is an
electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
company primarily known for its
watches
A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...
and is the core company of a
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
global
corporate
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...
group based in
Nishitokyo
() is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 206,047, and a population density of 13,000 persons per km2. The total area of the city is .
Geography
Nishitokyo is located at t ...
,
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. In addition to Citizen brand watches, it is the parent of American watch company
Bulova
Bulova is an American timepiece manufacturing company that was founded in 1875 and has been owned by Japanese multinational conglomerate Citizen Watch Co. since 2008. The company makes watches, clocks and accessories, and it is based in New York ...
, and is also known for manufacturing small electronics such as
calculator
An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics.
The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized ...
s.
History
The company was founded in 1930 by Japanese and
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
investors. It took over Shokosha Watch Research Institute (founded in 1918) and some facilities of the assembly plant opened in
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...
in 1912 by the Swiss watchmaker Rodolphe Schmid.
The brand Citizen was first registered in Switzerland by Schmid in 1918 for watches he sold in Japan. The development of this brand was supported in the 1920s by Count
Gotō Shinpei
Count was a Medical Doctor with Doctor of Medicine, a Japanese politician and cabinet minister of the Taishō and early Shōwa period Empire of Japan. He served as the head of civilian affairs of Taiwan under Japanese rule, the first direc ...
with his hope that watches could become affordable to the general public. The growth of Citizen until
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
relied on
technology transfer
Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...
from Switzerland.
Products
Atomic timekeeping
Citizen launched the world's first multi-band atomic timekeeping watch in 1993 and has remained a pioneer of this field. Synchronized to atomic clocks, these watches are accurate to within one second in one hundred thousand years.
The Skyhawk A-T line features radio-controlled timekeeping. The watches can synchronize with
radio clock
A radio clock or radio-controlled clock (RCC), and often (incorrectly) referred to as an atomic clock is a type of quartz clock or watch that is automatically synchronized to a time code transmitted by a radio transmitter connected to a time st ...
s in Japan,
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, automatically selecting the correct frequency by location. The watch actually tracks two
time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
s—home and world—but synchronizes to the 'home' zone. When traveling, the user may swap the 'home' and 'world' zones, thereby enabling proper time signal reception on a different continent while retaining the other time. The day, date, and
daylight saving time
Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...
settings are set automatically when the watch is synchronized. These features are comparable to the synchronization with atomic clocks found in
Casio Wave Ceptor
The Wave Ceptor series (stylized as WAVE CEPTOR or WaveCeptor) is a line of radio-controlled watches by Casio. Wave Ceptor watches synchronise with radio time signals broadcast by various government time services around the world. These signals ...
watches.
The Perpetual Chrono A-T synchronizes with the atomic clocks in
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
or Germany, depending on signal strength and location, and incorporates Eco-Drive technology, so it does not require a battery.
Bulova UHF movement
In 2010, Miyota (Citizen Watch) of Japan introduced a newly developed movement (UHF 262 kHz) that uses a three-prong quartz crystal for the Precisionist or Accutron II line, a new type of quartz watch with ultra-high frequency (262.144 kHz) which is claimed to be accurate to +/− 10 seconds a year and has a smooth sweeping second hand rather than one that jumps each second.
Chronomaster
Accurate to within five seconds per year, the Chronomaster line is unofficially the most accurate quartz-crystal watch ever made. They are currently sold only in the Japanese domestic market but can be obtained internationally if ordered online.
Contemporary watches
Citizen also produces the ''Independent Watches'' line, featuring a more modern, contemporary design than the traditional Citizen label. Depending on the market, these watches may be labelled "Secret", "Lighthouse" brands among others.
DCP clasp
The
deployant clasp
A folding clasp or deployant clasp or deployant buckle is a device used to close a watch strap
A watch strap, watch band, watch bracelet or watch belt is a bracelet that straps a wrist watch onto the wrist. Watch straps may be made of leather, ...
with a Push Button (DCP) is a clasp available for many Citizen watch bracelet bands. The clasp, as with the Calibre 8700, is also used with leather bands as if they were metal bracelet-style watchbands; however, when the clasp is fastened, the band appears to be a normal eye-hole and link pin leather watchband.
Diving watches
A diving watch, also commonly referred to as a diver's or dive watch, is a watch designed for underwater diving
Underwater diving, as a human activity, is the practice of descending below the water's surface to interact with the environ ...
