Better Starts Now with Citizen

Founded in Tokyo in 1930, Citizen Watch Co. has announced its first ever global brand statement – more than 80 years after the company launched.

Created in collaboration with Wieden+Kennedy, Better Starts Now demonstrates the brand's simple belief that it is always possible to make something better – and now is the time to start doing it.

To help communicate this belief to the world, the brand has created a global film (above), a new brand identity, a logo and brand website that represents the philosophy.

The film was shot by Dutch filmmaker Johan Kramer of 100% Halal Amsterdam and is set at a single Citizen workstation. Using the correct camera for the year and innovation being portrayed – from historical black and white footage shot on a 1930s hand-cranked 35mm camera, to the saturated footage of a 1980s VHS camera, the essence of Better Starts Now is brought to life.

“Better and now are both infinite. There is always a next ‘better’ and a new ‘now’ in which you can start pursuing it,” says Weiden+Kennedy Tokyo’s executive creative director Michael Farr.

“It was clear from the onset of this project that Citizen is dedicated to this ideal. Not to the past but to the present, and all the ways they can improve it.”

The Better Starts Now film will feature in Citizen stores around the world, including the new flagship store in Times Square, New York, opening in November 2014. It will also be feature at major sporting events sponsored by Citizen including the US Tennis Open and the World Figure Skating Championships.