Fingers-On: Citizen Promaster Navihawk Watches

Amid its various and ultra-capable Promaster sequence, Citizen produces a number of the most sturdy and purpose-built pilot’s watches on the present market. With their tendency in the direction of daring case sizing, quartz problems, and visible hyper-complexity, these Citizen Promaster Air designs stand as formidable opponents to the upper echelons of the ever present Casio G-Shock line. Till just lately, nonetheless, the model’s powerful and succesful contender sequence was lacking considered one of its most potent instruments. With the return of the Promaster Navihawk, nonetheless, Citizen brings an aggressive fighter cockpit-inspired look and immense performance to the sequence in a pair of high-impact colorways. The brand new Citizen Promaster Navihawk sequence delivers a powerful mix of ruggedness and functionality, creating one of the succesful and function-driven quartz instrument watch designs on the present market.

There’s no denying the Citizen Promaster Navihawk is an enormous watch. At 48mm-wide, this broad, athletic design shares a few of its rivals’ imposing wrist presence, however not like lots of its opponents, the general kind is deceptively easy. Whereas there are intricate components such because the engraved free-turning compass bezel and the screw-down mushroom pushers, by and huge, the form of the Promaster Navihawk is remarkably standard, with shortish tapering lugs and vertical slab case sides. The totally brushed stainless-steel end retains this complicated design from feeling overwhelmed by element, and the non-compulsory black ion-plated coating additional aids the sense of purposefulness within the general design. With this extra standardized kind, nonetheless, the case of the Promaster Navihawk does little to cover its bulk, and though overhang is basically mitigated by the brief lug size that is definitely a watch that makes itself recognized on the wrist. Citizen does place a significant give attention to sturdiness for the Promaster Navihawk, as evidenced by the stable 200-meter water resistance ranking.

Citizen packs a powerful quantity of performance into the dials of the Promaster Navihawk sequence. Moderately than the clear legibility of flieger-style pilot watch designs, the model clearly goals for the extra technical aspect of the pilot chronograph spectrum, and almost each nook of actual property below the sapphire crystal is dedicated to helpful information. This begins proper on the fringe of the dial, the place Citizen features a rotating interior bezel with a gas consumption scale, permitting wearers to trace gas utilization per mile throughout a flight. This dedication to hardcore technical data continues all through the remainder of the design, particularly with the multifunction format of the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock subdials. Citizen fashions the dial after the look of recent plane cockpits, and these graphic trapezoidal subdials seize the look of a contemporary fighter jet’s heads-up show successfully on the wrist.

Each subdials pull triple responsibility relying on the present complication in use, with the 12 o’clock subdial biking between a chronograph minutes show, an influence reserve indicator, and a daylight financial savings time indicator on the press of a pusher. Likewise, the 6 o’clock subdial can switch between a chronograph 1/20-second show, pointer day complication, and a radio management sign indicator. Exterior of the comparatively easy 9 o’clock 24 hour subdial, the remainder of the Promaster Navihawk’s dial design retains the technical aviation theme intact, with a mixture of daring printed wedge indices and rounded Arabic numerals paired to a flanged straight sword handset. The central chronograph seconds hand provides a winged tip to strengthen the aeronautical cues and different components from the intense contrasting “horizon line” operating from 9 o’clock to three o’clock to the hazard-striped body to the 4 o’clock date window assist to finish the look. One of many Promaster Navihawk’s most superior problems can also be considered one of its visually subtlest, nonetheless, as the one outward indicator of its world timer functionality is town ring on the vertical slope of the interior bezel. Each dial variants additionally inject their very own character into this components. The stainless-steel cased mannequin brings a brilliant and sporting crimson and black colorway to the gradient base dial, which sharply transitions from robust cobalt at 12 o’clock to a deep black at 6 o’clock. Against this, the black and yellow accents of the black ion-plated mannequin give the design way more of a contemporary navy character on the wrist, which is additional strengthened by the principle dial’s gradient from forest inexperienced to black.

Citizen powers the Promaster Navihawk with its in-house H804 radio-controlled quartz chronograph motion. The H804 provides a wealth of problems, starting from a 1/20-second chronograph to a perpetual calendar, Eco-Drive photo voltaic charging, a 24-hour subdial, a day/date show, an influence reserve indicator, a world timer, and radio-controlled timekeeping synchronized to an atomic clock that robotically adjusts to the wearer’s present time zone. After a full photo voltaic cost, Citizen claims the H804 can run for a stable 10 months with out recharging. Citizen completes each fashions with a three-link bracelet. The easily brushed ending and rounded hyperlinks of those bracelets go a great distance in the direction of giving the Promaster Navihawk a extra refined allure, and the two-button clasps are each handsomely completed and assist to make the watch a cushty put on regardless of its heft.

With a deep roster of problems, rock-solid development, and a complex-yet-functional design, the brand new Citizen Promaster Navihawk sequence stands as a real contender within the ultra-capable quartz sports activities watch area. Each variants of the Citizen Promaster Navihawk can be found now by way of licensed sellers, at an MSRP of $650 for the stainless-steel mannequin and $695 for the black ion-plated variant. For extra particulars, please go to the model’s web site.