A HISTORY OF THECITIZEN WATCHCOMPANY, FROM THE PAGESOF WATCHTIMEMAGAZINE

T HE WORLD OF F INE WAT CHES

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CITIZENCITIZEN

THe HisTory of ciTizen

I n the 1920s, the young Emperor of Japan,Hirohito, received a gift that reportedly de-lighted him. The gift was from Kamekichi

Yamazaki, a Tokyo jeweler, who had an ambi-tion to manufacture pocket watches in Japan.

The Japanese watch market at that timewas dominated by foreign makes, primarilySwiss brands, followed by Americans likeWaltham and Elgin. Yamazaki felt the timemight be right to begin manufacturing watch-es domestically that would be less expensive

than the imports. To that end, Yamazaki found-ed in 1918 the Shokosha Watch Research Insti-tute in Tokyo’s Totsuka district. Using Swiss ma-chinery, Yamazaki and his team began experi-menting in the production of pocket watches.

By the end of 1924, they began commercialproduction of their first product, the Caliber16 pocket watch, which they sold under thebrand name Citizen.

The name was the brainchild of no less apersonage than the mayor of Tokyo, Shinpei

Goto. The mayor was a friend of Yamazaki’s.When the fledgling watch manufacturer wassearching for a name for his product, he askedGoto for ideas. Goto suggested Citizen. Awatch is, to a great extent, a luxury item, he ex-plained, but Yamazaki was aiming to make af-fordable watches. It was Goto’s hope that everycitizen would benefit from and enjoy the time-pieces developed by the Shokosha Institute.

So it was that Citizen became a watchbrand. It was one of these first watches, made

How a Tokyo jeweler’s experiment in making pocket watches 84 years

ago led to the creation of a global watch colossus

THE

CITIZENWATCH STORY

THE

CITIZENWATCH STORY

Tokyo Mayor Shinpei GotoYosaburo NakajimaKamekichi Yamazaki

One of the original Citizen pocket watches that went on sale in December 1924

in the European style, with the winding crownat 12 o’clock, large Arabic numerals, and aseconds subdial at 6 o’clock, that was present-ed to the Emperor.

The Emperor owned watches, of course,but few, if any, were made in Japan. He wassaid to remark at how pleased he was that heno longer had to always rely on foreign time-pieces and that Japan was capable of produc-ing watches of its own. Eventually he wrote aletter to the Shokosha Institute, praising thewatch’s quality and precision.

As pleased as the Emperor was with his Cit-izen, it would have been preposterous to sug-gest that the Emperor would one day seeJapan become the world’s leading watch pro-

ducing country, and Citizen the world’s topwatch-producing firm.

But that is exactly what happened. Hirohitowas still on the Chrysanthemum Throne in1981 when Japan toppled Switzerland as thetop watch producing power and in 1984 whenCitizen Watch Co., successor to the ShokoshaWatch Research Institute, outproduced everyother watch company in the world.

This is the story of Citizen’s rise, from a smallexperimental producer of mechanical pocketwatches, to a primary player in the quartzwatch revolution that rocked the watch worldin the 1970s and ‘80s, to the leadership posi-tion it enjoys today in the ongoing quartzwatch revolution. In 2001, Citizen producedan astounding 308 million watches and watchmovements, one of every four watches made.It has fulfilled in ways that he could never haveimagined Kamekichi Yamazaki’s dream ofmaking watches available to everyone.

Auspicious start

Kamekichi Yamazaki was one of a new breedof watch entrepreneurs that sprung up inJapan in the second decade of the 20th centu-ry. Japanese watchmaking was in its infancy.While Japan had mastered the art of produc-ing wall clocks in the 1880s, pocket watcheswere a different story. In 1894 there were clockproducers in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoyamanufacturing more than 200,000 units, butJapan had yet to produce a single watch.

Hoshimi Uchida, a professor specializing inJapan’s industrial history and author of a

chronicle of the Japanesewatch and clock industry, ex-plains: “The mass productionof watches involved technicaldifficulties far greater thanthose in clockmaking. Watch-es, with their more compli-cated mechanisms – balancewheels, balance springs, an-chor escapements, windingmechanisms, irregular formsof bridges, and pinion staffs –required delicate machiningusing specialized tools small-er than the general purposemachines available for clock-making. The machines need-

Citizen Watch Co. executives in front of the Yodobashi sales divisionbuilding under construction in 1934. Seated in the first row, fourthfrom right is Citizen president Yosaburo Nakajima. Next to him to his right is factory manager andcompany co-founder Ryoichi Suzuki.

