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these look great in the flesh
great review
Hi guys,
Had this just over a week so thought I’d post a review.
I wasn’t sure about this watch but though at the price it was worth a punt.
When I first opened the box the watch head looked huge – now bear in mind I have rather slim 6.75 inch wrists this initially looked like an unwise purchase, added to the size was the uncertainty about the standard supplied rubber strap – again a wrist issue as these sometimes are designed for larger wrists and tend to look odd.
So it was with some trepidation that I removed it from the box and undid the rather large buckle…..
I strapped the brute to my wrist and was pleasantly surprised by how the watch head and strap sat and felt. For such a large watch this seems to fit quite well, and the strap is far more ‘fitted’ and comfortable than I imagined. Yes it’s a bit long as I have it on the second to last hole but the double keeper to stop the strap from flapping around.
At 14mm thick it’s a bit of a struggle under shirt sleeves but that’s not too much of an issue.
After wearing it for a while I’ve decided that it’s really comfortable and seems to wear smaller than it actually is.
So on to the review of the watch:
Case
The case is a mix of polished, brushed and PVD’d Stainless Steel.
Case width excluding crown is 47mm, lug-lug is 51mm.
Again, at first I wasn’t too sure about the combination of the polished, brushed and PVD’d bits, but this too has grown on me and I think it makes it look interesting.
Strap
This is the standard Silicone strap, which is pre-curved and starts of at 23mm and tapers to 20mm, this is all secured with a rather nice brushed Stainless buckle with the ‘Promaster’ logo etched onto is and at its widest is a whopping 28mm!
The strap is very comfortable would fit a wrist smaller than mine (just!).
The strap length is 90mm and 150mm so plenty of adjustment which, if I was still able to dive would mean it would comfortably fit over my wet suit and possibly even my dry suit!
Changing to a NATO or other strap is a bit of a problem as the spring bars are VERY close to the case and don’t leave much gap, apparently a thin NATO will fit, but I have yet to try it.
Bezel
The bezel is uni-directional and has 120 clicks and is very smooth and made from PVD’d Stainless Steel with a black insert. The numbers are recessed and painted white, with the 60 minute mark being lumed.
Crystal
The crystal has an AR coating and is slightly domed.
Dial
The dial has a nice ‘sun burst’ effect.
Indices are silver edged and have the 24 hour scale printed below them.
Cardinal markers on the chapter ring are in blue with the other markers in white.
Date window at 3 is nice and clear with silver edging.
Text is kept to the basics and doesn’t look too cluttered.
The hand set is an unusual one with the hour/minute hands being triangular and lume filled. The second hand is a nice shade of blue with the ‘GMT’ had outlined in white (non lumed).
Lume on this is pretty good.
Movement
Don’t really know much about movements, but this is the uses the Citizen B877 eco-drive jobby with a date and GMT/24 hour function.
The GMT function is a bit of a strange one on this as the 24 hour hand is used for indicating the ‘departure’ time zone and the hour hand the ‘local time’. I ‘borrowed’ the following from the manual as it explains it better than I can:
"The hour hand cannot be corrected in the counter-clockwise direction. The date changes when the crown is turned to the left (counter-clockwise). In addition, since the calendar is linked with the operation of the hour hand, it may be necessary to correct the calendar after correcting the hour hand depending on the time to which the hour hand was set."
So based on the above if you’re moving back through Time Zones to your destination it can be a bit of a faff – seems OK when moving forward though!
So, how can I sum this one up, I’ll do a quick list of likes/dislikes:
Like
Looks – a bit unusual
Strap – very comfy for a silicone/rubber
Lume – very nice and bright
Dislike
Strap – bit of a pain to swap and slightly too long
GMT Function – bit of a faff to sort
Bezel – would be nice if it was all lumed
Overall, I’m impressed with this watch.
Really comfy and nice and hefty – has become my new beater and holiday watch.
If I still dived I’d have no hesitation in taking this with me and diving with it.
Below is the full spec from the Citizen website and a few photos:
Full spec:
Brand: Citizen
Model Number: BJ7065-06E
Part number: BJ7065-06E
Model year: 2011
Crystal material: Non-Reflective Crystal Glass
Display Type: analogue
Clasp: Buckle
Case Material: stainless-steel
Case Diameter: 47.00
Case Thickness: 14.00
Band Material: Rubber
Band Length: men’s-standard
Band Width: 23 millimetres
Band Colour: black
Dial Colour: black
Bezel Material: stainless-steel
Calendar: Date
Special features: Date
Item weight: 140 grams
Movement: Citizen B877
Water Resistant Depth: 300 metres
Warranty type: Manufacturer
Photos
Dial
Lume
Buckle
Thanks for reading, sorry about the quality of the pics.
these look great in the flesh
great review
Not a big fan of Citizen. This one though wasn't that bad
I see this for sale and decided to read the review.
I picked up a non-GMT version specifically for diving.
The dislike of a 'too long strap' is one of the big likes for me.
This is a divers watch to dive in, in the UK.
The long strap, means it goes around your gloves and/or drysuit without having to get a different strap.
So many 'divers' are keyboard divers' watches with no real intention of diving, but this one is a 'proper' divers watch.
Mines been in the Caribbean, inside HMS Scylla and amongst the German High Seas fleet in Scapa Flow in the last year since I bought it and numerous less exciting locations too, including near weekly dips in the local pool.
Great watch to dive in, lovely clear face and always charged (none of this automatic rubbish! :D), it's also a comfortable watch to wear all day (I wore mine day in day out in Cuba) although it's a bit bulky under a shirt sleeve.
Interestingly, I read the UK armed forces stopped using these due to charging 'issues' with Eco-Drive, but mine works fine on a couple of hours wear a week.
M
Hi Snowman - nice to see someone diving with a watch!
If I still dived I'd have no hesitation in it being my back-up; the strap would be OK over my drysuit.
Sadly I had to give up diving a in 2011 or risk my eyesight - but I've dived with pretty much all of my watches at some point or another.
The Citizen is a cracking watch and the eco drive is a bonus - sadly it just doesn't get any wrist time and I need to thin the herd!
Safe diving!
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