Seiko, are you listening?

First, the packet. You get a little scuba tank. It serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever. An ornament. Adorn your hearth with it, I don't know. Then a lovely, extremely high-quality box, a case inside like an old CD case with no CDs, a watch tool with a little red rubber bit, manuals, guarantee cards, the lot. This watch comes in under £200. It is the best presented affordable watch I've ever seen, hands down. Seiko, are you listening to me? This is what Citizen are doing.

A sword to a gunfight

Inside is the Miyota 8203. 21,600, non-hacking, but strangely it does hand-wind, which is interesting, and it only winds one way: clockwise. All you watch-winder freaks, set it in the right direction. Give it a hard flick and listen to that rotor spin and wobble. An antiquated movement, 30 years old. Why they can't fit a 9015 is beyond me. It's an anachronism in the modern day, like taking a sword to a gunfight.

But it's handsome. There's no denying it. It just looks great. Applied indices, which you won't find on its competitor the SKX. And an eight o'clock crown, extremely rare: finally something for the 10 percent of us who are left-handed, like me. I feel your pain. The 60-click bezel? Some people say it feels really good, minimal back play. It feels cheap. I don't like it.

The jingle jangle

The OEM bracelet is dreadful. Ghastly. Frightful, actually. A jingle-jangle to the max. Zero micro-adjustments, a fold-over clasp with no deployant, folded links that are sharp enough to literally cut your skin, and hollow end links. They haven't even bothered with pin-and-collar. Get rid of it immediately.

One saving grace: a ratcheting diver's extension, which you don't generally get on anything under £500. When you get a bit warm, out he pops. That makes up for a lot. Respect, Citizen. You also get a lovely rubber strap printed with a no-decompression-limits table, paramount for all of us scuba divers. Obviously.

Verdict

Lume? I'll tell you it's got great lume, and then in the lume shot next to the SKX, the Helson and my Orient Saturation Diver, it looks weak and pathetic. Make of that what you will. To summarise: this watch is great. Flawed. It's not a complete watch. Next to the SKX, its most direct competitor and almost identical in size, the SKX is a better watch, and so is the Kamasu. Plenty of people think the Promaster is better. Not me. Never give up, bros.