First impressions of CITIZEN PROMASTER PMV65-2242 Perfex Multi 3000 Limited Edition

[mchomicz]

It arrived in the mail today and the very first though I had when I opened the box was 'wow - this thing is BIG'. But it's a good thing - because if it were any smaller - all the lettering, dials and LCD displays would be either too crowded on the dial or else illegible. So it's nice to have ample real estate on the dial.

There is a ton of information available at a glance on the watch and some of it is customisible (I have only briefly looked through the manual but will definitely need to study it to take full advantage of the watch). One notable sub-dial is the centrally located UTC which I suppose is a great thing for pilots, ship navigators, ham-radio operators and so forth. I personally have no use for it - but I guess that's the price you pay for a cool looking 'pilot' watch All of these dials and displays are housed underneath a domed, double anti-reflection coated sapphire crystal. The coating of the crystal reminds me of anti-glare coating put on glasses these days. Though it's blueish - and not greenish - in hue.

The fit and finish of the watch are top notch. I was hoping they'd be - but when shopping for watches based solely on photos and accounts of other owners - it's always a gamble...

The watch looks big on its own and feels even bigger on the wrist. And even though it's made out of titanium - it still feels fairly hefty. Though perhaps it's because for the past 2 months I did not take a plastic G off my wrist... So anything metal now feels heavy in comparison.

My only concern is about the brownish / dark gray finish of the watch (really hard to define; the actual color depends on ambient light). I've only had one 'anodized' (or otherwise colored) watch before. It was a G-Shock and it scratched very easily. It was quite a disappointment and I ended up selling it for that reason. But that CASIO was a plain vanilla anodized stainless steel watch with no 'scratch resistant' protection of any kind. This watch features CITIZEN's 'Duratect' scratch resistant coat. We'll see how well it wears...

I'd LOVE to hear from other Duratect-coated watch owners out there about their experiences and just how scratch resistant Duratect really is!

This is by far the most expensive watch I have (or ever had) - about 3 times as much as the second most expensive watch in my 'collection.' Is it worth a grand? Probably not... It's a quartz watch after all - and not of the 'high end quartz' verity. But it has just about every single feature that I wanted in a watch including multi-band capability for reception not only in the US but also Europe and Japan. And it looks REALLY good. Much better in person than in any photos I had seen. If only I could substitute day/date for the 'home town' display I do travel on occasion - but not so often as to forget where I am right now (I'm sure some commercial pilots may need a reminder as to where it is in the world that they are). I find myself not knowing today's date or day of the week far more often then my location on the planet!

Some photos below.

Michael