Citizen Eco Drive Diver 200M

The watch that Asia's Richest Man Wore

Li Ka Shing is one of the Asia's richest man. Yea, one day I want to be as rich as Uncle Li...... (day dreaming). Why is Li Ka Shing presented here in a non-financial, non-economic related blog?

In an interview with Bloomberg, Uncle Li showed his daily wrist watch to the interviewer..... A citizen eco-drive with PVD coated case and bracelet. According to Uncle Li, that watch was bought at USD500.

Forbes estimated Li Ka Shing to have a personal wealth of over 20 billions dollar! I would be more than content with a fraction of his wealth. 

I am looking up to Uncle Li..... he is my mentor.....  I want also an Eco-Drive.......

Citizen BN0190-07E Promaster Diver

The saying that every watch tells a story, couldn't be further from the truth with this particular one. This watch is supposed to be retailing at RM1000++; at Lazada.com or Ebay, the cheapest is about RM850++. I bought this one for RM600 brand new. 

It all started with Mr FOAF (Friend of a friend) went to ABC watch gallery in a premier shopping mall. Mr Foaf placed RM8,000 as a deposit for a Rolex. He later found out that he had been ripped off and charged exorbitantly. He promptly cancelled the order and demanded for refund. However, the shop owner refused to back off........ 

Negotiation after negotiation...... Don't know whether is the gentlemen type or corporate type negotiation or not? Overhead it involved Mr Dragon and Mr Tiger..... Or locally we called them Ah Beng and Ah Seng.

Mr Beng and Mr Seng are very effective liaisons. They could broker a peaceful settlement in no time. The shop-owner finally relented and agreed to refund on one condition. Mr Foaf needed to purchase a watch from the shop on RSP (Recommended Selling Price) without any discount given. 

So finally Mr Foaf chose this Citizen Promaster Diver BN0190-07E. Mr Foaf went on to buy his Rolex from my friend and asked my friend to help him sell off this watch.....

It was few days before Chirstmas 2017, I was hanging around friend's shop before this Citizen caught my attention. Being an excellent salesperson, my friend offered me to name him a price for the watch. I offered RM500 playfully. He said Mr Foaf wanted RM800, but he would deal with me in between. That's how the RM600 came about.

By any standard, the simple design of this ISO Compliant Promaster Diver’s watch is sure to turn heads. This watch is actually quite huge. Its diameter measuring 45mm with 12mm thickness. The watch weighted 104gm adding enough density to one's wrist. 

The Stainless Steel case is equipped with a bold uni-directional Rotating Elapsed-Time Bezel and a matching black dial. As it is a dive watch, the hands and the markers are heavily luminous painted. 

This watch featured anti-reflective coating mineral crystal and is water resistant to 200M/20Bar. 

Its crown is screw down type and is signed with promaster's logo. 

One of the distinctive feature of this watch is its black polyurethane strap. The strap sits precisely in between the lugs.  

Despite being quite thick, the strap is surprisingly very comfortable in wearing. 

The stainless steel buckle is designed ergonomically. The word Citizen is engraved on the buckle. 

The stainless steel backcase has all the information regarding the watch. I am happy to know that this watch is anti-magnetic (DC field up to 4800A/m at 5cm). Sound like suitable for super agent.... Bond, James Bond..... Nah, Mr Bond has more exquisite taste.....

The heart of this watch is the eco-drive E-168 movement. Eco-Drive can generate power from any light source, artificial, natural and even dim light to keep watches running without ever replacing batteries.

Theoretically, this watch should be able to serve you very well for the next 15 years to come. Once fully charged, E-168 can be functional for up to six months. The movement also has the function of low charge warning and over charged protection. It is quite a bulletproof movement. 

The date can be quick set and also it has a hacking function. The accuracy is about ±15 Seconds / Month. One word of caution thou, with any Solar powered watch, you always need to expose them to some light.... so never store them inside your drawer, or vault. If you stored them too long inside darkness, you probably need to fork up some cash to change its battery or capacitor. 

Citizen Electronic X8 Cosmotron

Remember the time

This is possible the missing link in the evolution of time pieces. This was the transition period from the mechanical watches to the Quartz revolution. The evolution of time pieces is somewhat different from the laws of Nature.... Electronic watches like Citizen Cosmotron and Seiko Elnix had well extincted in the production line whereas their older ancestor like mechanic and automatic watches still flourished today. These watches laid the foundation for greater modern movements like Quartz, Kinetic, Auto-Quartz, Solar powered and Spring drive. 

The Cosmotron X8 is the first transistorized electric by Citizen and also the first in Japan introduced as early as 1966/67. Cosmotron works like a mechanical watch except for one fundamental part... Instead of using the traditional mainspring; Citizen employed a moving-magnet type balance motor, driven by transistors as the regulating device. These watches are extremely accurate and reliable. Cosmotron has smooth sweeping second hand and sounded like a mechanical watch. 