Movement inspection

Inspecting a wheelthrough a projector

Main plate processing

THe HisTory of ciTizen

was higher than ever before. “Clocks andwatches were the first Western-style, durableconsumer goods in modern Japan,” Uchidawrites. As demand for watches grew, new en-trepreneurs saw potential profits in watchmak-ing. Hattori’s Seikosha began to get some com-petition. By 1920, six firms had begun watchproduction. By 1922, there were 15.

Prominent among the newcomers wasKamekichi Yamazaki’s Shokosha factory. Weknow this because of a pocket watch competi-tion staged as part of the Tokyo Commemora-tive Peace Exhibition of 1923. In a fascinatingforeshadowing of epic watch battles to come ahalf-century later, it pitted the pocket watchesof two Japanese producers against those of twoforeign producers, one Swiss, one American. Itwas a David vs. Goliath matchup both ways.

The two Japanese producers were Seikosha(Seiko) and Shokosha (Citizen). Citizen clearlywas in the David role. Seikosha/Seiko at thattime had been producing watches for 27years, was Japan’s leading watch producer andhad even begun exporting watches to South-east Asia. Shokosha/Citizen, on the otherhand, had been in existence for a mere fiveyears and had yet to market a single watch.

Both of them were Davids, though, com-pared to the Swiss Nardin chronometer watchand the American Waltham they were upagainst. In the 1920s, the Swiss and the Amer-icans were the world’s two dominant watchpowers.

The watches were tested for three days inthe physics classroom of Tokyo Higher Techni-cal School by independent Japanese judges.Nine watches under various brands fromSeikosha and three Citizen brand watchesfrom Shokosha were tested against the Nar-din and the Waltham. As it happened, theJapanese watches got clobbered by the for-eigners. The judges noted in their final reportthat the Japanese timepieces were below for-eign standards. “Some showed a differenceof three minutes a day, and even the samemodel watch, depending on the product, ex-hibited a wide range of error.” As an examplethey cited the results of the test with watchesin the vertical position with the crown facingup. The average daily difference of the for-eign watches was 4 seconds slow. TheSeikosha watches varied from 6 seconds to

ed for fabricating watch parts were numerous,expensive and difficult to obtain.”

The first company to take a stab at watch-making was Osaka Watch Inc. It was a valianteffort. Osaka imported watchmakingequipment from the United States aswell as eight American and two Britishmachinists. In 1895, it produced thefirst Japanese pocket watches, laterknown as “sakameri” watches, acombination of the words “Osa-ka” and “American.” Butwatchmaking proved too chal-lenging and Osaka Watch Inc.failed in 1902. Nippon PocketWatch Manufacturing, an-other firm that began makingwatches in the late 1890s, suf-fered the same fate.

For the first two decades of the20th century, you could count the

number of Japanese watch producers on onefinger of one hand: Seikosha, forerunner of to-day’s Seiko Corporation. Founded in Tokyo in1893 by Kintaro Hattori, a watch and clock

merchant, Seikosha began producingpocket watches the year after Osaka.But Seikosha, too, struggled with them.According to Uchida, Seikosha did not

begin to make a profit on watches(its cash cow was wall clocks) until1911, 15 years after it beganwatch production.

The turning point for Japan’sfledgling watch industry wasWorld War I. The war creat-

ed a business boom in Japan.It spurred the growth of Japan’s

middle class; demand for watches

THe HisTory of ciTizen

Citizen’s Parawater was Japan’sfirst water-resistant watch.

To show how waterproofParawater was, Citizen stageda test, tossing 120 of them intothe Pacific Ocean in buoys.Ocean currents carried the self-winding watches to the NorthAmerican coast, where theywere retrieved, still working,after a year in the Pacific.

To show the durability of its Parashock watch, Citizen dropped

the watch from a helicopter in front of the Kyoto train station in 1956.

timepieces, fuse mechanisms and other timingdevices for the military. For the Japanese watchindustry, the war was devastating. Another 20years would pass before Japanese watch pro-duction again reached 5 million units.

During the war, Japanese watch firms shift-ed production from dangerous Tokyo (Citizenand Seiko factories were damaged by Alliedbombs) to the relative security of the JapaneseAlps. Citizen opened a facility at Iida in Naganoprefecture in the Alps. The original Iida factoryis still in operation today and has been de-clared a historical building by the city fathers.(Citizen has mixed feelings about the honor: itwould love to update the building but cannotbecause of the historical building designation.)

