As a dive watch, the Promaster Depth Meter is water resistant to 200 meters, which is rather standard for chronograph divers. The depth meter only measures down to 50 meters though. The case also has a rotating diver’s bezel, which is fortunately rather thin given the overall thickness of the case. There is also a fair amount of lume on the dial and I would give the legibility overall high marks given all that the dial has placed on it. Also, the crystal has a good amount of AR coating on it.
Functionally, there are no surprises. The watch begins with a Japanese Citizen Eco-Drive movement that is powered by light and never needs a battery change. The movement features the time, date, 50 minute chronograph (unique number there) 24 hour indicator (basically an AM/PM indicator), battery charge indicator, and of course the depth meter.
These latter two functions are important to understand because they work together. The watch essentially includes a warning system designed to let you know if there is enough battery power to dive. This is both a positive and negative feature. It is negative because the timepiece uses the central orange hand as the power reserve indicator by default – not as the chronograph seconds hand. Chronograph mode must be entered into by pressing down on the lower pusher. That means that rather than be symmetrically aligned at zero, the orange hand is always oriented a bit to the left. If you put the watch into chronograph mode, it eventually reverts back to battery level indicator mode.
The battery indicator is segmented into three areas that are “LV.2, LV.1, and NG.” I assume the latter means “no go” because it is a warning that the battery is not charged enough to sustain the depth meter function when diving. LV.1 means that there is charge for about one hour of diving at a maximum depth of 20 meters, and Lv.2 means you are good for all types of diving (within the functional range of the watch). It is a useful feature and shows that Citizen is focused on safety, but again it is really only necessary when diving – which is an argument to keep the watch with your dive gear (albeit in light so that it is charged when you want it).
It would have been great if Citizen allowed you to keep the watch in chronograph mode so that the orange hand stuck at the top of the dial. Having said that, you don’t actually need to put the watch in dive mode, as it will automatically start tracking your depth once it is taken about a meter under water or more. It is also important to note that due to the gearing of the hands, there is no quick transition from chronograph to other modes. This means the hands have to circle the dial a number of times to reset their positions. This is because the chronograph hands are geared together. Essentially this means that the central seconds hand cannot move independently of the upper sub dial.
Overall I like this watch a lot as a tool watch enthusiast. It looks much better than the previous generation and Citizen clearly focused on an appealing style to wear in and out of the water. The quirks are somewhat endearing, especially since most people will want to use it as a backup device while having another dive computer. On land the watch is perhaps a bit overkill, but doesn’t lack any of the daily features most people want in a watch. Retail price for the Citizen Eco-Drive Promaster Aqualand Depth Meter BJ2128-05E is $695. citizenwatch.com
Necessary Data
>Brand: Citizen
>Model: Eco-Drive Promaster Aqualand Depth Meter ref. BJ2128-05E
>Price: $695
>Size: 48mm
>Would reviewer personally wear it: Sometimes.
>Friend we’d recommend it to first: Diving enthusiast that wants a reasonably priced depth meter watch they can wear both in and out of the water.
>Worst characteristic of watch: Over focus on depth meter functionality prevents dial from looking as sharp as possible.
>Best characteristic of watch: Fun, refined design in a genuinely comfortable watch with a useful Eco-Drive movement.