Vintage Citizen Watches
Vintage Citizen remains the sleeper of Japanese watchmaking, and most of what lands here comes directly from Japan. Each watch is one of a kind and individually photographed. Inventory changes weekly, so check back if nothing catches your eye today.
Read the detailed Citizen history76 Citizen timepieces in stock
Compare Citizen watches by model
- Citizen Shine Men’s Vintage Manual Wind Flip Top Braille Blind Watch JDM 1960s — 2 available
- Citizen Crystal Seven Custom Men’s Vintage Automatic Dress Sports Watch JDM 70s — 2 available
- Citizen Crystal Seven Vintage 21J Automatic Men’s Dress Sports Watch JDM 1970s — 3 available
- Citizen Cosmotron 7804 Men’s Vintage Electronic Quartz Dress Watch JDM 1970s — 3 available
- Citizen “The Memory of Reversion Okinawa” 1972 Solid Silver Commemorative Watch — 3 available
- NOS Citizen J.League Kashima Antlers Limited Edition Sports Watch JDM 1990s — 2 available
- Citizen DQ-8038 Men’s Vintage Alarm Chronograph Digital Sports Watch JDM 1980s — 2 available
- Citizen Multi Alarm 40-1013 Men’s Vintage Digital Sports Watch JDM 1970s — 2 available
- Citizen Quartz Crystron LC 60-1039 Men’s Vintage Digital Sports Watch JDM 1970s — 1 available
- Citizen Crystal Seven Custom Vintage 23J Automatic Dress Sports Watch JDM 1970s — 1 available
The Citizen Story
Kamekichi Yamazaki, a watch-metals dealer who had spent time in Switzerland and America, wanted Japan to build its own pocket watches. His Shokosha Watch Research Institute, opened in Tokyo in March 1918, finished its first in December 1924. His friend Shinpei Goto, Tokyo's mayor until 1923, named it CITIZEN, hoping it would be loved by people everywhere. Citizen Watch Co. followed in May 1930.
In 1956 Citizen dropped the Parashock, Japan's first shock-resistant watch, 30 meters from a helicopter onto a street, and it kept running. The 1959 Parawater was Japan's first fully water-resistant watch; from 1963 Citizen set 100 adrift on buoys, one reaching Oregon in 1966, still working. The 1970 X-8 Chronometer was the first mass-produced titanium watch. A 1977 Challenge Diver washed up on a Sydney beach in 1983, barnacled and still ticking; the 2022 remake is nicknamed Fujitsubo, barnacle in Japanese.
The quartz crisis hollowed out the Swiss watch industry and made Citizen bigger. The 1976 Crystron Solar Cell was the first solar-powered analog quartz watch, the line sold as Eco-Drive since 1995. In 1986, says the International Directory of Company Histories, Citizen passed Seiko in volume to become the world's largest watchmaker. It lacked high-end mechanical watchmaking and a stable of brands, so it bought both: Bulova in 2008, Swiss movement maker La Joux-Perret in 2012, Frederique Constant in 2016.
Since 2001 Citizen has been run from Nishitokyo, Tokyo, making watches, machine tools and components. Miyota, its Nagano movement arm since 1959, makes some 100 million movements a year by Europa Star's estimate, many for other brands. The first watch's centenary in 2024 brought a 100-piece titanium pocket watch; in November 2025 LVMH took a minority stake in La Joux-Perret. Most vintage Citizens here, from 8110 bullhead chronographs with crown and pushers on top to Leopards beating 36,000 times an hour, carry a case-back serial starting with the year's last digit and the month.