The yamada era

In the two decades after World War II, Citizenplanted the seeds that would turn it into aglobal watch power. The fourth phase of Citi-zen’s history lasted from the mid-1940s to themid-1960s. The architect of Citizen’s post-wargrowth was Eiichi Yamada. He was 38 yearsold when he became president of Citizen inMarch 1946 and served in the post for 35years. By the time he handed over the presi-dential reins in 1981 and moved up to becomechairman, Citizen was firmly established as aninternational watch powerhouse.

Yamada understood that Citizen’s future layin overseas expansion. In 1949, he created aseparate sales and marketing subsidiary, Citi-zen Trading Company, charged with selling andmarketing Citizen products on world markets.

In the 1950s, Citizen continued to developits watch technology, attempting to close thegap with Switzerland, which had emergedfrom World War II in an even stronger position.Citizen displayed its growing prowess in me-chanical watchmaking in a series of watchesthat were breakthroughs for the Japanesewatch industry. Citizen introduced Japan’s firstcalendar watch (1952), its first shock-resistantwatch (1956), its first alarm wristwatch (1958)and its first water-resistant watch (1959).

Parashock, the shock-resistant watch, wasa sensation in Japan. In the summer of 1956Citizen staged a series of demonstrationsshowing just how shockproof the watch was.While thousands of people looked on, Citizendropped the watch from a helicopter. Amaz-

ingly, the watch survivedthe fall and kept on ticking.That’s because Parashockwas equip ped with a patent-ed Citizen safety device thatprotected the sensitive pivots ofthe balance. Citizen droppedParashock from helicopters in frontof the Kyoto train station, at baseballgames and various other venues aroundJapan. The watch worked every time. Thestunts were marketing triumphs and boostedthe public’s awareness of and trust in Citizen asa watchmaker.

Citizen staged similar events later withParawater, the water-resistant watch. For itsTrans-Pacific Test in the summer of 1963, it

placed 130 Parawaters in speciallydesigned buoys and tossed themfrom the deck of a ship into the Pacif-ic Ocean. Ocean currents carried thebuoys and exposed watches all theway to the North American coast. The

trip took about a year. When the buoyswere retrieved, the watches were still working,thanks to Citizen’s waterproof “O” ring and itsself-winding Jet Rotor, which wound thespring in response to the action of the waves.

Citizen unveiled the Citizen Alarm, Japan’sfirst alarm wristwatch, in 1958. Equipped witha manual winding caliber A-980, the watchhad a second crown for setting the alarm time

THe HisTory of ciTizen

62 seconds slow. The Citizen watches were48 seconds slow.

That the Japanese timepieces did not fareso well against the foreigners was not a sur-prise. Switzerland and the United States had ahuge head start on Japan in watch technology.What was surprising, though, was that Citizenfared so well against Seikosha. That raised theeyebrows of the Japanese judges, according toProfessor Uchida. “Viewing the [Seikosha]product as a whole in comparison with thepocket watches of the newcomer Citizen[Shokosha],” Uchida writes, “it is clear thatSeikosha’s product performance and produc-tion techniques were not necessarily superior.”

Kamekichi Yamezaki had to be pleasedwith his watches’ performance. Citizen watch-es were the new kid on the block, still in thedevelopmental phase, yet they held their ownin tests against Japan’s watch leader. It was agood omen. His little experiment with watch-making was bearing fruit. The first Citizenpocket watches went on sale the next year.

Wristwatches and war

In 1930, the Shokosha Research Institute wasreorganized and expanded into a full-fledgedwatch company. It got a new name, CitizenWatch Co. Ltd., and a new president, Yosaburo Nakajima. Kamekichi Yamazaki re-mained with the firm as director. Under Naka-jima, the company began to emerge as a sig-nificant watch producer. In 1931, it began ser-ial production of wristwatches, putting its Fcaliber 10-ligne manual-wound movements in both round and tonneau-shaped cases. In

1935 it introduced the 8-ligne K Caliber. Thenext year Citizen opened the Tanashi factory inTokyo, and it remains a key production facilityto this day. With its production increasing, Cit-izen began exporting watches to SoutheastAsia and the South Pacific region in July 1936.The 1930s marked an important growth phasefor Citizen and the Japanese watch industryduring which its watchmaking roots becamefirmly planted. In 1939, Japan’s total watchoutput passed the 5-million-unit mark for thefirst time.

