TBWS on YouTube
Our Favorite Citizen Watches of 2026
Back in May, I picked the five best Citizen releases of 2026 so far and argued that Citizen was finally loosening up. The second half of the year kept that going. Eco-Drive turned 50, and Citizen marked it with structural-color dials, washi paper, and a purple titanium Attesa. It also kept shrinking cases toward sizes I’d actually wear, from a 39.5mm Promaster GMT to a 37mm Tsuyosa. The frustrations held steady too. Some of Citizen’s most interesting watches this year stayed in Japan, and a few of its priciest ask buyers to rethink what quartz is worth. Every pick here has a confirmed US price, and they run from $495 to $3,095. Here are our favorite Citizen watches of 2026, in the order they arrived.
Jack Mason’s Strat-o-timer Has Rolex GMT Looks and Its Own Personality
The Rolex GMT-Master II with a meteorite dial has always been a pretty ridiculous watch to me. White gold, a red-and-blue ceramic bezel, and a dial cut from an actual meteorite. It’s a combination that works remarkably well, even if the price puts it firmly outside what most of us would consider reasonable. With Rolex discontinuing the reference earlier this year, Jack Mason’s latest Strat-o-timer GMT arrives with some familiar styling and a considerably more approachable price.
Rolex GMT-Master Fans May Want to See HTD’s New Affordable GMT
I have a habit of saving watches I come across on Instagram, usually with the intention of looking into them later. Most get forgotten almost immediately. The new HTD Aquatic GMT managed to hold my attention a little longer. The Rolex GMT-Master influence is obvious, especially with the Pepsi bezel, and I think that’s part of what initially drew me in. After digging into the details, there’s a little more to appreciate here.
Beyond Seiko and Citizen: Kiwame Tokyo’s Affordable Dress Watch
Seiko and Citizen tend to dominate the conversation whenever affordable Japanese watches come up. They’ve earned that attention, and I suspect most enthusiasts have owned something from at least one of them. But Japan has plenty of smaller watch companies worth getting familiar with, especially if you’re interested in designs that feel a little different from what’s available in the usual catalogs. Kiwame Tokyo is one of the newer names I’ve been following a lot this year, and its latest Kubo Momiji is a watch I think deserves a closer look.
Cartier Meets Casio in One of the Strangest Digital Watches of 2026
Somewhere between the Cartier Crash and the Casio F-91W, there’s apparently room for a $100 digital watch that looks like it spent a little too much time in the sun. It’s called the Crashio, and I think it’s one of the funniest watch designs I’ve come across this year.
