Up to 1918, all watches in Japan were imported. In 1918, the Shoukousha Watch Research Institute started to work on the first watch of Japanese manufacturing. The Shoukousha Watch Research Institute became CITIZEN Watch Co. a few years later, and the rest, as they say, is history. To this day, Citizen develops and manufactures all components of its watches and controls the final assembly. Some of its most prominent breakthroughs are the Eco-Drive and the Satelite Wave timing system. The total control of the development of the components and the final assembly allows the brand to offer these technologies at a very fair price point, making Citizen watches historically popular and always reliable.