The Watch Journey – The Watch Brand Tier List – Citizen

Welcome to the 9th instalment of my watch journey. The Watch Brand Tier list currently stands at Rolex Last, Tudor second last followed by the fashion brands then Swatch and Tissot. The next on the list is Citizen. 

Citizen is one of the original Japanese watch brands. Like most companies of the same era including Rolex bought movements from Swiss manufacturers. History vaguely goes something like this – parts of what we now call Switzerland, at the time was the epicentre for watch making due to the absence of jewellery who in turn had copied and miniaturized  their designs largely from the British and improved them over time. (Pun intended) What we now know as Citizen from Japan imported the parts and movements and followed the same path but in Japan in the early 1900’s. 

Over the decades Citizen have designed and built many landmark wrist watches and technologies over the decades. They also make and now own many Swiss brands that have not been able to keep up with trends. Citizen Watch Co history is important as part of any brand to justify prices and street cred or luxury or prestige. Interestingly the company that once imported watch movements now sell their Miyota movements to other brands including many micro brands. They also own significant Swiss ones that currently includes Bulova, Alpina, Arnold & Sons and Fredrick Constant. 

I think that Citizen watches are very good having owned a few over the years. However they are in the middle of the watch brand tier list is because they are generally not as impressive for the selling price. Of course I refer to the comparable Seiko watch model. Most of the Citizen watches are solar powered with quartz movements but irrespective of the movement, the build of Citizen branded designs have something missing that Seiko for example nails. To be honest Citizen’s comparable design and build quality is more Tissot which is still and ultimately not as good as Seiko equivalent. 

In the end though they make some really good models in many price categories and some really rare and high end models like the Campanola series that are simply must buys if you see one available – new of course. Yes Citizen watches are worth buying.