Citizen Watches We'll Never See

When I bought my Citizen Chronomaster, I discovered the Citizen Japan and global websites. for some reason, I decided to take another dive into them last night, and came across these watches which caught my eye, so I thought I'd share. To me, almost all of their interesting stuff is JDM, so we will never see these stateside.

First up, the NB1060-12L with "silver leaf and lacquer" dial, 38mm case, and Miota 9100 movement. It looks like it can be had Japanese sellers for a bit over $700 (thank you strong USD). When I saw it, I was immediately in lust. If pictures are to be believed, that dial could give Grand Seiko a run for their money. I'm seriously tempted, but I shouldn't spend the money, and I'm a bit leery buying sight unseen from Japan with little information and hardly any pictures other than the official renders.

Next up is a new limited edition "The Citizen" model (they seriously have to come up with a better name for the line), not yet released or priced. It looks to me like the Grand Seiko Omiwatari dial in black with in a very aggressive case. They say it's inspired by Japanese armor; the Japanese do seem to like their flowery inspiration. Inside is their new caliber 0200 movement with "above-chronometer-standard" (their words) accuracy of -3/+5 seconds per day. It's a JDM limited edition of of 90 pieces, so good luck getting your hands on one.

And last is a new "The Citizen" caliber 0100, ±1 second per year accuracy, with washi paper dial and and a really cool caseback. This is the first caliber 0100 that looks interesting to me; the others so far look rather sterile.

Why oh why won't Citizen sell their interesting or high end pieces outside of Japan? They won't even try. The Citizen boutique in Times Square is one of the few places you can even see a The Citizen Chronomaster or ultrathin Citizen One (bet you didn't know that even existed), but they have hardly any stock, and they have to fight for what little they have. Maybe I sort of get it. It took a lot of money and effort for Grand Seiko to get past "just a Seiko," and it would probably take Citizen even more, but wouldn't it be worth it in the long run?