This Limited Edition Watch by Citizen Offers Unmatched Accuracy

Beauty is often the product of contrast. That’s the principle behind centuries-old stone buildings with modern glass additions, classic cars retrofitted with electric motors and skyscrapers draped in living greenery. It’s also what makes many of the watches in Citizen’s The Citizen collection so appealing. The Citizen AQ4091-56W, for example, has a classic dial layout with rectangular hour markers, dauphine hands, and no complications other than a date window at three o’clock. This austere look, however, stands in contrast to the dial, which is made from traditional Japanese washi paper and dyed a deep shade of green, not to mention the advanced Eco-Drive movement within.

The company that would become Citizen was founded on the principle of creating high-quality watches that were accessible to the average citizen. Over the last century, it has made good on that ambition, garnering a slew of awards, world firsts, and world records in the process. When it came time to mark the brand’s official 65th anniversary in 1995, Citizen celebrated with the release of a new line of watches that combined all of its expertise in materials, dial design and movements. Dubbed The Citizen, the new collection took the brand’s mission statement to a new level of refinement, doubling down on quality and value to create watches that delivered far more than their price would suggest.

The AQ4091-56W, released as a limited edition to mark the 50th anniversary of Eco-Drive, bears this out at every level. Like every The Citizen model, its craftsmanship and finishing are on par with Swiss timepieces that cost twice as much, and its movement is both durable and highly accurate. Today’s The Citizen collection consists of close to 20 models, each using the same understated design language, with a choice of mechanical or Eco-Drive movements and midsized cases made from stainless steel or Super Titanium. On the mechanical side, the Citizen Calibre 0210 delivers accuracy of minus three to plus five seconds per day, outperforming the standard COSC chronometer baseline, while Citizen’s light-powered Calibre A060 Eco-Drive quartz movement goes further still. The product of half a century of development, it can run on any kind of light (not just sunlight) and is accurate to an astounding five seconds per year.

Beyond its technical bona fides, The Citizen AQ4091-56W’s dial is the product of centuries of Japanese culture. Its deep green hue is called chitose midori, a colour that symbolizes permanence and is achieved through the use of ibuki kariyasu grass, a traditional yellow dye, and indigo. Like many other pieces in The Citizen collection featuring dials made from handmade washi paper, its nature-derived colour and organic texture provide an artful counterpoint to the clean brushed and polished surfaces of its case. Other recent examples include a pink washi dial intended to evoke clouds at sunrise and a blue washi dial textured to resemble a rippling river, with a gold-toned seconds hand inspired by fireflies flying along a riverbank at dusk.

The Citizen’s prices, which start at $4,195 and range all the way up to $19,995 for an ultra-limited-edition 100th-anniversary model, might surprise those who know Citizen as a maker of sturdy, affordable quartz watches. For those who are inclined to take a closer look, however, there is a world of 21st-century technology and centuries-old Japanese crafts to be discovered within.