Sadly, the Japanese watch industry’sprogress was soon halted and Citizen enteredthe third phase of its history: war time. WorldWar II caused a severe interruption to all theworld’s watchmaking powers, save one – neu-tral Switzerland. Watch producers in the Unit-ed States, Japan, and Germany went onto awar footing, shifting production to military

Dropping Parashock from a helicopter at a baseball game, 1956

Citizen’s Parashock was Japan’s first shock-resistant watch.

The first Citizen

wristwatch,1931

1918 Shokosha Watch Research Institute, the forerunner of Citizen Watch Co., founded in Tokyo.

1924 The first Citizen pocket watches go on sale in Japan.

1930 Shokosha Watch Institute reorganized to become Citizen Watch Co. Ltd.

1931 Begins producing wristwatches.

1936 Begins exporting watches to Southeast Asia.

1939 Japanese watch production surpasses 5 million units.

1946 Eiichi Yamada begins 35-year term asCitizen president.

1949 Citizen Trading Co. established.

1956 Markets Parashock, Japan’s firstshock-resistant watch.

A C I T I Z E N W A T C H T I M E L I N E

Eiichi Yamada

In 1958, Citizen unveiled Japan’s first alarmwristwatch, the Citizen Alarm.

business. By 1970, about two million Citizenmovements had gone into Caravelle watches.But it was a two-edged sword. Under theterms of the deal, Citizen agreed to stay out ofthe U.S. market so as not to compete directlywith Bulova. By the time the deal ended in themid-1970s and Citizen finally entered the U.S.market, its Japanese archrival Seiko had a hugehead start in the lucrative American market.

There were no such barriers in Europe. In1965 Citizen opened an office in Germany andbegan full-scale watch exports to Europeanmarkets.

The electronic age

The debut of Bulova Accutron in October 1960was a turning point in watch history. Accutronwas the world’s first electronic watch. It em-ployed a new type of time technology thatmade it far more accurate than a traditionalmechanical watch. Accutron was literally a

child of the space age. Bulova had beensupplying special “tuning fork” timers tothe National Aeronautic and Space Ad-ministration (NASA) for use aboard satel-lites. The timers were powered byelectricity. Their time base, or oscil-lator, was a tiny Y-shaped piece ofnickel alloy, which hummed as itvibrated, leading to its designa-tion as a “tuning fork.” By in-stalling the same tuning fork technolo-gy into Accutron, Bulova created theworld’s most accurate watch andlaunched a new era in watchmaking: theelectronic era.

Bulova’s breakthrough presaged the end ofthe mechanical watch era. It dispensed withthe hairsprings and balance wheels that hadregulated watches for 400 years. For mechan-ical watch leader Switzerland, electronic time-keeping represented a threat. For Americanand Japanese watchmakers, it represented anopportunity. In the 1960s, watchmakers in allthree countries rushed to master the new tech-nology.

In 1964, Citizen opened the TokorozawaTechnical Laboratory, a research and develop-ment facility created specifically for electronicwatches. Within two years Citizen began pro-ducing the X-8 series of electronic watches.The X-8 went on sale in March 1966 and wasJapan’s first electronic watch. It was poweredby a silver oxide battery and controlled by atransistorized circuit moving with a balancewheel (Caliber 0800-25J). It ran for a full yearwithout stopping. In an era dominated by au-

THe HisTory of ciTizen

and a reminder disc in the center of the dial.That year Citizen also introduced the compa-ny’s first automatic movement, Caliber 3 KA,with 21 jewels.

By 1959, thanks in part to the strides Citi-zen was making, Japanese watch productionrebounded to pre-war levels. Total watch pro-duction reached 5.45 million units, surpassingthe 5-million-mark for the first time since 1939.

In the late 1950s, at Yamada’s urging, Citi-zen began a vigorous program of internation-al outreach. In a seven-year stretch between1958 and 1965, Citizen laid the foundation ofits global watch empire. It began exportingwatches to China in 1958. In 1960 it began atechnical assistance agreement with India thathelped bring watchmaking to that country.Former Citizen Watch president and chairmanMichio Nakajima considers the technologytransfer deal between Citizen and the Indiangovernment a turning point for the company,giving the firm the confidence to do businessabroad (see sidebar).