What I have here is a simple Cosmotron with 3 hands.... nothing more; no date, no day; plain and simple. The stainless steel turtle case is measuring 38mm. This was the second generation of the Cosmotron, it is running at 21,600bph (0840) and with 12 jewels. The 0840 was launched in 1969, I believed this watch to be dated around 1970. 

It is very easy to fall in love with this watch.... The dial is so appealing.... Its simplicity, making time telling effortless. The Citizen and the red transistor symbol of Cosmotron emblems give good contrasting effect to the plain white dial. 

The crown is signed CTZ and is situated at 4 o'clock position.

The stainless steel bracelet for this watch is a piece of art. The solid links bracelet is meant to last......

The clasp is signed Citizen and really reflected the quality of Japanese watches back in the 1970's. 

The stainless steel back case is screw down type and it is labelled as Parawater or in other words water resist. 

Below is a photo of the 4840 movement taken from http://sweep-hand.org. This movement has 12 Jewels and powered by a 1.55v silver oxide battery. This movement is extremely robust and after 45 years or so it is still running strong.......

For further reading on Cosmotron X8 please visit http://sweep-hand.org/the-x8-cosmotron/ . It is a very comprehensive write up on Cosmotron. 

The Cosmotron X8 production was short run. With the rise of the quartz, the electronic watch technology was quickly rendered obsolete and production ceased....

Citizen Diver NY2300; a daily wear!

Citizen Diver Viva Forever....

"Hasta Manana,

Always be mine

[Chorus:]

Viva forever, I'll be waiting

Everlasting, like the sun

Live forever,

For the moment

Ever searching for the one " 

                                               Spice Girls

All of the sudden, in the right mood... took this Citizen NY2300 off my wrist and start taking mugshots of it. This is one of my daily wear; a workhorse that accompany me seeing my high and low.... Bought this in early 2000's while trying to build up my own business.....

It suits my daily purpose as a casual wear as it is not over bulky or luxury or delicate or complicated.... All I need is a reliable watch that tell me the accurate time with ease. Nothing fancy, nothing extravagance but a good piece of old technology......

I first wrote about Citizen NY2300 HERE..... The only different between this one and that, is the colour of the bezel and the dial. In this case, both are in tuxedo black. 

NY2300 is a 40mm solid stainless steel watch. A budget entry level automatic watch full of features. It has a bilateral rotating bezel with mineral crystal. 

The crown is screw locked with the protect crown guard. It has a scuba ability to impressive 200 meters. This watch is factory fitted with rubber diver band. 

The back case is a screw in solid stainless steel... I love the fact that it is flat and without any decoration. For a casual wear, it is all about comfortable and practicality.  

NY2300 is powered by Citizen Miyolta cal 8200. It is the same movement that powered the Citizen Autozilla, but this one is in the raw form. Apart from time, maybe the essential function of a watch is the day-date.... this watch gives you all; so what-else are you demanding? 

Revised December 2015

Decided to replace the rubber strap with a silicone one. More comfortable to wear and with a double push released clasp. 

A diver's professional tool: Citizen Autozilla NH6930-08F

Watch fits for GoDzilla!

Was watching Godzilla in theater last month..... felt a bit disappointed..... Maybe my expectation too high.... Somehow, I felt this time around Mr Godzilla gained a fair bit of weight despite Worldwide economy recession. Heheeeeeeeeee the King of Monsters is doing pretty fine. I must say this movie's story line is more loyal to original Eiji Tsuburaya's creation. I hated the fact that it was like watching Ultraman's movie with Ultraman being replaced by Godzilla......

Citizen Professional Diver Promaster AutoZilla 1000m NH6930-08F

This is a watch nicknamed Autozilla. I believe "Auto" as in Automatic movement of this watch, "Zilla" as an association with the monster Godzilla, perhaps due to its ultimate size of 55mm in width and 48mm in length and 19mm in thickness. Or maybe this watch can withstand a water pressure of until 1000m and Godzilla is of aquatic origin. 

I first wrote about this watch in a posting titled "Looking forward into 2014".... This is one of the three watches I was eyeing for this year. A motivation drive to accelerate myself in work and life.... and a little something to pamper myself.....

This brand new watch arrived on 10th June from Hong Kong. After a meeting, I had to rush from one side of the town to the other, just to pick it up from the local Postal service warehouse. The Citizen Autozilla was first released in early 2000's and is one of the holy grail of the professional diver's watches. It is rated as one of the top diver watches in the world with ISO 6425 International Standard compliance. Testing diving watches for ISO 6425 compliance is voluntary and involves costs, so not every manufacturer present their watches for certification according to this standard. Moreover, every single watch has to be tested. 

The watch comes in a huge black leather box.... not really too sure whether is PU or leather thou. Nicely stitched and with a Citizen wording stamping in the middle. The box is opened and closed using zip.....  

Although it is rather nice and classic.... I would prefer if it comes with a casing like Citizen Aqualand, i.e. the oxygen tank such as below.... Well, life ain't perfect....

