At that time the company was also manufacturing igniters.ġ949 – Citizen Trading Co., Ltd. The 1940s also saw Citizen start the production of chronometers to serve the military during World War II. A few years later 8 ¾ movements were introduced.ġ936 – the opening of the Tanashi Factory that sparked Citizen’s expansion to markets in Southeast Asia.ġ940(s) – a further improvement came with a 5 ¼ ligne caliber. The first models produced by the company used 10 ½ ligne calibers as their movement. Yosaburo Nakajima became the first president of the company.ġ931 – the release of the first Citizen wristwatch. An era in which watches would become affordable to the wider public, to all “Citizens”.ġ930 – the official foundation of the Citizen company in Japan. The Count of Tokyo, Shimpei Goto, truly believed that the release of the first Citizen watch would kickstart a new era. The first product launched by the company was a pocket watch. The debut Citizen timepiece wasn’t a wristwatch, though. Let’s take a look at some of the most important dates – starting from the very beginning.ġ924 – the release of the first watch with the “Citizen” engraving. Citizen History LandmarksĪlthough the release of the beforementioned Eco-drive is by far the biggest landmark of Citizen’s history, there were others. The company took off for good after taking over Shokosha Watch Research Insitute and some other facilities in Yokohama. The influential Japanese Count greatly helped Citizen through the 1920s during which the brand grew in popularity.įinally, in 1930, Schmid officially launched the company in Asia with the help of other Japanese and Swiss investors. Luckily for him (and for us), his idealistic vision of making quality watches affordable for the general public was met with enthusiasm from Goto Shinpei. It was then that a talented Swiss watchmaker named Rodolphe Schmid registered the company in his home country for the mere purpose of selling his watches in Japan.ĭuring the first years of Citizen’s existence, Rodolphe needed investment in order to successfully push the brand. The name Citizen was inspired by the vision of the watches being fitting and affordable for all citizens.Īlthough the official foundation of the company dates back to 1930, it was in 1918 that the brand took its baby steps.
If you feel like this is the information you can do without, take the topic of your interest in the list below.ĭespite Citizen’s history not being as long as for example the abovementioned (and currently owned) Bulova’s, the brand can still be considered as one of the old hands of the industry. Because of that, I’d also like you to get familiar with the history of Citizen watches. Like in the case of any other brand review on my site, I want you to see the whole picture. Names such as Bulova or Alpina are seen as separate brands but they are for the most part run by Citizen Watch Co. To give you a clearer picture of the size of the company, it’s worth mentioning that Citizen also owns many other popular watch brands. Despite all that, producing timepieces is definitely what they are best at. Over the years, they’ve been also highly successful with other electronics, such as printers or organizers. In this article, we are going to take a close look at the Japanese watches and try to answer the most important question: is Citizen a good watch brand to go for?Īlthough the company is renowned as one of Asia’s moguls of the watchmaking industry, it doesn’t mean it is responsible solely for the production of watches. As we all know, quantity is often one thing but quality is another. At the time of writing, Citizen is the second-largest watchmaker in the world, meaning that more than 20% of watches globally come from the Japanese company.
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