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Adapted from Original at my site, here: http://www.thetruthaboutwatches.com/...ew-jv0030-01e/
Let me open this review by saying once again, I have set a personal "record" of sorts. I have never been more awestruck upon receiving a new watch as I was when I opened the little Aqualand scuba tank watchbox and pulled this piece out of it's foam shipping protection. This piece commands attention, and has the most amazing wrist presence without being absurdly oversized. The watch is very large, and it wears large, but I feel that the size is very manageable, unlike some other oversized diver's models. (See Invicta Russian Diver Review)
The 20th Anniv. Aqualand is one of the coolest diver watches in existence, but it is definitely designed to be used as a diving tool. Buying this watch to wear around the office would be a terrible waste. The watch lacks common digital fuctions, such as a chronograph and countdown timer. It replaces these functions with dive related programs that I will address later on.
Case
The 20th Anniv. Aqualand (Henceforth, "Anni") has a two tone case that seems to be all stainless steel. The "bezel" of the watch gets a cool brushed gunmetal color, while the rest of the case has the usual brushed stainless finish, which is nicer on this particular model than on some other Citizen watches. The finish on the Anni rivals that of the Nighthawk, which I feel is one of Citizen's best examples.
Each side of the case has two buttons, and the 9:00 side of the case has the pressure sensor, and temperature sensor.
The 3:00 side of the case has the "Dive" or water sensor that puts the watch into dive mode.
The case of the watch is pretty thin for how large the watch is, but this contributes to it's excellent wearability. It sits nice and flat on your wrist, and does not slide around or move up and down your arm. Citizen uses their typical screw down caseback, but with one notable exception. As you may know from reading my other reviews, Citizen tends to go "light" on the engraving, which is disappointing in an expensive watch.
The Anni's case back is nicely engraved, and I think it's a good step in the right direction for making a watch have that "expensive" feel/look to it.
Crystal
The Anni has a large domed mineral crystal, and it's absolutely beautiful. I would have preferred a Sapphire just because of the cost of the watch, but there is one thing you have to remember about purpose built dive watches.
The manufacturer expects them to get bumped around, and knocking a giant sapphire crystal into boat hulls, air tanks, etc, would eventually result in a busted crystal. Citizen chose wisely, even though I would personally have chosen the more luxurious route, over practicality, simply because I am overly careful with my dive equipment.
Movement
The Anni uses Citizen's U100 Quartz, which has a stated accuracy of +/- 15s per month. I've had the watch in my possession for 7 days, and it has remained exactly synchronized with the Atomic clock in my office.
Of course, the draw for this watch is not the timekeeping, though the accuracy is nice, it's the dive features.
I will be doing a separate review of the watch in dive mode, because there are so many different screens to show and talk about, it would be boring for me to describe them instead of showing them to you.
The watch records up to 99 numerically ordered dives, 20 at a time. As you add a new one, the oldest is cleared out of memory. Another thing to note, that may or may not be an issue for individual buyers, is that the analog depth meter on the 9:00 side of the dial is not "live" per se.
The current depth is displayed on the LCD screen throughout the dive, as well as other pertinent information. The analog meter shows only the maximum depth for the current dive.
The Anni also features "surface mode" for use with dive tables and planning. Logs can display date of dive, elapsed time, start time, water temperature, max depth, and numerical dive number. Please note that this watch does *NOT* contain any decompression algorithms, or other PDC software. It is simply a timing device with a depth / temp sensor.
The watch has depth alarms, dive time alarms, and an ascent rate alarm, as well as three normal "time" alarms for everyday use.
Please see the video's at the bottom for a detailed example of diving with this watch, and stay tuned for my update of the watch in an actual dive.
Strap and Buckle
The Anni uses a very nicely made rubber strap that is long enough to fit over my drysuit. It makes the watch a bit of a bear to wear in everyday situations, because the strap has a lot of hangover. If I could find the bracelet for this model, I would definitely wear it in my usual rotation on the bracelet instead of the strap.
However, the strap is high quality, and the buckle is signed with the Citizen Promaster Logo.
Importnt to note here, is that even though the strap is not "integrated" into the watch, it does fit into the case in a strange manner, which would make this a difficult replacement for anything other than OEM strap/bracelet options. I'm fairly sure a NATO or ZULU would work on this watch, and I will update the review accordingly after I've tried it.
<img src="http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/Balancewheel/Picture006-17.jpg"WIDTH=718 HEIGHT=536 alt="" />
<strong>Lume</strong>
The Anni has some amazing lume, both on the Digital and Analog readouts of the watch. Almost everything on the dial lights up, and it's an awesome effect.
Overall, I can happily say that the Anni is a functional, stylish, and effective piece of dive equipment, but I will restate at this point that it is just that. A piece of dive equipment. Someone who will not scuba dive may want to think twice before buying this model. It has only features that are related to scuba diving, outside of three surface alarms.
So unless you just love the styling, this watch may be one you should pass on for something more practical. Not that I wouldn't love to see any one of you wearing this watch, I just wanted to make you aware that it is purpose built, so you can go into your purchase as an educated consumer.
I love the Anni, and after a small hiccup with some glue residue on the crystal, it has entered the rotation and will be participating in a couple dives very soon. What an amazing addition from Citizen.
Video courtesy of "Nikudes" via YouTube.
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Originally Posted by Johnny J
