How Can Citizen Compete With Grand Seiko?
Not easily, but they're good at picking their battles.
The Precursor
As Seiko’s higher-end offerings begin to find their footing on the global stage, Citizen has lagged behind. While the two brands compete closely in Japan, Citizen has not yet fully established its luxury brands in Europe and America. One such brand, Campanola, will be featured twice today.
A portmanteau of Campania and Nola, Campanola derives its name from Nola, a town located in the Campania region of Italy. This town housed the first church that used bells to signal time to the local people. Not only does the name reflect this story, but the Campanola logo features two bells side-by-side.
Compared to European brands, Seiko offers some remarkably luxurious pieces at affordable prices—urushi lacquer, vitreous enamel, arita porcelain and maki-e gold are just a few of the dials and finishing techniques found on Seiko watches priced under $1,000. As Seiko’s global reputation grows, these bargains are slowly starting to disappear. My pitch is simple: the Campanola brand is even further behind that curve and can be considered better value for money than many of Seiko’s “deep value” offerings, which in turn are better value for money than many European brands. Better value for money²?
Please don’t confuse value for money with cheapness—if you have tens of thousands of dollars burning a hole in your pocket, Campanola have got watches for you.
Citizen LE Campanola 6702-T001432 Perpetual Triple Calendar
The Campanola collection is one of Citizen’s answers to the Grand Seiko. In the West, Citizen is best known for its Eco-Drive watches—and perhaps rightly so, as the solar-charged batteries make these timepieces incredibly user-friendly and reliable. However, in Japan, over the last two decades, the Campanola collection has garnered significant praise. Perhaps acknowledging Grand Seiko’s dominance with its Spring Drive movements, Citizen has chosen to focus its efforts on other renowned aspects of Grand Seiko: handcrafted dials and impressive finishing.
The Campanola collection is renowned for its use of layering, often opting for a distinctly three-dimensional look, as demonstrated above. Taking a typically chaotic complication, like a Triple Date Perpetual Calendar, and leaning into that chaos is the Campanola’s signature move. The hand-lacquered dial, with flecks of titanium added to evoke a starry nightscape, adds to the complex look.
How about that spiralling universe? Not only does it look fantastic, but it also functions in an unexpectedly practical way. The watch currently displays Saturday, August 24, 2024, as the date. The year 2024 is indicated by counting the dots after 2020 until reaching the dot that the white hand points to—in this instance, the fourth dot. Here’s the intriguing part: every year that aligns with the hand, both above and below 2024, shares the same day/date combination. August 24 in 1912, 1940, 1968, 1996, 2052, and 2080 are all Saturdays!
As a fun “Easter egg,” the red diamond (I didn’t draw the diamond - it’s actually on the dial. I was stupid enough to use the same shade of red for my annotations though… apologies) marks the year 2002—the year this watch was launched!
Holding the top or bottom right-side pushers will move the calendar backwards or forwards in time, allowing you to easily see which day falls on a specific date. A quick press of the left-side pusher resets the calendar to the current date.
Despite being a large tonneau case (54mm lug-to-lug), it doesn’t wear too big on the wrist. As shown above on a 6.5” wrist, the sloping lugs and curved body of the case keep it looking respectable. The underside of the case features two metal “wings” that bend and conform to the shape of your wrist, making the watch feel very snug on a wide variety of wrist shapes and sizes.
Much like Grand Seiko, the Campanola collection is hand-assembled, from the movements to the watch itself. Even the quartz movements, like this one, are hand-assembled! The case is immaculately hyper-polished, and the domed sapphire features Citizen’s proprietary multi-layered AR coating system, known as Clarity Coating.
Released in 2002 and limited to 300 pieces, this watch comes with the original box and is in very good condition.
Seiko SARD006 Double Retrograde
One of the the most interesting ways to display day and date. I never get bored of watching retrograde hands snap back across the dial, and the SARD006 features a double retrograde complication, as well as a power reserve indicator, creating perfect visual balance on the dial.
Deep-set sub-dials create playful shadows, while the case and hands provide a striking rose-gold contrast to the pure white of the dial. It houses a 28,800 bph "Hi-Beat" Automatic 6R24 movement.
No box or papers but in very good condition.
Citizen Campanola BU0020-62A Eco-Drive
Very few watches offer the same level of convenience and reliability as Citizen’s Eco-Drives. With a six-month power reserve that can be recharged from any light source, including indoor lighting, what’s not to love? There has always been one obvious downside—the dials must have a translucent surface to allow light to reach the solar capacitor beneath. As a result, the design possibilities for Eco-Drives have always been somewhat limited—until Citizen began experimenting with translucent bezels.
As solar charging technology improved, the size of the capacitors shrank, allowing Citizen to only use part of the dial for the charging element. This innovation led to the creation of Campanola Eco-Drives, featuring translucent bezels. Interestingly, these bezels look completely normal—you wouldn’t even know they are “translucent”—but their presence means Eco-Drives can now boast much fancier designs.
The BU0020-62A is a wonderful example of this—a jet-black, hand-lacquered six o’clock subdial, dotted with crushed mother-of-pearl, designed to resemble the universe in the night sky. The 12 o’clock subdial features a guilloché pattern that is said to represent the “brilliance of the sun.” Much like the previously discussed 6702-T001432, it showcases an impressively layered design.
It features a day, date, month and moonphase complication. It’s a lot of watch for a reasonable price.
Full box and papers and in great condition.
Seiko 6138-8000 “Baby Panda”
Aftermarket parts need not apply. This watch is entirely original, including the chrono-hands and bracelet. Purchased from a specialist vendor-only antique auction house in Tokyo, this 6138 “Baby Panda” from November 1971 has been lovingly preserved. Its short production run of just one year has firmly established it as a highly collectible watch within the already sought-after 6138 series.
Introduced in 1969, the 6138 was one of the world’s earliest automatic chronographs. Its dual-register and vertical clutch setup make it emblematic of Seiko’s renowned chronographs, such as the Kakume, UFO, Calculator, Panda, and Bullhead.
As the name suggests, the “Baby Panda” is slightly smaller in both case width and thickness compared to the 6138-8020 “Panda.” At 39.5mm wide, it will fit almost any wrist perfectly.
It has been fully serviced by a vintage specialist in Japan (one that I use for all my vintage pieces) and is running at +2 seconds per day, averaged across three positions.
Seiko 3803-7080 “Baby Morpho”
One watch, three faces. The Seiko “Morpho” and “Baby Morpho” are aptly named for their dials’ ability to change, or “morph,” color as you view them from different angles. The heptagonal faceted crystal enhances this eye-catching effect. However, at the time, the dial and crystal were overshadowed by what was inside the watch…
On Christmas Day 1969, Seiko released the world’s first quartz watch—the Seiko Quartz-Astron 35SQ. Often incorrectly cited as a limited release of 100, the Astron 35SQ most likely sold over 1,000 units, which was particularly impressive given that these prototype “electric” watches cost as much as a Ford Mustang at the time (around $3,000). However, the 35-caliber movement was not very reliable and was incredibly costly to produce.
The 38-caliber quartz movement represented Seiko’s attempt to create a more commercially viable option—both in terms of reliability and affordability. Priced at only half(!) the cost of a Ford Mustang, the 3803 “Baby Morpho” was introduced in 1974. History lesson over—let’s enjoy a video of the dial changing colour.
Dead stock and in 99% perfect condition. A real delight given the age of the watch and its historic significance for Seiko.
Don’t forget to follow my Instagram to see all of the watches above in full cinematic glory next week.