With over two dozen factories around the world the Citizen Watch  Company has been producing quality precision watches and timepieces  since the company was founded in 1930. The years have seen the company  grow and expand into other technology products and became a major force  in the digital liquid crystal display, microelectronics and optical  devices markets.
The expertise the company gained  through the introduction of quartz timepieces was significant to the  tremendous growth in the production of televisions and high resolution  digital projectors.
Since the founding of the company,  over two hundred million watches have been produced. Though competing  companies such as Casio have gained ground in the growing market for  practical and rugged watches, the 
Citizen Watch Company lays claim to  introducing the first line of shockproof watches as well as waterproof  watches designed for the rigors of diving. Seeing a market for  affordable and reliable timepieces that Citizen had, as part of its  mission, the idea of offering quality watches that would be within reach  of people of modest means. This goal was made possible in part by  designing watches that were durable enough for everyday wear and less  likely to break under conditions of average use.
In the  years after World War Two, Japanese manufacturers saw great opportunity  in the development of highly precise machine tools supporting everything  from automobile production to the manufacture of aircraft.  Many  Japanese companies incorporated the engineering philosophy of design for  manufacturability. The guiding principle behind this philosophy was to  integrate the design and manufacturing functions which in turn led to  increased production efficiencies and increased levels of quality. These  lessons were not lost on the growing Citizen Company and the result was  the production of very precise watch components, greater reliability  and ease of repair.