Citizen has recently released the latest iteration in its watch offerings for the blind and visually impaired. With its roots in the first release of the Citizen Shine in 1967, this new 2020 Citizen AC2200-55E was designed and developed with the help of students and staff from the School for the Blind and the Blind with Multiple Handicaps based in Thailand.
What struck me as interesting here is that in working with the students and staff at the school, one of the most crucial points they stressed is that they wanted a watch that didn’t identify them to other people as blind or visually impaired. Currently most watches designed specifically for the blind and visually impaired are talking watches, which obviously make a sound and require you to raise your wrist to your ear in order to know the time.
While functional, this action has the adverse effect of potentially not being appropriate for certain social situations and drawing other people’s attention to the wearer. The other desire the staff and students expressed? The watch needed to look cool and be stylish.
Citizen is no stranger to offering watches for the blind and visually impaired. Check out the timeline below.
It’s one of those cool situations where “low tech” beats “high tech.” If talking watches weren’t meeting the modern needs of the staff and students at the school, then taking a look back and leaning on the history of tactile watches is the most logical course of action.
Tactile watches have a long history not just with Citizen, but also Seiko and Raketa. But the premise across all of them was the same. Crystal flips up and the wearer can then feel the watch dial with their fingers, relying either on raised numbers, protrusions at the markers, or a combination of both. In the case of this new Citizen AC2200-55E, it’s both. But the added offering here is the high contrast between the hands/numerals and the black background of the dial, which is specifically appointed to help those with visual impairment and not total blindness.
For me the Citizen AC2200-55E achieves exactly what it is supposed to do: it offers a discrete way for the blind and visually impaired to tell the time and it also honestly looks so cool. Watch the video I linked above that Citizen created, it ends with them indicating they’ll be making more style options in the future, which certainly has me excited.
100 of the watches were donated to the School for the Blind and the Blind with Multiple Handicaps and Citizen has offered to pledge continued support for the school for the duration of 2020. But what I truly love is that this isn’t an outreach release to capture press and leverage a high price tag watch (which is becoming weirdly common in the watch industry for some reason…). This is a stylish watch that’s designed to help people while also being available to everyone for an incredibly reasonable MSRP of $140 USD. Consider me impressed.
• Stainless steel case and bracelet
• Cal. 6029 Quartz (battery powered)
• MSRP: $140 USD
Co-Founder and Senior Editor
Kaz has been collecting watches since 2015, but he’s been fascinated by product design, the Collector’s psychology, and brand marketing his whole life. While sharing the same strong fondness for all things horologically-affordable as Mike (his TBWS partner in crime), Kaz’s collection niche is also focused on vintage Soviet watches as well as watches that feature a unique, but well-designed quirk or visual hook.