Inside the box, the watch comes with an instruction manual, an international warranty, an extension wet suit band is also included and a spare bezel spring. 

The case of professional diving watch like Autozilla have to be constructed more stoutly than normal watches, because it needs to withstand excessive water pressure and endures corrosive seawater environment at depth. As a consequence diving watches are relatively heavy and large compared to dress watches.

Despite of its size, this watch weighted merely 135gm. This is due to the case is being made of titanium and its band is of rubber. Citizen employed a revolutionary technology which involves a special treatment on titanium to harden the surface. Citizen called this, Duratect. Applying this technique Citizen has achieved a hardness 5 times higher by penetrating carbon from the surface in order to distort the crystal of the metal. The result is a scratch-resistant hardness for daily use.

To conform to ISO 6425 standard, the Autozilla's case must also provide an adequate degree of protection against external magnetic influences and shocks. Autozilla is tested for magnetic resistance by 3 expositions to a direct current magnetic field of 4,800 A/m. The watch must keep its accuracy to ± 30 seconds/day as measured before the test despite the magnetic field. The antimagnetic feature is stated clearly at the caseback.

Shock resistance is tested by two shocks: one on the 9 o'clock side, and one to the crystal and perpendicular to the face. The shock is usually delivered by a hard plastic hammer mounted as a pendulum, so as to deliver a measured amount of energy, specifically, a 3 kg hammer with an impact velocity of 4.43 m/s. The change in rate allowed is ± 60 seconds/day. This watch is fitted with a thick 6 mm sapphire crystal. Dome shaped crystal is used to enhance the pressure-resistance of the watch and to improve the watch face legibility under water. Anti-reflective coating is also applied on the crystal for the same purpose.

The Autozilla has a black plain dial that is adorned with long-lasting, super-luminous large hour markers. This enables reading the time in dim light situations with ease. The markers for 3, 6, 9 and especially 12 o'clock and the zero marker on its unidirectional rotating elapsed time bezel are conspicuously styled to prevent disorientation induced read out errors under the darkness of the seas. There is a day-date display at three o’clock position. The day and date of this watch can be quick-set. 

The rugged looking rotating bezel have a minute scale going up to 60 minutes with a marking at every 5 minutes interval. It is easily detachable for cleaning after a dive. For a diver's watch the rotating device shall be protected against inadvertent rotation or wrong manipulation. The Autozilla also has a register ring clamp locking lever near its crown. 

For diving purposes, an indication that the watch is running in total darkness also has to be present. The Autozilla employed a running second hand with an arrow luminous tip. It also has a large, easily identifiable bright orange minute hand.  The hands design is also in such a way that no hand can totally overlay and hence obscure the position of another hand to prevent read out errors. Both minute and hour hands are heavily non-radioactive, photo-luminiscent treated.

This watch has a titanium screwdown crown at the 9 o’clock position. The crown is longer than usual and has mesh surface finishing. Most watches with crown on the 9 o'clock position are considered as for the left handed. This is however to reduce discomfort from the crown touching the wearers wrist. 

There is a Helium escape valve in this watch at two o'clock position. A helium or mixed breathing gas release or escape valve is to prevent the crystal from being blown off by an internal pressure build up caused by helium that has seeped into the watch case in helium enriched environments (helium atoms are the smallest natural gas particles found in nature) as the watch and diver adjust to normal atmospheric conditions.

Watchstraps for diving watches are generally made of materials that are adequately water (pressure) resistant and able to endure the galvanic corrosiveness of seawater. The Autozilla used the Silicone rubber band that have rippled or vented sections near the attachment points. There is no lugs on this watch. The band and the spring bars are concealed inside its case. This is to minimize the chance of losing the watch due to a spring bar or attachment point failure.

The buckle and strap lead are also made out of titanium with Promaster clearly stated.

There are four screws at the back that needs to be opened before changing the watchband. The titanium case back of Autozilla is a beauty! It is a screw down case back that operates somewhat like a submarine hatch. The center of the caseback is engraved with an atmospheric diving suit with the word Duratect clearly stated. The caseback of Autozilla is full of information about this professional watches..... We have the serial number of the watch, the movement number and the case number (I believe), Citzen watch co, Japan, case material, Antimagnetic 4800, "Diver's watch 1000m For Mixed-gas diving", and Don't open/ Service Center Repair Only.

The Autozilla is powered by the Miyota or Citizen in house 8203 movement. This is the same movement used in Citizen 200M automatic diver. This movement debut in 1977. It is an automatic, unidirectional winding 21 jewels movement operating at 21,600 bph. Power reserve is approximately 45 hours. Although it has handwinding capability, it is non-hacking. Accuracy is rated at -10 to +20 seconds per day. The B variant used in Autozilla is of higher grade. It has a black coloured heavier rotor and the movement is hand polished and fully assembled in Japan.  

From any angle this watch stands up for itself..... Something that you can't ignore........

I must say the Autozilla built quality is unquestionable. What makes it even more appealing is its affordable pricing. Nothing roar likes a Godzilla...........