The same year, 1960, brought anotherturning point. In March Citizen entered an im-port-export agreement with Bulova WatchCompany of the United States. Bulova was atthe peak of its power, about to introduceAccutron, the world’s first electronic watch.Under the arrangement Citizen suppliedwatches and movements to Bulova (for its af-fordable Caravelle line, for example, whichBulova introduced in 1962 as a jewel-lever al-ternative to pin-lever watches then on themarket.) The deal was a boon for Citizen’sfledgling movement and private label watch

ORAL HISTORY: MICHIO NAKAJIMA LOOKS BACK

meant to last two weeks but dragged on for threemonths. The Indian government would never giveits final assent and kept attaching difficult condi-tions, such as “Citizen must teach us all its tech-nology,” or “In the event that production fails toreach an annual target of 1 million pieces, Citizenwill be responsible.” When I explained this byphone to the president, he said to me, “Relation-ships are all about trust. Don’t get caught up inthe small details, look at the big picture.” After allI’d been through, I was a little bit confused. But Ifollowed his advice, negotiations were swiftly con-cluded, and we never had any problems.

It was my first big job for the company andalso my first trip overseas. Apart from 400 Japan-ese going to India, about 200 Indians came to

Japan. We built a dormitory for them and studiedIndian cooking. That’s why the curry at the TanashiFactory canteen has such a good reputation!

The Indian project rid the company of anyhangups about doing business abroad. Not justexecutives but people throughout the organiza-tion gained overseas experience. It stood us ingood stead when Citizen expanded into Korea,Mexico, Thailand, China and elsewhere. At aboutthe same time, we concluded an import-exportagreement with Bulova Watch Co. of the UnitedStates. So this really was the birth of Citizen as aninternational company.

Michio Nakajima, 76, is the grandson of Yos-aburo Nakajima, one of the founders of Citi-zen Watch Co. In 2001, Nakajima celebratedhis 50th anniversary with Citizen. He servedas president of the company from 1987 to1997, and was chairman of the board of di-rectors until 1999. He remains an advisor tothe board. In 1998, Nakajima reminiscedabout his early days at Citizen with CitizenWorld, the firm’s in-house publication.

My father ran a watch business. He died when Iwas five years old, so I was brought up by mygrandfather. He was one of the founders of Citi-zen, so I was always going to come and workhere. I joined in 1951.

I started out at Tanashi factory. In those days itwas just a collection of dusty wooden buildingswith lots of cracks in the walls. We were doingwell to be running a precision industry! There wasno air conditioning and the heat was provided byoil stoves. I did everything, from writing vouchersto bringing in the oil.

After three years at the factory, I spent thenext three years in parts and materials procure-ment. At this point the president decided tostreamline operations throughout the company. Iwas put in charge of reorganizing the office rou-tine and formed a task force with some of theyounger employees. As the company grew, our re-sponsibilities expanded to cover business opera-tions in general, and we evolved into the planningsection. Our first job, interestingly, related to India.

In 1959, the Indian government approachedthe Japan Clock & Watch Association requestinghelp in developing a domestic watch industry. Theonly company to show interest was Citizen. Presi-dent Yamada felt the future lay in expansionabroad and saw this as the perfect opportunity togain some overseas experience.

After we committed to the project following afeasibility study carried out by our engineers, I wassent to handle contract negotiations. These were

tomatic mechanical watches, this was a majoradvance. Moreover, its striking design earnedit Good Design Award from the Ministry of In-ternational Trade and Industry (MITI).

The success of the X-8 brought a burst ofconfidence to Citizen. Seven months after therelease of the X-8, in an article in Tokyo’s AsahiEvening News, Yamada made an astoundingprediction. He asserted that Japan, which hadproduced 13.6 million units the previous yearversus Switzerland’s 55 million, would surpass

The Citizen Quartz 790started the Thin WatchWar in 1978. It featuredthe world’s first move-

ment thinner than 1 mm.

Michio Nakajima

The Citizen Professional Diver 1300M (1982)offered the highest level of water-resistanceon the market.

1970 Pioneers use of titanium watches with theX-8 in titanium.

1973 Enters the quartz age with the CitizenQuartz Crystron analog watch.

1975 Unveils Mega Quartz, the world’s mostaccurate watch, reliable to within threeseconds per year.

1975 Begins operations in the United States.

1978 Starts Thin Watch War with the ultra-slimCitizen Quartz 790.

1981 Japan surpasses Switzerland to become world watch productionchampion.

1985 Markets Aqualand, world’s first divers’ watchwith an electronic depth sensor.

1985 Laurence Grunstein appointed president ofCitizen Watch Co. of America.

1986 Becomes world watch production champion.

1988 Citizen watch and movement productionsurpasses 100-million-unit mark.

A C I T I Z E N W A T C H T I M E L I N E1959 Markets Parawater, Japan’s first water-resis-

tant watch.

