Citizen is putting its mastery in titanium on display for everyone to see

Russell Sheldrake

Citizen was the first and is one of the masters of using titanium in the watch world. It’s been a 55-year journey for the Japanese brand, and every minute of that story was on display at the Super Titanium, the Beauty of Time exhibition that was being held in Paris when I had the opportunity to have a look around. As I hope you can tell from the video below, you would walk into this exhibition and be instantly enveloped by the sheer magnitude of Citizen’s efforts when it comes to this lightweight material.

Today, it’s easy to see that we take titanium for granted in the watch world. It is everywhere, and it is being made into some of the most desirable watches on offer today. But go back just five decades, and this was very much not the case. Titanium was the preserve of space-age technologies, being used in the most specialist of fields to conquer some of man’s biggest challenges. It took the intrepid people at Citizen, not tied down by Swiss heritage, to see the potential this hypoallergenic material could have on the wrist.

Along this 55-year journey, Citizen has led the way in innovating around titanium, whether they are figuring out how to finish this metal to the same standards as stainless steel, or inventing ways to harden and colour it so you can make it look like whatever you want, and it would stay in pristine condition forever.

While at this exhibition, I was able to bend the ear of an engineer who works at Citizen by the name of Kazuma Sato, an incredibly knowledgeable person when it comes to all things titanium, and he was able to give me even more insight when it comes to what it takes to machine this material into the many forms Citizen has utilised over the years.

We don’t normally associate the word history with titanium. It is thought of as an incredible modern metal in watches, and that is for good reason. But when you have every development made by just one brand laid out for you as it was at this exhibition, it’s clear that we have been doing this humble metal a disservice by not considering what it takes to turn it into some of the most desirable watches around. Attending this exhibition certainly gave me a new perspective on titanium and an appreciation I never had before. There is a lot more at play with this metal than just a lightweight alternative to stainless steel.