Citizen NY0040 Diver's 200m

[Frogger]

Citizen NY0040 Diver's 200m

Citizen is a Japanese watch brand and is quite popular amongst Diver's, the ProMaster Series. But of course they also produce other models as well.
This review concentrates on the NY0049 an ISO certified diving watch.

This is an automatic watch with date and day and an uni-rotating bezel. It is available in classic black, blue and yellow. Its special features are a screw-down crown on the 8'o clock position and its handwinding ability- which is unusual in this price segment. Also the day is available in two different languages in one watch: Japanes/ English, Chinese/ English, German/ English, French/ English and maybe more.

The watch itself is made out of one block of steal in a special one-piece-one-pour process. Citizen does not say what kind of steel they use. The back is a screw-back with all its advantages and disadvantages. The screw-down crown is perfect for left-handed persons and doesnt even dig into your wrist when worn on the right. It is available with a stainless steel bracelet and divers extension -one of the best I have seen, since it can be adjusted to any lenght on the go without tools- and a rubber band which has a textile layer, so if the rubber breaks the textile helps preventing a loss of your precious watch.

The watch is featured with a simple but stable Citizen 8203A in-house movement, which is now for over 20 years on the market and runs no matter what. 21 rubies take care for its accuracy and 21'600 half-cycles/h with 45h power reserve are a standard for mechanicals. Safe against vibrations and shocks. In the 90's the QC wasn't as good as it is now and mine had to be adjusted since it had a drift of about 30 seconds per day. My new one has plus-minus zero if you dont take it off at night! The automatic movemnt does not hack, but you can when not too much wound screw the crown backwards to keep the second hand at its place. Some do not recommend doing so, but I havent experienced any problems till now- knock knock knock. Of course Citizen didnt miss out quicksetting of day and date! Another reason for this little bargain is the abilit to hand wind the movement- I dont see the reason why I should need it, since it only gives more wear on the crown but some see this as a must have.

In my case the dial is black and shining. If you take a blue one it reflects even more and looks very elegant. The hands and indices are made of steel, are not chromed or at least dont shine as bright as on the Seiko SKX171 (see my other review) and filled with some glowing substance. [Citizen representatives told me it is called 'superluminous', but people on the forum have talked about 'Natulite'] Anyways the lume is very bright, brighter than the SKX171 at night and shines for the whole night visibly, but at least for 8 hours, if you do NOT take special care of recharging the lume. If you at day let the sun shine shortly on it and then enter a room it glows bright green.

This little fellow takes quite a beating and I havent been able to break it up till now.
The mineral glass doesnt scratch easily but it does. The glass is nearly on the same level as the bezel so it isnt much protected- that is a shame!
In my experience the glow suffers some aging. I experienced this while on a vacation in Egypt. After the trip the lume was nearly completely gone. Age of the watch about 5 years. I am not sure if water got into it while I was diving or if it was the UV-light exposure, the movement was still very good, so I suspect a degradation of the lume itself.

Still such a watch is a very good choice for people wanting a sportiv look paired with a reliable workhorse. Expect at least 10 years of problem free operation- my is now working for over 15 years and was never serviced; shame on me..
(This is a promotional pic, I will include some shots in a few days)

[wemedge]

Thank you for the review. Nice to have a long-term evaluation.

regards,
wemedge

[TonyT1969]

Thanks for the review..! Job well done! Citizen really makes quality watches that last a very long time without any issues. :thanks

Cheers!

[Grambo]

I know this review was back in October 2008. After reading I decided to take the plunge. I am getting the blue faced diver. This will be my second auto. The first is a Timex T2D941, may be a little review on that one later. I hope the Citizen works out as well as yours.

[Koukalaka]

I have worn an NY0040-17L (the blue one) at work for a couple of years now and continue to be impressed. I work in an ER, so the watch gets beaten up a fair bit and not infrequently is spattered with blood or various other bodily fluids...therefore it ALWAYS goes through the shower with me after a shift and has been washed hundreds of times. The small dive table printed on the rubber strap started to wear off within weeks, but the strap otherwise still looks great and the bezel remains almost perfect. The crystal is fairly vulnerable to scratches, but then again I bought this watch for rough use and that's not too surprising in a crystal that isn't made of sapphire.

The handwinding ability is nice...but I do worry about unscrewing and re-screwing the crown over and over to keep it wound when my watch winder is otherwise occupied.

Does anyone know if it's still possible to buy the yellow version (NY0040-25Y) anywhere? Skywatches.com.sg still has the 25Y pictured with its siblings but it's apparently been out of stock for a long time.

[Koukalaka]

Here's a comparison of the NY0040 and the Seiko Orange Monster (SKX781):

Comparison: Orange Monster vs. Citizen NY0040 Diver

It may be more fair to compare the NY0040 to other models in the Seiko SKX series of divers, like the SKX007 which has a more similar appearance. I've seen similar comparisons elsewhere.

[Blaise Pabon]

I just discovered this forum and was hoping that you guys could help answer two questions about this watch I've had for 10 years and never knew much about. I don't use automatics and I got an aqualand a few years later, so I have had it sitting in a drawer for about 5 years.

When I handwind, I never reach a stopping point. The rep at Citizen's service cecnter said that it would stop, but I have really wound it for a very long time without reaching the end. Is that a bad sign?

Also, since it has been sitting still for so long, do I have to send it in for service or is it likely to just pick up where I left off?

I have worn an NY0040-17L (the blue one) at work for a couple of years now and continue to be impressed. I work in an ER, so the watch gets beaten up a fair bit and not infrequently is spattered with blood or various other bodily fluids...therefore it ALWAYS goes through the shower with me after a shift and has been washed hundreds of times. The small dive table printed on the rubber strap started to wear off within weeks, but the strap otherwise still looks great and the bezel remains almost perfect. The crystal is fairly vulnerable to scratches, but then again I bought this watch for rough use and that's not too surprising in a crystal that isn't made of sapphire.

The handwinding ability is nice...but I do worry about unscrewing and re-screwing the crown over and over to keep it wound when my watch winder is otherwise occupied.

Does anyone know if it's still possible to buy the yellow version (NY0040-25Y) anywhere? Skywatches.com.sg still has the 25Y pictured with its siblings but it's apparently been out of stock for a long time.