(including the Fugu)
![Diverswatch2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Diverswatch2.jpg)
In 1959, Citizen launched the Parawater – Japan's first fully-waterproof wristwatch. It became the forerunner to Citizen's range of dive watches, subsequently (1982) called the Promaster Marine range. Also in 1982, Citizen launched the 1300m Professional Diver's watch – the world's most pressure-resistant wristwatch at the time.
But it was perhaps the Fugu that became Citizen's most iconic diver. With its launch in 1989, fans nicknamed it the
Fugu, after the Japanese pufferfish. The watch's bezel has alternating smooth and serrated edges to provide a positive grip in wet conditions, with the shape inspired by the pufferfish. Citizen eventually adopted Fugu as the watch's official name, even engraving some models' casebacks with a pufferfish logo. And in 1993, the
Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei e Incursori Teseo Tesei
COMSUBIN (''Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei e Incursori "Teseo Tesei"''; Divers and Raiders Group Command "Teseo Tesei") is the Italian Navy's special operations unit.
Italy was the first nation to use frogmen and human torpedoes. The Royal It ...
adopted the Fugu NY004 for official use. All Fugu models are certified to the ISO 6425 standard for reliability underwater, resistance to shocks and magnetism, water-tightness and thermal-shock resistance. The original Fugu series (NY004, NY008 and NY009) were criticised for their bezel action and lack of sapphire crystal. These issues were ultimately addressed by the NY011 series (launched in 2020). With a Miyota 8203 movement, Fugu automatic watches can be handwound – a significant advantage over their original competitor (Seiko's now discontinued SKX).
Among the world’s ISO-certified watches for professional diving, the Fugu remains the mechanical watch in continuous production for the longest.
Eco-Drive
Eco-Drive
Eco-Drive is a model range of watches manufactured and marketed worldwide by Citizen Watch Co., Ltd., powered primarily by light. As of 2007, the company estimated the drive system had eliminated the disposal of ten million batteries in Nort ...
watches use a battery recharged by a solar panel hidden under the watch face. In the rare and discontinued Eco-Drive Duo series, the solar power was supplemented by an
automatic quartz
Automatic quartz is a collective term describing watch movements that combine a self-winding rotor mechanism (as used in automatic mechanical watches) to generate electricity with a piezoelectric quartz crystal as its timing element. Such mo ...
power source. One early model, called the Citizen Vitality, used the watch hands to drive a small electric generator, but was discontinued following complaints that the device could explode and cause wrist injuries. There was also an Eco-Drive Thermo model that exploited temperature differentials between the wearer's skin temperature and ambient temperature to recharge the battery. However, the only Eco-Drive system described on the Citizen Watch official website is the one depending solely on light to recharge. Features similar to the Eco-Drive have been developed by other manufacturers like
Casio
is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...
and
Junghans
Junghans Uhren GmbH is a German watch and clock manufacturer. The company is located in the district of Rottweil, in a town called Schramberg, Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany.
History
On 15 April 1861 Erhard Junghans created the compan ...
. All Citizen Eco-Drive movements are made in Japan but the case or the bracelet may also be made in China.
Noblia
In 1985 the Zen Noblia Ultra Slim watch was introduced as a model by Citizen. From 1986 to 1997 Citizen offered watches under the Noblia brand. These were in the high-priced segment and combined a traditional-classical design with modern quartz movements. Noblia was an outfitter and sponsor of the Louis Vuitton Cup and the Star North American Championship. Noblia was discontinued in 1997 after releasing a collection of ceramic clocks.
Q&Q SmileSolar
Q&Q SmileSolar is a line of solar powered watches, which do not require a battery change. They are made of recycled materials and have a water resistant rating of 10 Bar. The line of watches also supports people by making a donation for each watch purchased.
Other products
Citizen also manufactures calculators and small electronic organizers. Some non-watch devices such as
handheld television
A handheld television is a portable device for watching television that usually uses a TFT LCD or OLED and CRT color display. Many of these devices resemble handheld transistor radios.
History
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Panasonic and S ...
s and
computer printer
In computing, a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a persistent representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Differ ...
s, have been marketed under the Citizen brand name.
In the 1980s, a number of
handheld electronic game
Handheld electronic games are very small, portable devices for playing interactive electronic games, often miniaturized versions of video games. The controls, display and speakers are all part of a single unit. Rather than a general-purpose ...
s were sold under the Q&Q brand.
