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Since the dawn of aviation, there have been timepieces designed to meet the specific needs of airplane pilots. Over time, the pilot’s watch segment has evolved to fill a vast array of niches, ranging from simple, legible three-hand designs for easy timekeeping, to complex creations aimed at providing as much useful data to the cockpit crew as possible. For this latter kind, few if any brands can match the capability, toughness, style, and value of Citizen. Since 1989, Citizen’s rugged Promaster line has catered to the needs of professional aviators everywhere, combining cutting-edge functionality with styling that feels at home in a first-class airport lounge. The new Citizen Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H is a shining example of nearly 35 years of continuous development in action, delivering a purpose-built pilot’s timepiece with a chronograph, world timer, a perpetual calendar, multiple alarms, reliable radio-controlled atomic timekeeping, and more in a package that works as well in the office as it does at 40,000 feet.

The Citizen Promaster pilot’s watch story begins with the 1989 Citizen Promaster Pilot, developed to be a versatile, dependable companion for both professional pilots and international business travelers. This was a modern, integrated-bracelet design, combining both traditional and innovative tools for high-flying travelers. For the bezel, Citizen offered wearers a complex circular slide rule, allowing complex flight-related calculations such as fuel consumption and airspeed to be made in seconds without the aid of a computer. However, the original 1989 Promaster Pilot also included a microcomputer, allowing this watch to pack a hybrid analog-digital time display, a constant UTC time counter, a world timer, a global calendar, and a world time alarm. Not content to rest on its laurels, Citizen continued to refine and improve the concept of the Promaster Pilot, leading to landmark designs like the 2000 Citizen Promaster Navihawk. This was the first Citizen Promaster pilot’s watch to use the brand’s signature Eco-Drive light-powered charging technology, which was paired with a New Power Save function to allow the Promaster Navihawk to function up to four years on a full charge. A more complex, refined case design, a time display for 30 cities around the globe, a 24-hour time mode, a split-display chronograph, and the option to switch between analog and digital displays at will made this model a true leap forward for the series.

In 2023, Citizen continues to build on nearly 35 years of expertise to create truly world-class multifunction pilot’s watch designs, and one of the most compelling demonstrations of this experience at work is the new Citizen Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H. At 45mm-wide, its stainless steel case provides a confident, eye-catching stance on the wrist, but its short, sharply downturned lugs help it to wrap handsomely around a wide variety of wrist sizes. The overall form is classical but athletic, with broad polished chamfers adding highlights to a purposeful brushed case body and matching lugs. Citizen continues this handsome blend of rugged functionality and refinement through the crown and pushers, which offer aggressive knurling for easy screw-down operation and a brilliant gold tone finish. Naturally, the real visual centerpiece of the Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H’s case is its gold-tone bezel. With aggressive gear-toothed sections and smooth bidirectional operation, this bezel is easy to use even with heavy gloves, and the slide rule scale can be used in conjunction with the watch’s rehaut to quickly and accurately make crucial fuel consumption calculations mid-flight. Citizen takes this case beyond cockpit duty with robust construction, however. With a hefty 200 meters of water resistance, the Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H is prepared for a wide range of adventures.

The dial of the Citizen Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H builds upon the innovations of its predecessors to deliver a design that packs immense functionality into a clean, readable layout. The bold, semi-skeletonized white sword hands and the mix of vivid white indices and stencil numerals stand out against the subdials at a glance, which gives the design far better legibility than most similarly complicated dial layouts. However, the Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H still offers a wealth of complications that can be selected by adjusting the crown. At 12 o’clock is a permanent 24-hour subdial displaying the UTC time zone, a Skyhawk series staple that allows wearers to easily gauge the time difference between two or more locations. Citizen flanks this bold, oversized subdial with a pair of smaller subdials at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock for a balanced and charismatic instrument cluster-inspired effect on the wrist. At 2 o’clock, the watch offers a running 24-hour subdial for the selected home time zone, while at 10 o’clock a multifunction subdial displays both the current power reserve and the source of the watch’s radio-controlled atomic timekeeping signal. The digital subdials at 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock offer wearers instant access to relevant information depending on the currently selected complication. During normal timekeeping, the 9 o’clock subdial displays the watch’s home time zone, while the 3 o’clock display acts as a world timer tracking any one of 43 selectable cities around the globe (as an example, in images the watch is displaying times for both Los Angeles and Berlin). When different complications are selected, however, these versatile digital subdials can offer a perpetual calendar, a 1/100-second chronograph, a 99-minute countdown timer, and settings for two independently adjustable alarms. At 6 o’clock, Citizen adds a minimal subdial to track the currently selected function, while also visually balancing the dial layout as a whole.

Citizen powers the Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H with its in-house U680 Eco-Drive light-powered movement. The U680 is a truly high-tech powerplant, combining Citizen’s famous Eco-Drive charging system with radio-controlled atomic timekeeping from sources in the United States, Japan, China, and Europe. By synchronizing automatically with atomic clocks, the U680 offers more or less perfect accuracy in real-world operation, and the ability to charge anywhere, anytime using any light source makes this a truly reliable daily wear for nearly any scenario. To complete this ruggedly refined package, the Citizen Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H is paired with a supple leather strap in deep brown with contrasting white box stitching. It’s a handsome visual callback to the early days of pilot’s watches, with a textured, aged feel that adds impressive nuance to the watch on the wrist.

Although the pilot’s watch is one of the most enduring, popular segments in modern watchmaking, few brands can match Citizen’s unique blend of functionality, dependability, and style. The brand has spent nearly 35 years refining its line of professional-focused pilot’s watches, and timepieces like the Citizen Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H stand as solid proof of that expertise. The Citizen Promaster Skyhawk A-T JY8084-09H is available now on the brand’s e-commerce platform and carries an MSRP of $725 USD. To learn more, please visit Citizen’s website.

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