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Top most interesting facts about Citizen watches

1. The story of Citizen begins in 1918

Citizen is a watch brand with a long and rich history that goes all the way back to 1918. Its story begins when the Tokyo-based Jeweler  Kamekichi Yakamazi founded the Shokosha Watch Research Institute and started to produce pocket watches.

The first company launched its first commercial model in 1924 and sold it under the name Citizen. The company grew quickly and became a leading watch producer.

2. World war II was a huge challenge for Citizen

Like most Japanese-based watch companies, World War II was a big challenge for Citizen. As a result of the war, production stopped.

However, after the war, the company was rebuilt and Citizen got a new president, Eiichi Yamada. Yamada had big plans for the future of Citizen and established Citizen Trading Company to start focusing on international expansion.

During this time, Citizen also started to focus more on developing Citizen’s manufacturing expertise and developing new technology for its timepieces. During the post-war time, Citizen also produced a new series of mechanical watches.

3. The story of the name Citizen

Where does the name “Citizen” come from, you may ask? The answer is that the name was given by the mayor of Tokyo, Shinpei Goto who was a personal friend of the founder Kamekichi Yamazaki. In establishing Citizen and the name, the ambition was to create high-quality watches that every citizen could afford.

4. Citizen makes everything in-house

Whilst in-house manufacturing is most often associated with expensive swiss luxury watches, Citizen actually makes everything in-house. All components for its watches are made in-house in Japan, including all movements. This means cases, bracelets, hands, and all other components that are required to create a watch. Moreover, Citizen does not have any manufacturing taking place outside the country.

The fact that an affordable watch brand like Citizen makes everything in-house is an impressive feat that gives the company greater control over the whole production chain, from start to finish.

5. Citizen created an automated assembly line in the 1970s

The 1970s caused the quartz crisis which was a death blow to many Swiss watch companies. Affordable quartz watches from Japan had come around which Swiss mechanical watches couldn’t compete with, not in terms of accuracy, nor in terms of price. The quartz crisis and the cheap quartz watches from Japan would lead to dramatic consequences in the Swiss watch industry, but not for the Japanese companies producing them. And one of which was Citizen.

In the late 1970s, Citizen created an automated assembly line to mass produce quartz watches. This allowed Citizen to produce quartz watches at a massive scale and at affordable prices, thus beating Swiss mechanical watches.

The automated assembly line was an important part of the success of Citizen and its quartz watch production. The automated production line is still used today, although upgraded and modernized.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking