Citizen's problem with The Citizen
Problem is, the market already associates Citizen with affordable watches, or watches for citizens, and they are absolutely the best at it. But Citizen Group doesn’t really have a clear entry-luxury strategy. Their "entry luxury" brand, Frederique Constant, isn’t really playing in the same field as Longines. It feels more like it’s fighting in the Oris/Mido zone. Respectable, but not exactly the same emotional weight.
The funny part is that Citizen absolutely has the capability. A finely regulated automatic Miyota Series 9, finished to the same level as The Citizen, would probably beat Longines to death on specs and finishing as soon as the market shifted its mindset But not even Citizen seems concerned about changing this mindset. speaking of other brands in the group, Bulova, at this point, is mostly perceived as a fashion/watch-mall brand with some cool exceptions. Frederique Constant doesn’t carry enough group prestige, Alpina is not luxury, Arnold & Son is truly luxury but not relevant market share, Campanola has way too many complicated complications not named Patek. And Citizen itself is trapped by its own success: people see the name and think "good affordable Eco-Drive," not serious luxury contender.
So Citizen ends up in this weird position: they are the largest watch seller in the world, with the historical and industrial ability to make something genuinely excellent, but they don’t have a solid luxury ladder, and their answer for that is simply not good enough. The Citizen competes with Grand Seiko 9F at a lower price point, with potentially similar finishing. But it lacks the name recognition, the mythology, and the market training behind it.
And then, of course, people are already calling it "chickenwatch" because of the little bird/eagle at 6 o’clock. That pretty much sums up Citizen’s problem: they can make the watch, but they haven’t taught the market how to respect it.