Most people I’ve asked who don’t wear a watch seems to be paranoid not only about damaging a costly piece of accessory but also ruining something that has sumptuous amount of sentiment behind it. It seems the guys at Citizen also faced quite a few of them, else their journey towards the superior version of Titanium wouldn’t initiate. That being said, this variety of Titanium is 5 times harder and 40% lighter than stainless steel of equal volume. Citizen took over four decades to take Titanium to the higher levels; it’s their probing deep into surface-hardening technologies that surfaced Super Titanium as the material of choice for pros and casual wearers alike.

At the heart of the thing is Citizen’s very own ion-plating (IP) method using a temperature exceeding 2,000°C in vacuum; the heat produced by concentrated electron beams. This ionizes the titanium, which then pressure-bonds to the surface of the given material and forms a coating. This has been measured to be 1,200 on the Vickers hardness scale; to measure Hv, a test piece is pressed against a diamond probe.

But why Titanium? Why not very high-grade stainless steel? It’s a pertinent question but it’s impossible to compete with titanium when it comes to not only the strength but also its ductility, lightness and inertness to corrosive fluids and materials. It’s biocompatible, too; so if you are not wearing a watch also because steel and resin gives you rashes and itches, Titanium can be your savior. Super Titanium? – The great Savior that will never tarnish or discolor.

Citizen’s love affair with Titanium is quite a long one. In the 70’s, it was Citizen only who brought out the first watch in the world featuring a titanium case and that triggered the beginning of a whole new era in watch-making. Today also, Citizen is pushing the limits of hardness to make the Super Titanium even harder, stronger and better, which even some of their inexpensive watches show.

From a consumer’s point of view, Super Titanium is a better choice since it fights off scratches and preserves the original luster and the mirror-finish of the watch’s metal surfaces. The philosophy is simple: If something is flawless inside, let should be flawless outside as well. It’s just that Citizen used higher-end science to establish this philosophy and create the exotic alloy that is fit for use also in spacecrafts, race cars and supersonic jets.

So, what are you to pick if you finally think the Titanium (not just the Super variety) as your material of choice? I got some recommendation here. A personal choice is the Citizen Altichron Eco-Drive Promaster  and the Citizen Eco-drive Chronograph but I run on extremeties; it’s not necessary that you also.

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