I have this thought regarding Citizen and I have to say their model releases over the last few years have been generally quite good. The Fugu and Tsuyosa are two I find quite well designed.
However as much as their models are nice, the name and branding just doesn’t have charm to me. Does anyone else feel this way? Perhaps the name Citizen itself just misses the mark in the western world. Rolex, Omega, Seiko all have names that look and read more aesthetic.
A thought I had was that they should have a subsidiary like Seiko does with Orient (Orient branding also another one that seems lacklustre) and here they can get their marketing right with the same great products and tech they currently produce.
Keen to hear everyone’s thoughts.
That’s the thing their watches are cool, but I associate the name and brand with things like an old grandpa’s mall watch, or the generic name John Citizen. Seems stupid, but I am sure I’m not the only one!
Look into what they’re doing recently. Some of the most beautiful dials that rival if not better Grand Seikos - the washi dial and lacquer dial, and they don’t try and hide their Citizen name. They show it proudly. For me I’ve recently associated Citizen with beautiful dials. Their instagram and posts on here help with the image.
Amazing tech there for sure, would be interesting if they positioned their higher end stuff similar to Seiko with Grand Seiko and how they try to distance them under two seperate brands. I know Citizen has ‘The Citizen’ but to me that seems lazy marketing and missed potential as they are hardly different. I know you could say the same about Grand Seiko really but I feel they have done a much better job with the separation and thus brand perception.