AUGUST 2013 – Last month, Citizen, the Japanese watch company that revolutionized timekeeping, opened its first Citizen stand-alone concept store in the Philippines. The brand has been around since the 1920’s and has made significant contributions to timekeeping as a whole with their Miyota Quartz movement making timekeeping more affordable and devilishly more accurate than its Swiss Counterpart.
Citizen has been in the Philippines for quite some time now. Most of you would’ve seen the watch brand in various watch shops and notable department stores across the archipelago. However, they never did open a store that’s just dedicated to the innovative watch brand, until now.
With the opening of the concept store here at the 2nd level of SM Makati, Citizen will now officially distribute high-end luxury watches to the Philippines starting with these two babies.
The Citizen Promaster Eco-Drive Altichron-Cirrus appeals to the outdoorsman in us. The robust sensors for electronic compass and altimeter permit ultra-precise measurements of direction, depth and height. In fact, the height-measuring capability reaches as much as 10,000 meters, higher than any mountain on the planet namely Mt. Everest (8,848 meters). The watch can subsequently go as deep as 300 meters below sea level but then it’s not really designed as a diving watch (there are other Eco-Drives that are built for that).
The other flagship watch that Citizen launched last August is the Citizen Promaster Eco-Drive Satellite Wave-Air. This one we’re seriously looking forward to! The Satellite Wave-Air is the spiritual successor of its 2011 Limited Edition parent, the Satellite Wave. What’s so cool about this? Well, how about precise time, all the time and anywhere in the planet?
Also, the 2011 version was the watch that was used in conjunction with Appleseed XIII! APPLESEED! Check the video trailer below.
Now, as much as we want to get our hands on the 2011 version, the Satellite Wave-Air is actually the better of the two. While the 2011 version also allows for quick time sync, there are other factors that are needed like a region’s proximity to the nearest atomic clock, and given that the Philippines has none, the Satellite Wave won’t work here. Recognizing the limitation of Atomic Clock model, Citizen’s newer version utilizes a Satellite’s GPS signal instead. In addition to the pervasiveness of locations to sync time, they also made the syncing process faster needing only 20 seconds instead of 2011’s 60 second time.
The media launch itself was held in Dusit Thani Hotel here in Makati and among the special guests were the president of CITIZEN WATCHES (H.K.) LTD, Mr. James Nakai, its Sales & Marketing Manager, Mr. Francis Yu and their Advertising AM, the lovely Ms. Panny Leung of Citizen Watches (H.K.) LTD who flew in to Manila to take part in the opening.
After formally introducing these new flagship watches, we made way for the ribbon cutting ceremony back at the concept store. When we reached the 2nd floor of SM Makati we were greeted with throngs of passer-by’s. As much as I wanted to say that people are that excited over the first Citizen stand-alone store in the Philippines, the crowd gathered for these two lovely celebrities who both took home a flagship watch.
According to Mr. Ray Jacinto, COO of the Timeline Group (Wizer Industries, Inc.’s group of retail watch store ), the official distributor of Citizen watches in the country, we could be looking at a 2013 Q3-Q4 availability for the signature watches. Prices will be announced by then but we’re already speculating that this would cost around 80-100k. Yes folks, it’s that type of watch. Hopefully Unbox can get a review unit so we can tinker with it and show you guys if the purchase is really worth it. More on this as the story develops!
