While Citizen is primarily known for its affordable quartz watches they actually do have a watch line more akin to Grand Seiko that consists of high accuracy quartz and mechanical models. These watches are branded as The Citizen.

Width: 38.4mm

Lug-to-lug: 45.4mm

Thickness: 12.4mm

Lug width: 19mm

The watch case is made of Citizen’s Super Titanium, as is the bracelet. It is all protected by a platinum Duratect coating. Duratect increases the surface hardness, and the platinum coloration means this watch has a bright white color rather than the traditional dark grey of titanium.

Looking at the face of the watch, one can see dauphine shaped hands and applied baton indices. A framed date window resides at the 3 o’clock position. Citizen branding is printed at the 12 o’clock position and at the six o’clock position is the eagle mark Citizen uses on its The Citizen line of watches. All the applied elements rest on a clear disc because the dial background is actually made of washi paper. This paper allows enough light through for the solar-powered movement. In this case, the paper is further decorated with platinum flakes. These are applied to the paper via a decorative technique known as sunago-maki. It provides an asymmetric application of the platinum flakes and is used to contrast the white paper to provide an effect reminiscent of snow while keeping enough paper exposed to adequately charge the movement.

The crown is not screw-down so in position zero it spins freely but does nothing. In position one you can jump the hour marker. In position two the watch hacks and you can set the time. There is a recessed button at the 2 o’clock position of the case that allows additional function checking and setting.

The watch features a closed caseback concealing the caliber A060 movement. This 23-jewel quartz movement is an Eco-Drive, meaning instead of changing batteries the watch recharges via solar power. The movement is accurate plus or minus five seconds per year. The movement also has a number of functions, including operating as a perpetual calendar, having a power reserve indicator that can be activated, an energy-saving function that extends the full-charge run-time from approximately 7 months to approximately 1.5 years, insufficient charge warning, and overcharging prevention.

As this is a quartz model I cannot give you timegrapher readings.

My overall thoughts:

The positives:

• Comfortable to wear

• Extremely accurate

• Attractive dial

• Long life

The negatives:

• Sizing the bracelet is a chore

• Function setting and use is tedious

This watch retails for $4,300, in part I assume due to the platinum flakes on the dial and in part by Citizen’s decision to limit the model to 500 units. At the time of this video the watch is readily available new and can be easily found over $1,000 less than the retail price.

In terms of negatives the bracelet links are secured with screw heads on both sides. A tedious model I’m familiar with from Zenith. I do have a screw head block so this wasn’t too bad compared to trying to use two screwdrivers but it definitely is a chore and I strongly advise you use a block if doing your own sizing. The other issue is a lot of the functions are obscured by the lack of a display and you will definitely need a manual if you want to confirm things like the proper perpetual calendar settings.

But the positives are great. The titanium is nice and lightweight to wear. Obviously, if precision matters to you then this running with high accuracy quartz is going to mean you won’t need to worry about constantly adjusting the watch time. Also, if you rotate watches a lot like I do the long charge life, coupled with relying on solar recharging, means this watch avoids the pitfalls common to most quartz watches with battery swaps and the like. And the dial is definitely the star of this model… it looks different as the lighting conditions change but is always interesting. A worthy contender in my opinion to the far better known high-end quartz models from Grand Seiko.