1960 Enters import-export agreement with BulovaWatch Company.

1964 Tokorozawa Technical Laboratory built to de-velop electronic watches.

1966 Enters electronic age with X-8, Japan’s firstelectronic watch.

A C I T I Z E N W A T C H T I M E L I N E

Switzerland in watch produc-tion within five years. Yamadasensed rightly that electronicwatch technology would shiftthe balance of watch worldpower Japan’s way. Japan wouldeventually topple Switzerland, butit would take longer than Yamadaimagined, 10 years longer.

Citizen followed the X-8 with the X-8 Cosmotron in 1967, a man’s transistor-ized watch with four magnets on the bal-ance and two fixed coils. Citizen sold that move-ment to about 20 foreign companies, includingBulova, which used it in Bulova watches.

The X-8 series is also notable for a watchthat was one of Citizen’s first world firsts. InMay 1970 Citizen marketed the X-8 in a titani-um case, the first-ever titanium watch. Thecompany pioneered the use of the ultra-durable, ultra-light metal in timepieces andwent on to become the world’s largest manu-facturer of titanium watches.

In 1971, Citizen introduced the Caliber 3700Hi-Sonic, Japan’s first tuning fork wristwatch,using technology acquired via its close relation-ship with Bulova. That year Citizen produced arecord 8 million watches and movements.

citizen’s surge

The first great leap in watch accuracy came atthe start of the 1960s with Bulova’s Accutron.The second great leap came at the start of the1970s with the arrival of quartz watches. Theoscillating quartz crystal brought unprece-dented accuracy to watches, to within one

second per week versus oneminute per week for a mechanical.

Citizen entered the quartz age in1973 with the Citizen Quartz Crys-tron, its first quartz analog watch. Itsfirst digital watch, the Quartz Crys-tron LC, came in 1974. It was the first

LCD (liquid crystal display) watch toshow the time, day and date. The ladies’ ver-sion was Japan’s first women’s LCD watch.

In the mid-1970s, Citizen’s 10-year invest-ment in electronic watch technology that be-gan with the Tokorozawa Research Laboratorybegan to pay off. For the next seven years, from1975 through 1981, Citizen unveiled a newworld’s first watch every year (see sidebar). Thatstreak solidified Citizen’s credentials as one ofthe world’s premier watch producers.

The streak began in December 1975 whenCitizen marketed what was at the time theworld’s most accurate watch. The Quartz Cry-stron Mega was the first quartz watch with afrequency of 4,194,304 Hertz. The extraordi-narily high frequency made it accurate to with-in 3 seconds a year. The Mega was wellnamed. In addition to being mega-accurate, itwas mega-expensive. Citizen produced a limit-ed number in solid gold cases and bracelets ata retail price of 4.5 million yen each.

The Mega was indisputable proof that Citi-zen and Japan had moved to the forefront ofwatch technology. Ever since Japan began

watch production in the 1890s, it had laboredin Switzerland’s shadow. Initially Japan wasabout 300 years behind Switzerland, whichfirst made pocket watches in the second halfof the sixteenth century. By 1958, when Citi-zen unveiled its first automatic mechanicalwatch, Japan had narrowed the technologygap to about 30 years. Now the gap was gone.Electronics had leveled the playing field. In thebrave new world of quartz watches, Citizenwas a leader.

Citizen’s next breakthrough involved solarpower, something Citizen engineers had beenexperimenting with for several years. A pioneerin the application of solar power in timepieces, itdeveloped a prototype of a solar powered ana-log watch in 1974. However, the cadmium bat-

Citizen trumpets its pioneering role in developing ultra-thin watches

in this ad from the late 1970s.

The Citizen Mega Quartz (1975) was the world’s first watch to be accurate to within three seconds per year.

A C I T I Z E N W A T C H T I M E L I N E1993 Named official timer of U.S. Tennis Open

Championship.

1995 Launches Eco-Drive series.

1997 Citizen watch and movement productionbreaks 300-million-unit mark.

2002 Citizen of America launches Stiletto ultra-thin Eco-Drive watch.

1992 Named officialtimer of the Amer-ica’s Cup

1993 Citizen watch andmovement pro-duction breaks200-million-unit mark.

An ultra-thin Citizen movement

THe HisTory of ciTizen

tery was too expensive to allow commercial pro-duction. The engineers kept working on it andshifted to a silver oxide battery. In 1976, Citizenunveiled the Crystron Solar Cell, the world’s firstsolar-powered analog quartz watch. The dialfeatured a bi-lingual day-date display and eightsolar cell panels. Its movement (Cal. 8629-7j)was accurate to within 15 seconds a month.The suggested retail price was ¥45,000. TheCrystron Solar Cell was far ahead of its time.While solar watches were not a big hit in the1970s, Citizen’s ongoing research into lighttechnology would yield a huge payoff twodecades later with the company’s revolutionarylight-powered Eco-Drive technology.

