Citizen Celebrates Eco-Drive With The 50th Anniversary ‘The Citizen’ With Hand-Dyed Paper Dial

Citizen is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Eco-Drive this year, and after fifty years, there’s a lot to celebrate. The first watch to carry the Eco-Drive name was the 1995 Eco-Drive Attesa, but Citizen began experimenting with light-powered watches only a few years after the first quartz watches of any kind reached the market. A working prototype was developed by 1974, and in 1976, the Crystron Solar Cell was introduced. The Crystron Solar Cell had its solar panels prominently visible on the dial, and it was an early example of a practical result from research into light-powered watches which at the time was in its infancy. The first solar powered watch, the Synchronar, was a relatively short lived LED watch in a casquette style case, and Patek Philippe had started producing photoelectric clocks which had an automatic winding system powered by solar cells in the 1950s, but it wasn’t possible to produce light-powered watches until efficient CMOS integrated circuits became available, and the Crystron Solar Cell was one of the first generation of watches to use this technology as well.

The Crystron Solar Cell, in the Citizen HQ Museum, Tokyo

Over the last five decades, Eco-Drive technology has continued to advance as more and more efficient mechanisms, motors, photoelectric cells, and integrated circuits have been developed, and in Citizen’s current production, one of the most advanced as well as most beautiful range of watches are The Citizen models. The latest generation uses caliber A060, which is almost unbelievably efficient, capable of running without recharging for 18 months, and equipped with a perpetual calendar; the movement is extremely precise as well, with a maximum yearly deviation in rate of ±5 seconds. The new model is 40mm x 12.2mm, in Duratect Platinum (Citizen’s hardened titanium alloy, with a platinum vapor coating) and water resistant 100 meters.

The dial is made of “tosa washi” – Japanese tosa paper, which is considered one of the highest grades of handmade paper from Japan; it’s produced from mulberry pulp, in small quantities, along the banks of the Niyodo River. The paper is famous for its thinness as well as its strength, and for the 50th Anniversary model, Citizen has worked with expert dyers to create a color known as “chitose midori” – literally, “thousand-year green.” The green color represents the needles of pine trees, which in Japan are symbols of unchanging beauty and longevity (an especially appropriate color choice for a wristwatch) and the color is produced by combining a yellow pigment derived from the “ibuki kariyasu” grass, which has been used as a paper and fabric dye in Japan for centuries, with indigo, to produce the final color.

The entire process takes place under the supervision of Citizen’s engineer, Daisuke Yamakage, who has been with the company since 2007, and master dyer Kenta Watanabe. The entire dying process required a lot of experimentation to get the right shade of green; and you can follow along with the development of the color in Citizen’s “Hand To Hand: Green Washi Dial” video.

One of the challenges of working with dyed paper for dials, is that watches are often exposed to sunlight, and UV radiation can cause color fading. To address this, the dial of the 50th Anniversary model, like the other washi paper The Citizen models, is constructed in several layers. The uppermost layer is a transparent resin, on which the dial markers sit; the resin is formulated to allow visible light to pass through, but it blocks ultraviolet light, preserving the deep green saturated color of the paper beneath it. As a result, the dial markers and eagle symbol seem to float above the level of the paper itself. Both the hands and indexes are lume filled.

The actual photoelectric cell is under the paper dial, and so the energy to power the watch is harvested from the small amount of light that falls through the translucent paper.

The movement is worlds removed from the stereotyped notion of an inexpensive quartz watch; the train wheels for the hour, minute, and seconds hand run in 23 jewels (entry level quartz movements are unjeweled) and is designed to run for many decades. One of the biggest sources of energy drain for an analog quartz watch is the energy required for the stepper motor that moves the hands, and the movement is optimized for efficiency on every level, from a low-consumption timing package and IC, to the photoelectric cells (caliber A060, like all Eco-Drive movements, is designed to harvest any available light, indoors or outdoors).

High grade Japanese watches from any brand have historically been mostly Japan domestic market and pretty inside baseball for collectors, and for many years, The Citizen was a watch which was well known to serious Japanese watch collectors who fell in love with their high quality and advanced technology, but which was scarcely known even to the wider watch collecting public. This limited edition of 650 pieces is being launched at $3,095, and given the uniformly high quality throughout, the precision and longevity of the movement, and the subtle beauty of the green washi paper dial (as well as the sophisticated metallurgy behind the case) it’s possible to see it as both a phenomenal demonstration of the existence of watchmaking as a living vehicle for innovation – and as a bargain.

Read Citizen’s Daisuke Yamakage’s description of the process of developing the signature green dye here. 

The Citizen 50 Years of Eco-Drive Innovation Anniversary Limited Edition: case, 40mm x 12.2mm, in Duratect Platinum; water resistance 100M, Dual Sphere Glass with AR coating. Dial, hand-dyed green Tosa Washi paper, “chitose midori” dye combining yellow ibiku kariyasu grass dye with indigo. Movement, Citizen Eco-Drive caliber A060, accuracy ±5 seconds per year; 18 month power reserve on full charge, independently adjustable hour hand; perpetual calendar. Price at launch, $3,095. For more information, visit Citizenwatch.com. Available in the USA at Citizen’s flagship boutique in New York.