isitors stepping into the showroom in the Marais district in the heart of Paris were immediately immersed in the spirit of innovation that has driven Citizen since the creation of its first (pocket) watch, exactly a century ago, in 1924. The exhibition featured 100 watches, including several “firsts” (for both the brand and for the watch industry in general), arranged in 12 categories that guided visitors on a journey through technological advances and aesthetic evolution.

Held over two days in October in the French capital, following events in Tokyo and New York, this private exhibition concluded the centenary celebrations for a watch brand with democracy in its DNA, as reflected in its evocative name. The desire to make watchmaking accessible to all by incorporating the innovations of each period is one of the keys to understanding the essence of Citizen. And that’s also why it was chosen as the exhibition’s title.

The themed display tables, ranging from ‘Sophisticated Technology’ to ‘Expressive Beauty’ and ‘For All Citizens’, offered a dizzying array of technical delights, as one would expect from a brand that has always placed a strong emphasis on R&D. It was also an opportunity to rediscover Citizen’s aesthetic, as we were fortunate to tour the exhibition in the company of Shota Mimura, Chief Designer at Citizen’s Product Planning Centre.

The exhibition in Paris

Shota Mimura was directly involved in organising the exhibition, which began with a difficult choice: how to select 100 watches from the 6,000 timepieces in the Japanese brand’s archives?

The selection process was methodical and rational, as the designer explains: “We began with an internal study, in which almost 1,000 employees completed a questionnaire to determine the twelve categories. To do this, we asked what they thought were the essential characteristics of Citizen.”

Shota Mimura, Chief Designer at Citizen’s Product Planning Center

This initial stage resulted in a cloud of ‘root’ keywords, giving rise to the different categories, as Mr Mimura explains, with the help of graphics. “Then we assigned the models to categories based on those that came up most often in the questionnaires. Finally, we discussed among ourselves, including management, which models had the strongest character.”

In 1924, six years after the company was established, Citizen launched its first pocket watch.

Voices from the past

The final selection was based on elements of design and technology, but also on the intentions expressed by the creators at the time, and on each model’s relevance today. An in-house catalogue was produced to accompany the selection. The process took just over five years, culminating in this year’s travelling exhibition.

The exhibition moved from surprise to surprise, from pure ingenuity – like the 1984 Voice Memo watch, which combines classic functions with dictation (useful for journalists, even if limited to six seconds!), or the 2002 Meme of Citizen, which displays five time zones – to great elegance, such as the 2016 pink ‘sakura’ case, showcasing a more poetic facet of Citizen that is perhaps less well-known outside Japan.

And then there were the must-see models: the 1962 mechanical Chronometer; the 1976 solar-powered Crystron Solar Cell, forerunner of the Eco-Drive; the Attesa from 1987, which pioneered the use of titanium; and the rugged 1999 Promaster Super Tough. The list goes on…

Limited to 100 pieces, the new 2024 pocket watch is designed to “reflect Citizen’s path forward for the next 100 years. It pays homage to the classic beauty of the original while also incorporating modern advances including high accuracy and a lightweight alloy case.”

The centrepiece was undoubtedly the recreation of the 1924 pocket watch, elevated to contemporary standards. This proved to be a novel exercise for watch designers more accustomed to the smaller dimensions of wristwatches. “We wanted to recreate this model but weren’t sure where to start,” recounts Shota Mimura. “Fortunately, we had kept the original drawings and plans from the 1920s. This enabled us to understand the designers’ intentions at the time and, from there, to propose a contemporary version.”

At the heart of the watch is a free-sprung balance wheel delivering high annual accuracy of -3 to +5 seconds. The design of the movement incorporates numerous gentle curves. The bridges have diamond-cut edges and the movement is decorated with an undulating Côtes de Genève finish. The advanced movement is contained inside a lightweight titanium alloy case.

Rather than being just a reissue, this is an evolution of the model: “We have kept a very classic design but used a titanium alloy for the case, which would not have been possible in 1924. We have also incorporated typical Japanese skills, such as kumihimo, a traditional braiding technique for the silk cord, dyed an indigo charcoal colour, attached to the pocket watch.”

Seeing the future more clearly

The challenge posed by this model was equally significant when it came to engineering the calibre that powers it. We also had the opportunity to discuss its development with Shoichiro Morita from Citizen’s Watch Business Center.

“The original 1924 model was created to compete with imported watches, offering a Japanese alternative,” he explains. “So we thought a lot about the approach of the engineers who created this first pocket watch back then, while incorporating today’s advances, in order to create a timepiece for the next hundred years.” A complex interplay between homage and modernity.

Shoichiro Morita, engineer at Citizen’s Watch Business Center

Their work focused on two points in particular: the aesthetics of the calibre and its precision. Shoichiro Morita continues: “In terms of aesthetics, we opted to decorate the bridges with Côtes de Genève, just like on the original model from 1924. We also used circular graining on the plate. For precision, we adapted the technological advances of the Caliber 0200 launched by Citizen in 2021 to new dimensions. The result is the Caliber 0270, a high-accuracy hand-wound movement equipped with a stop-seconds function, developed especially for this pocket watch.”

This is far from being Mr Morita’s first technical challenge at Citizen: he was also the project manager for an extraordinary creation unveiled at the 2018 Basel Fair: Caliber 0100, an Eco-Drive movement boasting ultra-high precision of just ±1 second per year!

The exhibition in New York

Are we to assume that Citizen’s extensive inventory work to prepare this exhibition will have sparked new ideas, and perhaps a desire for reinterpretations in the years to come?

“That’s certainly the case, even if we haven’t yet reached the stage where we have a precise model in mind,” Shota Mimura confirms. “The aim of the project was above all to define our core identity, and this gives us some ideas about how to interpret the best of our history for contemporary times. These 100 models were not just used for this exhibition; they were also analysed in great detail to identify the essence of Citizen. All this work allows us to see the future more clearly.”