The AAPHI Blog

“Citizen Watch Co., Ltd.” is a celebrated Japanese manufacturer of clockworks and watches located in Tokyo (Japan). Citizen has been mainly chartered as Shokosha Watch Research Institute in the year 1918. The company was built in 1924 when the first product, a tiny pocket watch named Citizen, was placed on the market. In 1930 the company assumed the name Citizen Watch Company, too. The founding fathers once have been chosen the name Citizen because they tried to get a direct way to the peoples spirit. This is still nowadays the notion behind wrist watches constructed by Citizen.

First watch with Eco-Drive - Models reaching from dress to athletics


For Example the debut Japanese watch including a wake-up-function was established by Citizen in 1958. In the 1970ties Citizen built the first quartz wrist watches with LCD display and later also the thinnest LCD wrist watch ever. In the early 1990ties Citizen originated the premier series production of watchcases consisting of titanium. In addition to that, they designed the leadoff voice recognition watch which was another big milestone in their history. Beyond that the concern was an outrider in producing dive watches for professional use. A highlight was the embedded bathometer - no one else was able to offer a similar great function. Additional, Citizen is best-known for its Eco-Drive collection of light powered wrist watches. Fuelled just by light, it doesn’t require any batteries. Designs reaching from dress to athletics (e.g. professional dive watches), Citizen offers an assortment for everybody and every occasion.
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From pocket watch to a fashion accessory. What was once, in the earliest years of portable watches, considered to be unsuitable for gentlemen and only for ladies, has grown today into a fashion utensil that everybody has. In the meantime, the wristwatch is no longer just a tool to tell the time. It is a designer piece and can indicate much more than the time.

A great deal of mechanics in a small housing

The first confirmable portable timepiece was developed in 1500. This was not a wrist watch, but more of a pocket watch. Through technical advancement, which made it possible for people to house mechanics in an more and more smaller space, the necessary components of the clockworks were able to be brought into a manageable form. In this way, the first pocket watch was born, which at the time was still the size of an egg.

The computerized wrist watch from Japan

A entirely new wrist watch came onto the market in the 1970’s from Japan, which had developed its own watch industry. The new wristwatch from Japan was no longer set on a mechanical basis, but on a computerized control. This wristwatch extended its range of capacity quickly. The wristwatch no more just showed the time. The small timepiece on the wrist now also knew the date, the day of the week and even knew whether a leap year was involved.

The wristwatch as jewelry

Nowadays, the wrist watch is no longer just a watch. The wristwatch has become a fashion accessory. Wristwatches come in all colours and shapes conceivable. One can also buy harmonious watches from all fashion collection. The current watches are dominated by the correct fashion trends. Despite these different trends, there is something for every taste. The small watches, which require glasses to tell the time, and the extraordinary huge watches, which make it hard to walk upright. By all means, one thing is clear: science is still likely to make so much progress - that the wristwatch will be seen on the wrists of people for a long time, to respond to the question as to what time it is.