"Grand Seiko, hold my beer," Citizen.
Years ago, Grand Seiko was the secret "if you know, you know" brand of watch enthusiasts. Today, they have boutiques in LA, NY, and Paris. And they have prices to match those rarified locations. So I think it's fair to say, the cat's out of the bag... and with it, the value proposition that GS used to represent.
Don't get me wrong, I still love GS, but I think there's an empty spot in the 2-5k watch market for a Japanese brand that's ready to punch above its weight. If Citizen is going to offer high level case finishing (done by hand) and with dial furniture to match, unique textures, colors, and finishes for dials, and innovative movements, I think they might be able to fill that niche.
What do you all think?
Has anyone done a side-by-side comparison of any Citizen with a washi paper dial to a Grand Seiko?
P.S. The above watch will retail for $3800. It has an eco-drive movement with a perpetual calendar function. It's made out of scratch resistant titanium (the same amazing specs that Grand Seiko seems to be using). The dial is made out of Japanese washi paper imbedded with gold leaf.
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The only thing stopping me to buy Citizen is their movement, i wish they make a high end movement for The Citizen product line 😬
I had a similar thought, but after doing some research, I'm more and more impressed with Citizen quartz. I mean, I few years ago, Citizen came out with the most accurate movement ever made... the Eco-Drive Cal.0100 which is +-1 second per year. This watch has the Eco-Drive Cal.A060 which is +-5 seconds per year. That's not radio controlled or satellite or anything like that... That incredibly impressive engineering right down to the shape of the quartz crystal used. For comparison, the standard GS 9F quartz is +-10 seconds per year... which is still amazing, but the Citizen is amazinger. 😛
One last thought. I couldn't find any pictures of the Eco-Drive Cal.A060, but the Eco-Drive Cal.0100 is a handsome movement with actual finishing... so maybe the same or similar??
I love citizen and would likely buy this over a GS...I'm not a Seiko hater, but pretty unimpressed with their accuracy. I like quartz and high-end quartz is even better...just my 0.02 but Citizen seems more interested in accuracy vs. pretty dials, variants, and limited editions of the same old watches.
I don’t mind quartz movements, but >$3k for one is beyond my threshold of what I’d pay for a quartz watch, even with the superb finishing and wonderful tech. I did look at the current The Citizen Chronomaster range and was really close to buying one, but decided not to in the end.
I don’t mind quartz movements, but >$3k for one is beyond my threshold of what I’d pay for a quartz watch, even with the superb finishing and wonderful tech. I did look at the current The Citizen Chronomaster range and was really close to buying one, but decided not to in the end.
I still haven't pulled the trigger on a high end quartz watch, so I can't really say I'm in a different place than you in My watch collecting journey, but I'm getting close! There are a few watches (like this one) that are quite compelling.
Nice but quartz movement does not work for me 😬😬😬
Well, you gotta follow your heart.
I used to own a Citizen chronomaster, while I liked the dial, the case finishing was a notch below GS imo,
my biggest gripe is they are basically a GS homage, the handset, indexes, case shape, citizen really need to have a deisdgn that defines them
Many years ago, my father gifted me a citizen and it ripped the hair off my wrist. Haven’t looked at the brand since.
The only thing stopping me to buy Citizen is their movement, i wish they make a high end movement for The Citizen product line 😬
They have one in the LJP movement housed in the citizen 0200.
Yeah i heard and read about this quite long ago, but seem it’s not popular, at least here in Vietnam 😢
There’s a few listings on Chrono24. Good luck!