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Citizen gives two high-accuracy watches handmade washi dials

A crimson upper plate over Tengujoshi and white, gold-flecked Unryushi paper distinguish two limited editions powered by Citizen's five-seconds-a-year Eco-Drive calibre.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 4 min read · 21 September 2026

• Citizen has announced two limited The Citizen Eco-Drive models with handmade Tosa washi dials and annual accuracy rated at ±5 seconds.
• The AQ4100-65X places a crimson upper plate over Tengujoshi washi and uses a titanium bracelet; the AQ4106-00B pairs white Unryushi with gold fibres and crocodile leather.
• October 2026 launches are scheduled, with 300 and 350 pieces respectively and projected US prices of US$3,000 and US$3,100; Australian prices remain unannounced.

There is a particular kind of watch dial that rewards looking twice: from a distance it seems nearly plain, and up close the material has been doing the work all along. Citizen has used Tosa washi paper in The Citizen dials since 2017, partly because the thin sheets let light through to the Eco-Drive cell. Its latest pair takes that practical decision in two different visual directions. Both are limited, high-accuracy models, announced as the Citizen AQ4100-65X and AQ4106-00B.

AQ4100-65X: crimson over thin washi

The AQ4100-65X places an upper plate pigmented deep crimson over ultra-thin Tosa Tengujoshi paper, allowing the paper texture to show through while light still reaches the Eco-Drive cell. A sunburst pattern radiates from the centre, but the paper is the part with genuine variation from watch to watch: the brand says artisans make each dial by hand. Gold-coloured touches on the seconds hand and eagle emblem punctuate the red without making the whole watch gold. It is a dial that asks the case and bracelet to stay restrained.

Citizen makes both in Super Titanium, its treated titanium material, but finishes this reference with the bright, silver-toned Duratect Platinum treatment and a matching titanium bracelet. The case is 38.3 mm across, and Citizen gives 12.2 mm as a design-specification thickness rather than a final production measurement. That qualification matters on a watch planned for October, because a tenth of a millimetre in a pre-launch specification is not worth presenting as a finished physical fact. A dual-sphere anti-reflective crystal covers the dial, and the stated water resistance is 10 bar.

AQ4106-00B: cloud fibres and a softer case colour

The other watch starts with Unryushi, a Tosa paper made with longer fibres that drift across the face like clouds. Gold fibres are woven through the white ground, so the texture reads differently from the red model's more uniform colour. Citizen pairs it with Duratect Sakura Pink on the Super Titanium case and a crocodile leather strap from a Leather Working Group-certified tannery. This is the dressier of the two configurations, and the strap gives the pale dial more space to be the focus.

It is tempting to call that pale face the simpler option, but the long fibres and scattered gold make it the less predictable one at close range. Citizen's product imagery gives the paper room to show through around the applied hour markers and date window, while the pink-toned case supplies the border. The change from bracelet to leather also changes the visual weight of two watches that share the same stated case diameter. One is a compact everyday object in metal; the other looks as if the dial material set the terms of the whole design.

The same high-accuracy engine underneath

Both references use Citizen's light-powered calibre A060, rated to within five seconds over a year. That annual figure has a different practical meaning from the daily accuracy numbers usually attached to mechanical watches: if the watch stays powered, its owner should have little reason to correct the minutes. The independently adjustable hour hand makes local-time changes less disruptive, and the perpetual calendar accounts for month lengths and leap years until February 2100. Citizen also specifies 18 months of running from a full charge in power-save mode.

Citizen also equips the movement with impact detection, a lock function and automatic hand correction if the hands are disturbed. Those safeguards are easy to overlook beside the paper dials, yet they explain why the watch can make a credible promise about year-long accuracy in everyday use. The hands must continue to point where the timekeeping circuit thinks they do, or a precise movement would still give the wrong answer on the wrist. The instantaneous date change at midnight is another quiet expression of the same concern for alignment.

There is a useful tension in this pair. Handmade paper means the exact dial pattern is not mechanically identical across the edition, while the movement is built around unusually tight timekeeping and automatic calendar correction. Citizen has not supplied an Australian retail price or a firm local on-sale date in its announcement, so those details should not be filled in by conversion from another market. What it has supplied is the production split: 300 red-dial watches and 350 white-dial watches worldwide.

The Citizen Tosa washi models pricing and availability

Citizen schedules both references for an October 2026 launch. Its official announcement gives projected US prices of US$3,000 for the AQ4100-65X and US$3,100 for the AQ4106-00B. These are projected figures, not confirmed Australian list prices. No Australian price or local availability date has been announced on the cited Citizen pages. The two prices put only US$100 between the models, despite their different case finishes and bracelet or strap choices. Citizen has not said whether both editions will reach Australian retailers, and the worldwide production limits do not establish a local allocation. For now, the verified choice is between the red model's metal bracelet and the white model's leather strap, with the final Australian buying details still open.