Inside Citizen: How Innovation, Eco-Drive & Super Titanium Shaped a Global Watchmaking Leader | Martin Mills

 What does it take to remain one of the world’s most respected watch brands for over a century? 

 In this exclusive WatchDNA interview, we sit down with Martin Mills, Vice President of Sales at Citizen Watch Canada, to explore the history, innovation, and philosophy behind one of Japan’s most influential watchmakers. 

Known for pioneering technologies such as Eco-Drive and Super Titanium™, Citizen has built its reputation on creating reliable, innovative, and accessible timepieces that combine everyday practicality with advanced engineering. 

In this conversation, Martin shares insights into Citizen’s remarkable journey, how the brand continues to evolve, and why innovation remains at the heart of everything they do. 

💬 In this episode, we discuss: 

⌚ Citizen’s heritage and growth into a global watchmaking powerhouse 
☀️ The story behind Eco-Drive technology and its impact on the industry 
🛡️ How Super Titanium™ delivers durability, comfort, and performance 
🌍 The balance between innovation, craftsmanship, and everyday wearability 
📈 How Citizen continues to stay relevant in a rapidly changing market 
🔮 What’s next for one of Japan’s most iconic watch brands 

Whether you’re a seasoned collector, a Citizen owner, or simply curious about modern watchmaking, this interview offers a fascinating look inside a company that has helped shape the future of timekeeping. 

🎥 Hosted by WatchDNA | Where Time Connects Us All 

📍 Explore more at: WatchDNA.com/Citizen 

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Stay tuned for more interviews, brand stories, and behind-the-scenes insights from the world of watchmaking. ⏱️ 

#Citizen #CitizenWatches #EcoDrive #SuperTitanium #JapaneseWatchmaking #WatchDNA #MartinMills #WatchIndustry #Horology #WatchCollectors #TimeConnectsUs 

Transcript

0:08

Hey everyone, I am very pleased to be here with Martin from Citizen. Thanks so much for having us at your booth. Thank you guys for coming. Very excited. Most of people that like watches will know about the brand, but our idea is to also educate people that have no clue about watches. Like me, 17 years ago, I wear a watch just for the time, but that's it, I didn't know anything about it. So can you quickly introduce us to Citizen? Citizen's been making watches for over 100 years. We're a Japanese-based company. We own a few different brands, but the Citizen brand is really our pillar. And it was really made, the name Citizen was to make a watch for every citizen. So it's really a broad spectrum of watches. Okay. And we really do a little bit for everybody. We're putting a lot of emphasis on ladies' watches. So we've got a few new, this Bianca over here we're looking at now. So the elongated case with the square watches is very, very popular, so it's a very popular shape. This is something brand new for us called the Ray Nail collection. So this is a teardrop shape with a really delicate bracelet. The one in the center, rose gold with a green face, looks really, really exquisite. And lastly, our Tsiosa collection, which is one of our most popular selections, we've come up with a 37 millimeter, which is a woman's watch, but also a boyfriend watch, which you'd be used at Unison. Let's go to the next section, Atesa. So Atesa is us flexing our muscles in the technology space. Watches are super titanium. It's either radio controlled or GPS technology, accurate to one second every hundred years. It's uh adjust itself, perpetual calendar. Um, very nice light watches. Is there any particular model that you can show us? We've partnered with Fujifilm to create these beautiful translucent and the background which kind of changes color. It's really, really quite exquisite. Wow. So this watch here, you've got the crystal which goes all the way to the end of the bezel, which is all edged out. So it really gives a lot of different uh depth to that to that watch face. We've got another one with a moon face and a kind of stained glass motif on the bottom, which really gives an exquisite kind of art look to that watch. So it's not only technology but also a work of art. On the ProMaster Land, last year we came up with our new uh Pro Master Land, which has our uh Annie Digi display. And when it comes to dive, we have lots of divers, so we have a new Echo Drive diver watch which uh is up to 200 meters. Lastly, is the ProMaster Air. So we came up with a new shape size, and that same Any Digi display that we have for land, we've also brought into the uh air category. Series 8 is our take on higher end watches for our on our end, kind of going from uh in Canadian retail and speech about 1200 to about $2,000. This blue mother of Pearl, really quite nice, it reflects the light very well. We've got this ice blue watch. Just a hand-carved uh watch doll, really quite nice. It's kind of an iconor shape as well around. We've played with a little bit of gold just with the hands and the index, yeah, but it has that beautiful hand hand-carved dial. I think we will see some new developments from Citizen as well. Overall, how do you see your presence in the North American market? What is next to come so that we can give some little teasers for our audience? So we've been the leader in watches on, like I said, with the Citizen. We do that for everybody, so we are expanding our premiere collection, but we also have really great value price points. Um, and next year, I don't want to say too much, but it's our 50th anniversary of the Echo Drive technology. So we will do something very big next year for the Echo Drive technology, which is really a pillar and a staple of what we're doing. Very cool. Uh other brands are getting into the solar, but we've been doing it for 50 years. Wow, okay, beautiful. Thank you so much for taking the time to see us. I really appreciate it. Yeah, 100%. And you guys, if you want to learn more about uh citizen, make sure you go watchdna.com slash citizen. You can see learn about the brand, article about the brand, and also something very important that we have is a store locator. So you can find out if you decide that you want to purchase or want to learn more. Store locator that will tell you who is the closest store next to you that actually is authorized to sell it. Very important.