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This Citizen watch is accurate to ± 1 second a year

By Kenny Yeo - on 27 Mar 2019, 11:11am

This Citizen watch is accurate to ± 1 second a year

The Citizen Caliber 0100 watch. (Image source: Citizen)

Citizen doesn't want you to be late for appointments ever. To do that, it has just unveiled its new Caliber 0100 watches, which are the world's most accurate autonomous watches.

First, let's explain the term "autonomous watch." By this, it means that the watch keeps and tells time on its own accord without syncing to an external source. The Apple Watch and certain Bluetooth-enabled Casio watches are more accurate but that's because they sync with an atomic time source.

Just how accurate is Citizen Caliber 0100 watch? According to Citizen, the Caliber 0100 is accurate to ±1 second per year.

To put this number to context consider these comparisons.

Citizen's super accurate Chronomaster watches, as well as Longines' VHP "Very High Precision" watches, are both accurate to ±5 seconds per year.

Grand Seiko's venerable 9F quartz watches are accurate to ±10 seconds per year.

For further context, consider that your regular quartz watches are accurate to ±15 seconds per month.

Rolex, a benchmark for mechanical watches, regulate their watches to ±2 seconds per day. Impressive for a mechanical watch but it has got nothing on the Citizen Caliber 0100.

The Caliber 0100 from which the watch gets its name. (Image source: Citizen)

To achieve such high accuracy, the Caliber 0100 uses the more accurate AT cut type crystal oscillators rather than the more typical tuning fork crystal oscillator.

Additionally, the oscillators in the Caliber 0100 vibrates at a very high frequency of 8.4 MHz - that's 8,388,608Hz. Your typical quartz watch vibrates at a much lower 32,768 Hz. Higher vibrational frequencies typically mean more accurate time-keeping.

The Caliber 0100 also employs Citizen's Eco-Drive technology, which means they are powered by light. A full charge is enough for the watch to run for about 6 months.

And despite all the technology, these watches are immensely wearable, measuring just 37.5mm in diameter and 9.1mm thick.

Citizen is releasing three models and in limited numbers. One in 18k white gold (100 pieces) and another two in titanium, one with a black dial (500 pieces) and another with a mother-of-pearl dial (200 pieces). Prices start at US$7,400 for the titanium model and top out at US$16,800 for the white gold model.

Source: Citizen