Watching the clock - [manufacturing watches]

The author visits Citizen Watches to discover that the gears and wheels are still there, and finer than ever. Citizen is best known as a manufacturer of high-precision timepieces, including the smallest watch, the thinnest watch, and the most accurate watch available today. Manufacturing still takes place primarily in Japan and China. However, a visit to one of Citizen's factories may come as a surprise if you were expecting a traditional manufacturing operation. A modern watch- manufacturing facility has more in common with a sterile semiconductor fab than a run-of- the-mill assembly operation.