The company was founded in 1930 by Japanese and Swiss investors. It took over Shokosha Watch Research Institute (established in 1918) and took over a part of the assembly plant established in Yokohama in 1912 by Swiss watchmaker Rodolph Schmidt. The Citizen trademark was first registered in Switzerland in 1918 for watches sold by Schmidt in Japan. The development of the brand was encouraged in the 1920s by Count Shinpei Goto, who hoped that watches would become affordable to the general public. Citizen's growth until World War II was based on technology transfers from Switzerland.