I looked down at my Citizen Satellite Wave X today (as of this writing) and thought about how strange this watch collecting hobby can be.
Here is a watch I enjoy looking at every time I wear it. I enjoy wearing it and I trust it to do its only real job. Timekeeping.
Yet somewhere in the watch world, someone in the watch enthusiast community would thoughtfully explain why my Wave X isn’t really a luxury watch.
Apparently, my Wave X solved the wrong problem.
As my collection grew this past year, I became clearer about what matters to me. Accuracy. Comfort. Useful functions. Good materials. Distinctive design. Ownership that fit easily into my life.
Citizen just solves the problem.
What was I actually looking for?
When I evaluate a watch purchase, I want to experience the pleasure of wearing something special. A watch is more than a device for telling time. If function were my only concern, I wouldn’t have a 50 watch collection.
For me, the emotional satisfaction and the practical benefits need to work together.
Citizen kept delivering that combination.
Eco-Drive uses light to power the watch. My Satellite Wave X receives time signals from GPS satellites. My Tsuki-yomi combines radio-controlled timekeeping with a moonphase display. These are different approaches to making a watch more useful, and I appreciate the engineering behind each one.
GPS and radio signal reception have specific conditions, of course. Solar charging requires light. Technology doesn’t eliminate every consideration of ownership.
What it does is remove much of the routine attention I would otherwise give to winding, resetting, and correcting the time.
The ease of use and ownership that Citizen watches provide me matters immensely.
Sophistication I can use
My background in product support influences how I evaluate things. I think about what a product delivers over its life, how it supports its user, and whether its capabilities answer a real need.
That perspective follows me into my watch box.
I can appreciate the skill required to build and regulate a fine mechanical movement. I own mechanical watches and enjoy them. My Longines HydroConquest earned its affectionate place in my collection. It’s the Swiss dive watch that made spending $11,350 (as of 2026) on a Rolex Submariner Date completely unnecessary.
I also appreciate engineering that makes precision convenient.
There is considerable achievement embodied in a watch that harvests light, receives a timing signal, and presents useful information through an analog display on my wrist. Familiarity and relative affordability can make that achievement easy to overlook.
My Tsuki-yomi and ATTESA remind me to look more closely.
Their sophistication enhances the experience of wearing them. I don’t have to see every component working through a sapphire exhibition case back to recognize what a watch accomplishes in terms of its engineering and functionality.
Titanium is precious to me
Watch collecting has a well-established vocabulary for precious materials. Gold and platinum occupy prominent places in it.
Titanium occupies a prominent place in mine.
I value how it feels over a full day. I value the combination of strength and low weight. Comfort is something I experience every time I put the watch on.
As my artificial knees contain a significant amount of titanium components, titanium is literally a precious metal in my daily existence.
A material doesn’t have to be the most expensive option to be the right fit for you, practically or emotionally.
The same logic applies to watch design. My Satellite Wave X has an angular case, an integrated bracelet, and a layered dial that rewards a closer look. Those details give me pleasure independently of the name printed above the hands.
I bought a watch I wanted to wear. The engineering gives me more reasons to keep wanting to give it significant wrist time.
That is practical luxury.
The Rolex comparison
I often remark that some of my Citizens are better than a Rolex in many ways. I mean that as a specific judgment about what I value.
Depending on the Citizen and Rolex watches being compared, I may prefer the Citizen’s accuracy, charging system, timing reception, weight, or functions. Those are meaningful advantages in daily use.
Rolex has qualities people, myself included, reasonably admire, and there are Rolex references I find extremely attractive. My satisfaction with Citizen doesn’t require me to deny anyone else’s satisfaction with Rolex.
But a higher price or a more prestigious name doesn’t automatically improve my experience.
I’ve reached a point in my life and in curating my collection where I can admire a watch and choose to leave it in the display case. I can admire a watch without having the desire to acquire it.
I can also recognize when something I already own answers my needs and desires in a watch exceptionally well.
Citizen helped me become more confident in that distinction.
High horology has room for engineering
Quartz is horology. It belongs in any serious conversation about watchmaking and measuring time.
When I describe my Tsuki-yomi or ATTESA as examples of high horology, I’m recognizing technical achievement. Precision, power management, materials, and the coordination of useful functions all require watchmaking expertise.
Exceptional mechanical finishing deserves admiration. Electronic timekeeping deserves thoughtful consideration, too.
A quartz movement tells you something about how a watch operates. It doesn’t, by itself, tell you how much thought, skill, or ambition went into the finished product.
I want to understand the watch in front of me before deciding what respect it deserves.
Prejudging a watch as inferior or “not having a soul” because it has a quartz movement is extremely shortsighted, in my opinion.
A collection that fits its owner
There is pleasure in having another enthusiast recognize something special on your wrist. I enjoy that feeling in the rare moments when it happens.
Most days, though, I’m the only person who notices my watch.
I’m the one who feels its weight, reads its dial, uses its functions, and decides whether to put it on again tomorrow. That everyday relationship carries more weight than a brand’s position on someone else’s hierarchy table.
My collection helped me discover my own taste. Citizen became central in my collection because its watches repeatedly bring together the things I care about.
Elegant utility. Practical luxury.
Citizen just solved the problem.
And the more clearly I understood the problems I wanted solved, the more I appreciated what I already have in my watch box.
-The Rational Ram
