Citizen: The Company That Made Light Into Power

The company began as the Shokosha Watch Research Institute in 1918. The name Citizen was given to its first pocket watch in 1924 by the mayor of Tokyo, with the stated hope that the watch would be available to ordinary citizens rather than only the wealthy. The company later adopted it outright.

Citizen has a genuine record of technical firsts. Japan's first domestically produced dive watch in 1959. The first analogue quartz watch with a titanium case in 1970. The first voice-recognition watch in 1991.

The one that matters most is Eco-Drive, introduced in 1976 and refined over the following decades. A solar cell under the dial converts any light, including indoor light, into power stored in a rechargeable cell. An Eco-Drive watch never needs a battery change.

That sounds like a convenience feature. In practice it removes the single most common cause of death for a quartz watch: a battery left in too long, which leaks and destroys the movement.

Citizen also owns Bulova and Frederique Constant, and manufactures the Miyota movements found inside a very large number of watches from other brands.

The line to know here

Tsuyosa. An in-house Japanese automatic, a 40mm case, and sunburst dials in colours most brands would not attempt, at a price that leaves you no reason to be precious about wearing it daily.

When someone asks us for the best value automatic under GH₵6,000, this is usually the answer.