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Citizen is one of those brands that conjures a certain image in the mind of a watch collector as soon as you utter the brand name. The watches, for the most part, are pretty ubiquitous, and the brand name is easily recognized by most people who have ever shopped for a watch at a department store, or noticed an advertisement in a magazine. Which is to say, they are huge, and make watches that are largely appealing to a broad swath of the public, which in turn means that many of them are affordable or at least accessible. But it would be a mistake to diminish Citizen as simply a brand that produces affordable mall watches. Their size means that not only do they play a significant role in the mass market and enthusiast watch spaces, but that they have the resources to operate at the higher end as well.
My favorite example of this, by far, is Citizen’s “The Citizen” line of watches. We’ve covered these many times before (I reviewed one here), and while they are somewhat awkwardly named, they do a great job of distilling with I think Citizen really is at their best, marrying competent manufacturing, their own Eco-Drive technology, and some cultural references to Japan that actually make sense in the context of the watch and how it works.
As part of the brand’s ongoing celebration of the 50th anniversary of Eco-Drive, Citizen has just announced a new limited edition version of The Citizen, reference AQ4094-58L. It follows the format of many of the previous iterations of this watch that we’ve seen. It’s built around a 40mm Super Titanium case and given a coating of Citizen’s Duratect Platinum treatment for scratch protection. In my experience with these watches, they wear very well at 40mm, not as big as you’d expect thanks to shorter lugs and the light weight of the case material. This reference is paired with a matching titanium bracelet.
But the real draw of The Citizen comes in the dial and movement, which together form a really satisfying synergy of technology and craft. The watch is powered by an Eco-Drive movement, Cal. A060, which can be powered by any light source. Citizen claims 18 months of power when it’s fully charged. The cool thing about this particular Eco-Drive caliber is that it’s a stealth perpetual calendar. The seconds hand switches to a month indicator when setting the time, and the watch does not need adjustment for leap years. It’s pretty clever and a fun oddball and tech forward execution of a very traditional mechanical complication.
Like other watches in The Citizen line, this one uses a washi paper dial, which is a traditional Japanese paper that has historically been used as a material for window screens because of the way it can diffuse light, allowing a warm natural light to enter living spaces. Eco-Drive is of course dependent on a dial’s ability to let light pass through it, so there’s a real harmony in Citizen’s use of the material here. It’s also simply a very attractive material for a watch dial, with a unique texture that would be hard to replicate exactly with any other material. For this reference, Citizen has gone with a deep shade of indigo called Kachi-iro which in Japanese culture is traditionally associated with good luck. The dial is accented with gold tone hands and dial furniture.
The new AQ4094-58L reference is a limited edition of 400 pieces, and carries a retail price of $3,095. Whenever one of these watches is discussed, it seems that the price is a central issue, with much of the conversation being rooted in an idea that this is either a lot for a quartz watch or a lot for a Citizen, or both. It’s certainly not an inexpensive watch, objectively speaking, but it does have an unusual and fairly advanced quartz movement (which is accurate to about 15 seconds per year, by the way). The craftsmanship of the dial, though, is what really makes these watches feel premium, and if you view it as the ultimate expression of what Citizen is capable of as a watchmaker, or at least a version of that, I think the price makes a lot more sense. Obviously this is not going to be a watch that’s appealing to most collectors outside of those who actually get excited for interesting quartz movements, so if that’s not you, there’s probably no conversion happening regardless of materials, craft, or any other factor.
More information can be found at Citizen’s website here.