In 1978, Citizen started what came to beknown as “the thin watch wars,” one of themost memorable chapters of the quartz watchera. It involved a direct clash among the watchworld’s three great producers of quartz move-ments: Citizen, Seiko and Switzerland’s ETA.The thin wars created headlines around theglobe, raised awareness of quartz watches, es-pecially Japanese quartz watches, to new levels,and launched a new watch look: thin was in.

Citizen started the war in May with the Citi-zen Exceed Gold watch, also known as the Cit-izen Quartz 790. It contained the world’s firstwatch movement thinner than 1 millimeter.This product of Citizen’s in-house R&D mea-sured 23.7mm x 20.0mm x 0.98mm. The thinmovement enabled Citizen to use an ultra-thincase. The entire watch was just 4.1mm thick.

Within months Seiko responded with aneven thinner watch. The new ultra-thin watch-es from Japan captured the public’s imagina-tion and symbolized Japan’s emergence as theleader in the new quartz technology. WithSwitzerland’s reputation as a watch leader onthe line, ETA SA initiated a crash program todevelop the thinnest watch and answerJapan’s challenge. In January 1979 ETA un-veiled the Delirium, the first watch to break the2mm barrier. The entire case was a remarkable1.98mm thin. Japan responded with eventhinner watches. Ultimately ETA won the bat-tle with Delirium IV, a museum piece measur-ing 0.98mm thin. (Delirium IV proved that, un-like a lady, a watch can be too thin. Its thinnessmade it literally unwearable. Strapped on awrist, the wafer-like case and its movementbent so that it didn’t work properly.)

Switzerland won the thin-watch battle. ButJapan won the quartz watch war. In 1981, theyear after ETA unveiled Delirium IV, Japan top-pled Switzerland as the world’s watch produc-tion leader. Japanese production soared 23%that year to 108 million pieces. Swiss watchproduction fell 13% to 76 million. Eiichi Yama-da’s prediction of 1966 had come true. For itspart, Citizen’s output that year reached 35 mil-lion units. For Yamada, it was all enormouslysatisfying. He took over Citizen when it andthe Japanese watch industry were flat on theirbacks in the ashes of World War II. Now theywere on top of the watch world. (An event inHong Kong in 1982 symbolized Citizen’s newstatus. In October the world’s largest neon signwas installed atop a building overlookingHong Kong harbor. The name in the neonlights was Citizen.) Yamada’s work was done.In 1981 he resigned as Citizen president andmoved up to become chairman.

Global watch powerhouse

Yamada’s successor as president was RokuyaYamazaki, grandson of Kamekichi Yamazaki,founder of the Shokosha Watch Research In-stitute. He himself would be succeeded aspresident in 1987 by another grandson of an-other Citizen founder, Michio Nakajima. (TheYamazaki and Nakajima families remained ac-tive in the company since its founding andmembers of both families still serve in thecompany.) Those two and Hiroshi Haruta,who succeeded Nakajima in 1997, have over-seen Citizen’s spectacular growth over thepast two decades into a global watch power-house.

In the mid-1980s Citizen and Seiko com-peted for the title of world’s largest watch pro-ducer. In 1986, Citizen took the title and kept itfor the rest of the century. That year it pro-duced 80 million watches and watch move-ments, accounting for 41% of Japan’s totalwatch output. Through its private label watchand watch movement divisions Citizen sup-plies watches and movements to watch com-panies around the world. Citizen remains dis-creet about which brands use its movements,but they include some of the world’s best-known names.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Citizen developedthe distinctive features of the watch colossus

that we know today. In the 1980s it introducedthe first of its popular Aqualand series ofdivers’ watches. The first Aqualand in 1985was the world’s first divers’ watch with an elec-tronic depth meter. Around the same time, un-der the leadership of Laurence Grunstein, itbegan to make headway in the United Statesmarket that would make the U.S. Citizen’s topoverseas market.

Later in the decade it introduced Altichron,the world’s first climbers’ watch with elevationsensor. The ProMaster series of sports watchescame in the early 1990s. In 1995 came Eco-Drive, Citizen’s most important and successfulproduct launch ever. Eco-Drive watches takequartz technology to the next level by solvingthe problem that has plagued quartz watchessince they debuted: the never-ending need toreplace the battery. Citizen’s Eco-Drive tech-nology eliminates that need because thewatches are powered by natural or artificiallight. Exposure to any light automatically re-generates the battery.

Meanwhile, Citizen has continued to setwatch production records. It became the firstwatch company to pass the 100-million-unitmark in 1988, the 200-million-unit mark in1993 and the 300-million-unit mark in 1997.

Today Citizen is one of Japan’s largest in-dustrial groups, with 80 companies spanningfive continents. Annual revenues in fiscal2001 amounted to Y393 billion ($3.27 bil-lion). Besides watches, it manufactures a vari-ety of industrial machines and electronic prod-ucts, the result of a diversification policy fromits core watch competence it initiated in the1960s.

Watchmaking, of course, remains a corebusiness, accounting for 45% of total rev-enues. Today Citizen produces one of everyfour of the world’s billion-plus watches andmovements made each year. Citizen contin-ues to explore new frontiers in watch technol-ogy. In recent years its R&D department hasunveiled ahead-of-their-time timepieces em-ploying new technologies like radio-con-trolled atomic timing and watches poweredby body heat. Its stated mission is inspired byand remains true to the notion Tokyo mayorShinpei Goto had in mind when he coined thebrand: “to be close to the hearts of peopleeverywhere.” J.T.

CITIZEN WATCH FIRSTS

Citizen’s record of watchmaking innovationspans 50 years. Here are some of Citizen’s sig-nificant watch firsts.

� March 1952: Markets Japan’s first calendar watch� April 1956: Introduces Japan’s first shock-resistantwatch, Parashock

� June 1958: Introduces Citizen Alarm, Japan’s firstalarm wristwatch

� July 1959: Markets Japan’s first water-resistantwristwatch, Parawater

� August 1962: Introduces world’s thinnest three-handed watch

� March 1966: Markets Japan’s first electronic wrist-watch, X-8, and Japan’s first electronic clock,Elitron

� January 1967: Markets world’s first transistorizedelectronic quartz clock, Crystron

� October 1971: Introduces first Japanese-madetuning fork electronic watch

� December 1975: Unveils the world’s most accu-rate watch, Citizen Mega Quartz, an analog quartzwatch accurate to within three seconds a year.

� April 1976: Unveils the world’s first LCD quartzwatch with alarm, the Citizen Quartz CrystronAlarm LC

� August 1976: Introduces the Citizen Quartz Crys-tron Solar Cell, the world’s first quartz analogwatch to use sunlight as a power source

� April 1977: Markets Japan’s first LCD quartzwatch with alarm, stopwatch, and calculator, theCitizen Quartz Calculator

� May 1978: The ultra-slim analog quartz CitizenQuartz 790 becomes the first watch whose move-ment breaks the one-millimeter thickness barrier

� November 1979: Introduces the world’s first LCDquartz watch with time signal function, CitizenQuartz Multi-Alarm II

� November 1980: Unveils the world’s smallestladies’ quartz analog watch, Citizen Quartz 1500

� October 1981: Markets the world’s first watchwith internal IC temperature compensation

� August 1982: Unveils the Professional Diver 1,300 M, first in the world in pressure-resistance

� December 1985: Markets Aqualand, the world’sfirst divers’ watch with an electronic depth meter

� July 1987: Markets Voice Master VX-2, the world’sfirst voice recognition watch

� May 1989: Introduces Altichron, the world’s firstprofessional climbing watch with elevation sensor

� April 1992: Markets Analog Aqualand, theworld’s first divers’ watch with analog depth meter

� May 1993: Markets world’s first multizone radio-controlled watch

� June 1997: Markets Exceed Eco-Drive, the world’sfirst watch requiring no battery change accurate towithin 10 seconds a year

� July 1998: Unveils the world’s first analog depthmeter divers’ watch not to require a batterychange, Eco-Drive Analog Depth

� October 1998: Markets Exceed Ladies’ Eco-Drive, a women’s bracelet watch with theworld’s smallest movement

� December 1998: Introduces Eco-Drive DUO, the world’s first hybrid-type light-powered/automatic generation watch

C I T I Z E N � S P R O D U C T I O N S P I K EProduction of watches and movements (1971-2001)

350

300

250

200

150

100

1971 1981 1991 2001

50

66

166

308

8

340

(in million pieces)