It is remarkable how technical advancement and fashion trends impact the often slow-moving watch business.
In the 1970s, Japanese quartz watches almost killed Switzerland’s mechanical industry. Fifty years later and the tables have turned.
Smartwatches are laying waste to the sub-$500 quartz watch market, and the Japanese are responding by producing world class mechanical watches at incredibly attractive prices.
Citizen is at the forefront of this evolution, and is expanding its mechanical Promaster Dive collection with all-new automatics this summer, including models based on the NY004 series from 1989.
Ironically, Citizen’s mechanical watch business was just as impacted by the explosion of quartz as the Swiss.
The company has a rich history of mechanical dive watches, including the Parawater, a manually wound watch launched in 1959 that was designed to catch the rising tide of water resistant dive watches from that era.
The sports watch category has been in Citizen’s sights since the fifties, and led to the launch of the Promaster line in 1989 as a series of professional timepieces split into land, air and sea categories.
The Promaster line returned to mechanical movements with a series of high end automatics in 2021 including the relaunch of the Series 8 collection powered by the Cal. 0950 and 9051 movements.
Building on that hit, Citizen has launched a larger suite of watches for 2022 including pieces in high grade titanium and stainless steel.
Promaster Super Titanium Dive Automatic
The Promaster Super Titanium Dive Automatic, using the same caliber 9051 as last year’s models, comes with a choice of rubber strap or titanium bracelet and in two finishes, with or without black DLC coating on their 46mm diameter cases.
The watch is water resistant to 200 meters, and diver-friendly with its unidirectional bezel and bold, lume-filled hands and markers.
Promaster Dive Automatic
2022 will also see the launch of 44mm steel versions of the Promaster Dive Automatic, inspired by the 1989 NY004 diving watch.
Upgraded from the 1989 originals, the current collection has sapphire crystal glass and a 120-click unidirectional aluminum dive bezel in place of the original 60-click version.
Within the new collection, Citizen has brought back the fan-favorite, fully-lumed version of the watch, featuring a dial completely coated in luminescent material.
Customers have a choice of dial and bezel colors, plus the option of rubber straps or steel bracelets.
All steel versions of the Promaster Dive Automatic use the automatic Calibre with 42 hours of power reserve as well as a useful day & date display.
