2024 marks 100 years since the first watch to bear the Citizen name, and given the scale of this milestone, it’s only natural that the brand has a few celebrations in store. While Citizen has already unveiled a beautifully finished commemorative pocket watch, it was only a matter of time before the brand announced a celebratory timepiece for the wrist, as well, and the wait is finally over. Combining classical Japanese finishing and material techniques with Citizen’s most emblematic technologies and a simple, beautiful presentation, the new limited edition Citizen The Citizen AQ4100-65L is a fitting showcase of what has made the brand truly great over the last century.

For the Super Titanium alloy case of the Citizen The Citizen AQ4100-65L, the brand keeps things compact and refined, with balanced proportions of 38.3mm wide and 12.2mm thick. The overall form here is crisp, pared-back, and classically Japanese, with an emphasis on sharp, dramatic angles and brilliantly polished accents in images. The lug design is the most prominent example of this philosophy in action, with a traditional athletic, tapering silhouette that features a bold added planar facet midway through its length. This added facet should also give the wide case side chamfer more angles to reflect light from, likely leading to a brighter, more gem-like feel on the wrist. The rest of the case design is tastefully restrained, with a polished, sloping smooth bezel atop horizontally brushed flat case sides. Around back, Citizen tops the case with a deep, handsomely detailed polished engraving of the brand’s premium eagle emblem, and rates the watch for a respectable 100 meters of water resistance.

Citizen’s dedication to traditional forms of Japanese craftsmanship shines through brightest on the dial of the The Citizen AQ4100-65L. The dial surface is made from fibrous, detailed washi paper, a material used in traditional Japanese paper screens for hundreds of years. The variegated, web-like nature of this paper ensures that each individual dial is unique, as does the equally traditional pole-wrap shibori dying process. To achieve the rich, organically striped indigo hue visible in photos, the washi paper is wrapped around a tube and slowly pushed by hand toward the end of the tube, creating random wrinkles in the material as it is moved. As the paper moves up the tube, which is coated in artisanal sukomo indigo dye, the bunching and wrinkling of the paper creates a series of highlights and deeper striations that give the final dial a naturalistic, timelessly beautiful look in photos. In addition, thanks to the loose, fibrous nature of the washi paper, this dial surface allows light to pass through, which enables this watch to use the brand’s signature Eco-Drive light-powered battery charging technology. Citizen tops this washi paper layer with a clear sapphire dial surface, allowing the brightly faceted baton indices, printed outer minutes scale, and chamfered 3 o’clock date window to seemingly float above the paper dial in photos. The rest of the dial design is suitably simple and elegantly finished, with broad, chamfered dauphine hands, a gold central seconds hand, and The Citizen line’s eagle emblem applied at 6 o’clock.

The in-house CAL.A060 Eco-Drive light-powered quartz movement inside the Citizen The Citizen AQ4100-65L is much more than meets the eye. For a start, the CAL.A060 is a perpetual calendar movement, with an automatically adjusting date display that should remain accurate through the year 2100 (including leap years). In addition, this powerplant is extremely accurate, with a stated accuracy of only +5/-5 seconds per year. In addition, the CAL.A060 offers a suite of unique high-end features, including an automatic impact detection and movement lock function to prevent damage to the watch in the event of an impact, an independently adjustable hours hand, and automatic hand correction to correct possible deviations from the current time. Citizen claims the CAL.A060 offers a hefty 18 months of power reserve on a full charge, as well. To complete the watch, Citizen fits The Citizen AQ4100-65L with a case-matching five-link bracelet in Super Titanium.

It’s been a century since the release of the first-ever Citizen-branded watch, and a milestone this large demands a truly special celebration. The new limited edition Citizen The Citizen AQ4100-65L certainly fits the bill, with a refined presentation, classically Japanese materials and techniques, and a bevy of unique, under-the-radar movement features. Only 600 examples of the Citizen The Citizen AQ4100-65L will be made, and the watch is available now through select authorized dealers. MSRP for this watch stands at $4,425 USD as of press time. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.