Created for Eternity
SUPER TITANIUM 2023
5 times harder than stainless steel. 40% lighter than stainless steel.
SUPER TITANIUM™
What is the ideal material for a watch that comes into contact with the skin all day long?
Super Titanium is one of the approaches CITIZEN has taken to answer this question.
Super Titanium, a material that only CITIZEN can produce, is created by treating solid titanium - which is naturally soft and difficult to machine - with our proprietary Duratect surface hardening technology. Super Titanium retains all the positive properties of titanium, but offers a higher level of beauty as well as a hardness and strength strength that is far superior to that of stainless steel. These properties make it an ideal material for the watch material for the watch you wear every day.
Citizen's proprietary process: Solid Titanium x Surface Hardening Technology = SUPER TITANIUM
Duratect
Resistant to scratches
Super Titanium™: 5 times harder than stainless steel
Super Titanium™ was developed so that you can enjoy your new titanium watch in its original condition for as long as possible. Thanks to the treatment of solid titanium, which is soft and difficult to work with, we have achieved five times the surface hardness of stainless steel using CITIZEN's proprietary surface hardening technology, Duratect. This protects your titanium watch from scratches and keeps it looking as good as the day you bought it.
Lightweight
Super Titanium™ is 40% lighter than stainless steel
Super Titanium™ is around 40% lighter than stainless steel. You only need to pick up a Super Titanium™ watch to realise how extraordinarily light it is - so light that you can hardly feel it on your wrist. Whether in the office, at home or in their leisure time, our customers appreciate the feeling of lightness on their wrist. The fact that a watch is worn around the clock has inspired us to develop watches that are as comfortable as possible to wear. This thought led to the development of Super Titanium™.
Titanium watches - gentle on the skin
Super Titanium™ is hypoallergenic
Solid titanium is naturally hypoallergenic and gentle on the skin. The standardised coating processes that involve the use of other metals compromise the natural anti-allergic properties of titanium. CITIZEN developed its own technologies to successfully solve this problem and by applying our surface hardening technique, Duratect protects against nickel and metal allergies. This means that even people with sensitive skin, who normally have to avoid any kind of metal, can wear a Super Titanium™ watch.
Titanium watches - Resistant to rust
Super Titanium™ is resistant to rust.
Super Titanium™ is resistant to salt and fresh water. This means that the titanium watches can be worn in any everyday situation. These titanium watches are also ideal for people who come into contact with water a lot at work or at home. Super Titanium™ watches are robust and hard-wearing and lose none of their original lustre even under heavy use.
The exclusive titanium technologies from CITIZEN
With its hardness, titanium is considered the material that makes craftsmen cry. However, through a combination of skilled craftsmanship and decades of research, CITIZEN has managed to overcome the many difficulties that the metal presents.
PRESSING
This is the process of pressing titanium into a mould to produce various moulded parts. Precise temperature control and the prevention of cold welding are important here. The titanium is heated to a high temperature to increase its resistance to deformation and thus enable a variety of designs. Excess metal is cut off to prevent titanium chips from sticking to the mould. Despite the softness and viscosity that make titanium so difficult to work with, CITIZEN is able to press the metal into precise moulds.
MACHINE PROCESSING
Processing press-moulded titanium down to the finest detail. There are two major problems with machining titanium: firstly, the chips stick to the cutting edges of the tools and secondly, the machined surfaces tend to be of poor quality. CITIZEN has experimented with numerous cooling oils, lubricants and cutting speeds to find the perfect solution for stable machining. We have a wealth of knowledge in all three areas.
POLISHING
The processed titanium is polished by hand at CITIZEN to achieve a beautiful, shiny, mirror-smooth surface. Because titanium is so soft and viscous, conventional polishing processes often only produce an uneven surface (the so-called orange peel effect). Using a combination of different polishing techniques - drum polishing, Sallaz polishing and machine polishing - the experienced experts at CITIZEN have developed a proprietary polishing method. This technique achieves a beautiful lustre that no other watch manufacturer can match.
CLEANING
Thorough cleaning is essential before the surface coating can be applied to the beautifully lustrous titanium for hardening. We use a series of liquids to remove grease and other impurities that have accumulated on the watch during the manufacturing process. Every last impurity is removed to ensure that the surface hardening achieves unrivalled quality after application.
SURFACE HARDENING
The application of Duratect, our proprietary surface hardening treatment, is the final step in the process. This treatment not only makes the surface hard, but also gives it added beauty. Duratect is available in three versions: a technology that coats materials, a technology that hardens the actual surface of the materials and finally a technology that achieves both. By selecting the version of Duratect that best suits the technical characteristics of each model, we can control colour and hardness levels with high precision.
Super Titanium™ in space
After 50 years of continuous development, Super Titanium™ conquers space.
In 1970, CITIZEN presented the world's first titanium wristwatch. At the time, the United States and the Soviet Union were in the space race. Titanium came into the spotlight as a next-generation material for use in spacecraft. Half a century later, space exploration is experiencing a revival. CITIZEN cooperates with ispace and provides the Japanese start-up with Super Titanium™ technology for its HAKUTO-R lunar exploration programme.
"Space is closer than we think," says Shuhei Akimoto, Communications Manager at ispace. With the stated mission of extending the human ecosystem to the moon, the Japanese start-up is carrying out two lunar missions as part of the HAKUTO-R programme. As a corporate partner, CITIZEN will provide the Super Titanium™ technology for a lunar landing planned for 2021 and a lunar surface exploration planned for 2023.
For the HAKUTO-R programme, ispace is independently developing a lunar lander and a lunar rover to explore the surface of the moon. Super Titanium™ from CITIZEN will be used in both vehicles. If ispace succeeds in landing on the moon, this will be a remarkable world first for a private company (as of January 2020). This mission will also see CITIZEN's titanium technology, which has been continuously improved over more than 50 years, make the leap into space and thus into a completely new field. Light and hard: the ideal material for space exploration.
Costs are the biggest problem for any private space exploration company
And the weight of the payload is decisive for the level of these costs. But saving weight is more difficult than it sounds, because you can't do without strength. During launch, a spaceship is exposed to gravitational forces and vibrations to an extent that defies the imagination. Super Titanium™ from CITIZEN is a material that is as strong as it is light.
When Akimoto first came across CITIZEN's Duratect DLC-hardened titanium materials, he was surprised by their abrasion resistance and tribological properties. According to Akimoto, CITIZEN has also earned a reputation at ispace as a "manufacture", a company with cutting-edge technology that produces every component of its watches in-house. "When I toured CITIZEN's factories, I felt the presence of a highly developed technological spirit that goes beyond watchmaking," says Akimoto. "CITIZEN mass-produces extremely precise devices that are perfect down to the last nanometre. What I felt was an almost fanatical devotion to monozukuri, the art of making things."
