Citizen Watch Company has been a pioneer in men’s and ladies’ watchmaking since 1918. During the quartz-craze of the 1970s, Citizen was the first watchmaker that quickly understood the shortfalls of quartz battery-powered watches – the short battery life, the inconvenient process of replacing batteries, and the environmental issues of battery disposal. While the watch world was enthralled by the quartz movement, Citizen created the Eco-Drive watch with a battery that not only re-charged itself with energy from light but also never needed to be replaced.
The Eco-Drive was a stroke of sustainability before anyone was ever using the term. Citizen Eco-Drive watches are charged whenever the watch dial is exposed to natural light or artificial light. Imagine wearing a continual source of power on your wrist! Eco-Drive technology isn’t intended to become obsolete, and it won’t any time soon. After all, it’s been around for 40 years.
In addition to its Eco-Drive technology, Citizen also revolutionized the watch world when, in 1970, Citizen unveiled the world’s first titanium watch. Since then, Titanium has become a staple of watchmaking, used in everything from ultra-luxury timepieces to professional tool watches. And it’s easy to understand the allure. Importantly, titanium is tougher than stainless steel. It’s also antimagnetic, hypoallergenic, resistant to heat, and practically corrosion-proof. And most of all, it’s lightweight. Titanium watches are simply some of the most comfortable machines you’ll ever strap onto your wrist.
The year 2000 saw the birth of Citizen’s trademarked Super Titanium — a made through the combination of Citizen’s proprietary titanium-processing technologies and a surface-hardening technology called Duratect. Super Titanium is designed to make the material easier to machine and polish while making it more resistant to scratches. To test its durability, Citizen got employees to ‘test-drive’ its Super Titanium watches for almost a decade. After 10 years of daily use, Citizen’s prototype watches appeared to be in near-mint condition!