Citizen Taps seconde/seconde/ for a Limited Tsuyosa with Katana-Sliced Hour Markers

Nearly two decades ago, Paris-based French designer Romaric André, aka seconde/seconde/, began putting his own custom one-off “vandalized” spins on vintage wristwatches. His graphic was quickly noticed by Massena LAB’s William Massena, and by the end of the 2010s, he was seeing his demand increase.

In the past 6 years alone, seconde/seconde/ has close to 40 collaborations to his name, with haute horology brands like Audemars Piguet, Frederique Constant, and H. Moser. However, the designer doesn’t discriminate and has been known to work with budget-tier brands like Timex and Spinnaker in the past as well. Now, for the first time, he teams up with Citizen for a signature sliced-up take on the classic Tsuyosa.

The Right Watch at the Right Time

Citizen’s Tsuyosa has had a surprisingly compelling rise since its 2022 debut. Reviving the spirit of the brand’s late-’90s NH299 — an overseas bestseller that helped cement Citizen’s reputation for durable, accessible mechanicals — the Tsuyosa (Japanese for “strength”) landed stateside in 2023 to immediate sellouts. It plugged neatly into the integrated-bracelet craze at a fraction of what luxury brands were charging, and the line has since expanded with smaller 37mm references, bolder colorways, and the recent Tsuyosa 60. It’s also the kind of watch that’s begging for a collaboration. Turns out, seconde/seconde/ was the right person for the job.

Sword Play

André’s approach here is characteristically literal. Rather than simply swapping the seconds hand with a pixelated icon — his usual m.o. — he’s gone further. The minute hand has been replaced by a pixelated katana, and the hour markers across the entire dial appear to have been sliced clean through, with cut halves drifting inward like shrapnel. It’s a visual gag, but it holds up because there’s an actual concept behind it. Printed on the exhibition caseback is the line that inspired the whole thing: “Being smaller has never stopped Minutes from slicing Hours into pieces.” That’s André at his best — finding a piece of poetic logic and turning it into something you can actually see on a dial.

The dial color is a new shade of icy blue sunburst, sitting somewhere between the existing baby blue and navy options in the standard Tsuyosa lineup. Despite the fractured look, legibility isn’t sacrificed. Likewise, the indices are coated in lume and the hour and seconds hands remain stock. The sapphire crystal’s cyclops sits over a 3 o’clock date window as usual too.

Under the Hood

The Tsuyosa x seconde/seconde/ runs on Citizen’s in-house Caliber 8210, an automatic that beats at 3Hz with a 42-hour power reserve and a hacking seconds mechanism. It’s essentially Citizen’s proprietary evolution of the Miyota 8215. The limited edition gets a small upgrade over standard variants, though, with an openworked rotor and silver-toned bridges that give the movement a cleaner look through the half-tinted exhibition caseback.

The 40mm stainless steel case is unchanged from the standard Tsuyosa, with vertical brushing on the mid-case, a polished bezel, sloped lugs, and a recessed crown at 4 o’clock. The integrated three-link bracelet wraps up with a folding clasp engraved with both brands’ logos and the requisite sword slashes.

Spec Sheet

Pricing & Availability

The Citizen Tsuyosa x seconde/seconde/ (ref. NJ0157-81L) is available now directly through Citizen at $495. It’s a limited run of 3,600 unnumbered pieces.

Recap

Citizen Tsuyosa x seconde/seconde/

Citizen tapped French dial-vandal Romaric André — aka seconde/seconde/ — for his first-ever collab with the brand, turning the popular Tsuyosa into a limited 3,600-piece release with a pixelated katana minute hand that appears to slice through the hour markers.

Learn More: Citizen