Lucky Fours vs Citizen: Prices, Specs and Which to Buy

Citizen has a habit of solving the boring problems. It was founded in Tokyo in 1918, it builds its own movements, and its Eco Drive watches run on light, so the battery change that every quartz owner eventually faces simply does not come up. It then backs its watches with a five year warranty on its US site, which is longer than any other mainstream brand in this price range. Lucky Fours does none of that. It sells steel watches styled after famous designs, from $79.99, with a buy one, get one free offer. So this comparison is really about time: what each watch costs you up front, and what it costs to keep.

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The cost on day one

Citizen's least expensive Eco Drive watches in our data start around $240. The Citizen Garrison Eco Drive is listed at $236, a field watch on a strap, and the Citizen Terra Force at $280 has a 41.2mm case. Lucky Fours' simple steel sports watches cost $79.99, and the current offer adds a second one free, so two of them cost about a third of one Citizen. The Valois, with its dark blue dial and bezel on a steel bracelet, is the closest in spirit to Citizen's sporty everyday watches.

On the Value Score, the Valois finishes ahead because the score weighs the price you pay and the price per watch heavily. The two Citizens claw back points on movement and warranty, which is exactly what a Citizen buyer is paying for.

The cost over five years

This is where Citizen's argument is strongest. A regular quartz watch needs a new battery every couple of years, which costs a few dollars and a short wait at a watch counter. An Eco Drive needs light and nothing else. Add the five year warranty, and a Citizen bought today should cost you nothing more until 2031 unless you drop it. A Lucky Fours watch needs the occasional battery like any quartz watch, and its warranty runs 12 months against manufacturing defects. If you plan to wear one watch every day for years and never think about it, Citizen is the better deal even at three times the price.

If instead you rotate between watches, the maths shifts. Two or three inexpensive quartz watches share the wear, each battery lasts longer between changes, and the money saved buys variety. Our guide to how many watches you need makes that case in more detail.

Movement

Citizen offers three kinds: Eco Drive solar quartz, regular quartz and automatics such as the Tsuyosa. Its movements are its own, and service is available across the US. Lucky Fours sells mostly quartz with a handful of automatics, such as the Spine at $149.99, and does not name its movement makers. For a deeper look at how Japanese makers approach movements compared with the Swiss, see Japanese vs Swiss watches.

The integrated bracelet matchup

Both brands make a steel sports watch with an integrated bracelet, and it is the matchup buyers ask about most. The Citizen Tsuyosa is an automatic with a 40mm case and a bright green dial, listed at $495. The Lucky Fours Caspian has a rounded octagon case, a ribbed dial in 6 colorways and a quartz movement, at $79.99.

The Tsuyosa is the better watch mechanically, an automatic from a company that makes its own. It is also about six times the price, or twelve times per watch under Lucky Fours' current offer. For someone who wants the shape on the wrist and does not mind a battery, the Caspian is the easier purchase.

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Spec table

*as listed on each brand's US website, October 2026

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Build and design range

Citizen's affordable range is broad and mostly sensible: field watches, divers, dress watches and chronographs, with neat finishing and legible dials. Lucky Fours narrows its range to famous silhouettes and builds them in 316L steel, mostly on bracelets. The Santos pictured above, with its fluted bezel, five link bracelet and day and date windows, is a look Citizen does not chase. If you want a watch that reads as Citizen, buy Citizen; if you want a watch that reads as a famous Swiss design, Lucky Fours is cheaper than anyone. Our Citizen buying guide maps out its lines.

Price per watch

Citizen sells one watch at a time. Lucky Fours' buy one, get one free offer, with mix and match, means a Caspian and a Valois together cost $79.99, about $40 each. Even the Santos pair, at $129.99, comes to about $65 a watch. That is less than a third of the cheapest Citizen in our data.

Which should you buy?

Buy Citizen if you want one watch you never have to think about: light powered, backed for five years, serviced anywhere. The Garrison is a sound first Eco Drive, and the Tsuyosa is the integrated bracelet watch to buy if you can spend the money.

Buy Lucky Fours if your budget is under $150, you want a dressier steel design, or you would rather have two watches than one. Start with the Caspian, or the Valois for a plainer sports watch.

WatchesUnder is owned by BlackRobin Capital Inc.

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