In the early-mid 1990s, Citizen partnered with
Compaq Computer Corporation
Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...
to build notebook computers in Japan for the Japan and Far Eastern market to be sold under the Compaq name.
On January 10, 2008, Citizen bought the Bulova Watch Company for $250 million, making The Citizen Group the world's largest watchmaker.
In 2016, Citizen acquired the Swiss Frédérique Constant Group.
Corporate divisions
*Japan CBM Corporation – Sales of timepieces, including the Q&Q brand.
*Citizen Systems Japan Co., Ltd. – Sales of business and consumer electronic devices including calculators.
*Citizen Miyota Co., Ltd. – Production of wristwatches, quartz crystal oscillators, electronic viewfinders, LCD back-light units, CCD/CMOS image sensors, ferroelectric micro LCDs,
LCoS
Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS or LCOS) is a miniaturized reflective active-matrix liquid-crystal display or "microdisplay" using a liquid crystal layer on top of a silicon backplane. It is also referred to as a spatial light modulator. LCoS was ...
, high-density mounting equipment.
*Citizen Fine Tech Co., Ltd. – Manufacturing and sales of electronic components (ceramic parts, quartz crystal oscillator chips, etc.).
*Citizen Seimitsu Co., Ltd. – Manufacturing of watch movements, watch face components, automotive components, LCD cells, mini printers, measuring instruments, lubrication units, secondary machining LC lathes and glass scribers.
* Citizen Watch Company of America
* Vagary watches
*
Bulova Watch Company
Bulova is an American timepiece manufacturing company that was founded in 1875 and has been owned by Japanese multinational conglomerate Citizen Watch Co. since 2008. The company makes watches, clocks and accessories, and it is based in New York ...
*Alpina and Atelier de Monaco
*
Frédérique Constant
Frédérique Constant SA is a Swiss ''manufacture'' of luxury wristwatches based in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva. It was acquired in 2016 by Citizen Holdings of Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1988 by Peter Stas and Aletta Stas-Bax ( ...
* Campanola
* La Joux-Perret
* Arnold & Son
Sponsorships
*Official timekeeper and official watch of the
US Open tennis championships, from 1993 until 2017.
*ISU –
World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships (''"Worlds"'') is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the categories of single skating, men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ...
*Official timekeeping partner of
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd), or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, ...
*Official partner of the
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...
: during Leafs games at
Scotiabank Arena
Scotiabank Arena ( French: ''Aréna Scotiabank)'', formerly known as Air Canada Centre (ACC), is a multi-purposed arena located on Bay Street in the South Core district of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the home of the Toronto Rap ...
, the scoreboard clock features Citizen branding.
*Official timekeeper of
Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...
,
Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
Resort,
Tokyo Disney Resort
The (local nickname ''TDR'') is a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just east of Tokyo. The resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company under a licence from The Walt Disney Company, who constru ...
,
Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...
,
Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Disneyland () (local nickname ''HKDL''; also known as HK Disneyland) is a theme park located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. It is located inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and it is owned and managed by Hong Ko ...
, and
Shanghai Disney Resort
Shanghai Disney Resort () is a themed resort in Pudong, Shanghai, China. The resort opened to the public on June 16, 2016. It is the first Disneyland in mainland China. It is also the sixth Disney resort worldwide, after Disneyland Resort, Walt ...
See also
*
Seiko
, commonly known as Seiko ( , ), is a Japanese maker of watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelry, and optical products. Founded in 1881 by Kintarō Hattori in Tokyo, Seiko introduced one of the first quartz watches and the ...
*
Orient
The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...
*
Miyota
is a town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 15,562 in 6897 households, and a population density of 260 persons per km². The total area of the town is .
Geography
Miyota is located on the eastern ...
References
*Pierre-Yves Donzé, Industrial Development, Technology Transfer, and Global Competition: A history of the Japanese watch industry since 1850, Routledge, 2017.
External links
Citizen Watch Co., Ltd.(International Watch site)
Citizen Watch UAE(Official Site in UAE)
Citizen Watch Oman(Official Site in Oman)
{{Authority control
Japanese companies established in 1918
Manufacturing companies established in 1918
Electronics companies established in 1918
Multinational companies headquartered in Japan
Watchmaking conglomerates
Electronics companies of Japan
Watch manufacturing companies of Japan
Electronic calculator companies
Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
Japanese brands
Nishitōkyō, Tokyo