Citizen’s recent offensive in the domain of the mechanical movement has, without a doubt, been motivated primarily by purely strategic Japanese necessities—challenging Seiko, its principal competitor, which has taken the advance with its Spring Drive and its Grand Seiko mechanical lines—yet it probably also demonstrates the start of a restructuring aimed at targeting the international market.

To celebrate its 80th anniversary, Citizen presented recently a new line called The Citizen, which is equipped with a new automatic mechanical movement, the Calibre 9015. As Citizen itself declares, this calibre is just the first in a long series of developments and variations of the new family of Citizen 9000 Calibres that are already in the pipeline. The Calibre 9100, a 131/2"’ automatic with a thickness of 5.52 mm, features a power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock, day at 9 o’clock, month at 3 o’clock, date at 4:30, and a 24-hour counter at 6 o’clock. It should be available in the marketplace by the end of 2010.

But let’s return to the first calibre in the series, the 9015. An evolution of the economical Calibre 82, it is an 111/2"’ automatic, measuring 26 mm in diameter with a thickness of 3.9 mm (obtained thanks to the reconfiguration of the 82 gears). It features 28,800 vibrations per hour, 24 jewels, and the display of hours, minutes, and central seconds. The date is shown in a window at 3 o’clock. The working reserve is 42 hours, and its working accuracy is between -10 seconds to +30 seconds per day. It is also equipped with a stop-second system and its balance is mounted on the brand’s famous anti-shock system, the Parashock, which was developed more than fifty years ago.

With its very classically styled architecture, the Calibre 82 was created as a direct alternative to the ETA 2892—a fact not denied by Citizen, whose managers declare that “this newcomer to the marketplace will provide a challenge to Swiss mechanical movements in the future and it will have a major impact on the market.”

In this perspective, Citizen, with its extensive experience in the creation of movements—both quartz and mechanical, which are sold under the label Miyota—demonstrates its capabilities in the area of mass production, thanks to its expertise in assembly-line systems and its strict quality control procedures. Another advantage, according again to the brand’s managers, is that Citizen has an extremely advanced vertical integration. All component parts of the new calibre are thus totally produced and assembled in-house, including the spring, which assures the Japanese watchmaker complete mastery over its supply. This guarantees continuity in production as well as control over costs.

The future will tell if this new series—for the moment reserved for the all new The Citizen line—will succeed in making inroads into the international domain. Whatever happens, however, these calibres will provide a classic, robust, and certainly very credible alternative when it comes to selecting a movement.

Source: Europa Star October - November 2010 Magazine Issue