really know about Citizen Watches, the tough and stylish Promaster collection, the proprietary Eco-Drive technology, and other signature innovations of the Japanese brand, like the exclusive Super Titanium and the recent series of automatic calibers in the luxurious Series 8 models? In this article, we explore the history of Citizen Watch Company from its founding to the modern day and spotlight a dozen notable watches in today’s Citizen collection that have caught the attention of the Teddy Baldassarre team. By the end, you should be much closer to answering the question of whether Citizen watches are good-quality and whether they're for you. Citizen History and Early Milestones With its very high-tech lineup and avant-garde designs, one might be inclined to think Citizen Watch Company is a relatively new player on the worldwide watch scene. One would be mistaken, however. The company today known as Citizen traces its roots all the way back to 1918, when it was founded as the Shokosha Watch Research Institute by Kamakechi Yamazaki. The name “Citizen” first appeared on the dial of a pocket watch that Shokosha produced in 1924; it is believed to have been suggested by Yamazaki’s close friend Shinpei Goto, then the mayor of Tokyo, who believed such a watch should be universally appealing and accessible to all “citizens” of Japan. Shokosha merged with the Schmid company, a Japan-based manufacturing firm founded by expatriate Swiss watchmaker Rodo...
