The brand highlights its century-long pursuit of precision, design, and sustainability as Indian buyers gravitate toward meaningful watches.
05/12/2025 – CITIZEN, the Japanese watchmaker founded in 1918, is witnessing growing recognition in India for its dedication to precision, quality, design, and user-friendliness. As modern consumers increasingly seek watches that combine reliability with elegance, CITIZEN’s commitment to Japanese manufacturing excellence and its “Better Starts Now” philosophy resonates with buyers who value long-term quality over fleeting trends.
Japanese Craftsmanship at the Core of CITIZEN
For over 100 years, CITIZEN has exemplified Japanese craftsmanship through meticulous attention to every aspect of watchmaking. The brand operates as a full manufacturer, meaning it produces all components in-house, from movements and dials to cases and even the machines that craft these parts. This integration ensures precision, beauty, and reliability in every watch.
At CITIZEN, creating watches with minimal deviation is a central mission. Each timepiece is engineered to mark every second with extraordinary accuracy, achieved through both Eco-Drive and mechanical movements. The brand’s watchmaking Meisters — highly skilled artisans recognised for their mastery assemble these components by hand, ensuring that every watch meets exacting standards of elegance and function.
The pursuit of durable beauty continues in CITIZEN’s use of innovative materials. Its proprietary Super Titanium™, enhanced with Duratect surface-hardening, is significantly harder than stainless steel yet lightweight, hypoallergenic, and corrosion-resistant. The process demonstrates the brand’s ability to blend engineering rigour with aesthetic refinement, reflecting a Japanese approach that values both form and function.
CITIZEN as a Manufacturer
Being a manufacturer allows CITIZEN to maintain complete control over every element of watchmaking. From crafting movements to polishing cases, CITIZEN oversees all processes to achieve unparalleled precision and quality. The brand even custom-makes oils and machinery for its production lines, exemplifying a commitment to perfection.
Every part, however small, is designed, produced, and refined internally, creating watches that balance reliability with design integrity. For instance, the crystal oscillators for CITIZEN’s quartz watches are developed in-house to achieve unprecedented accuracy, including the Caliber 0100, which maintains an annual precision of ±1 second, a world record for wearable autonomous timepieces.
Design Philosophy Rooted in Purpose
CITIZEN emphasises clean, simple, and practical designs that transcend transient fashion trends. Every dial, hand, and index is carefully proportioned to ensure legibility, balance, and user comfort. This approach reflects the brand’s commitment to functional elegance, where each watch serves as a harmonious interface between technology and the wearer.
The design process begins with detailed concept documents shared across planning, design, and manufacturing teams, ensuring that ideas are grounded in real-world usability. CITIZEN watches are created to enhance daily life, combining durability, aesthetic clarity, and ease of use to provide an experience that lasts decades.
Better Starts Now: The Brand Philosophy
At the heart of CITIZEN is its philosophy, “Better Starts Now”, which reflects the belief that there is always an opportunity to improve, innovate, and create a better product. This guiding principle drives all aspects of the brand, from technological innovation and material research to sustainable practices and design evolution.
CITIZEN views watchmaking as a continuous journey. By integrating advanced technologies like
Eco-Drive light-powered movements, developing superior materials such as Super Titanium™, and refining every manufacturing step, the brand ensures that each watch is both reliable and meaningful. This philosophy also informs customer service, which is designed to support ownership and satisfaction over the decades.
About CITIZEN
Founded in 1918, CITIZEN Watch Co., Ltd. is a global manufacturer that produces all watch components in-house, from movements and dials to cases and final assembly. Operating in over 130 countries, the brand is renowned for its engineering excellence, innovative technologies, and sustained commitment to improvement.
