[bb-sf]

I broke my New Year's resolution of not buying any watches in 2015 on a Citizen Royal Marines 300M Titanium Diver - BN0148-54E.


Citizen UK


Citizen UK

UK Citizen Watch Vendor's site.


From a UK watch vendor's site. Customer provided image.

First of all, all of this limited edition malarkey kind of bugs me. Second of all, it did help me rationalize that there are a 1000 of these made and vendors selling new are running out so I bought the last one offered by a UK vendor (edit note - a day or so later it showed up for sale again by the same vender). Should have it in the US I am guessing Wednesday-Thursday. Will post some pictures.

Why I bought. Overall minimal look. Citizen claims its Super Titanium is 1,000-1,200 on the Vickers hardness scale which is close to or even matches Sinn's claimed 1,200 Vickers for its tegimented steel. Sapphire crystal. 300m. Lightweight. Rectangular retro hour markers. Thin 12.5mm for a dive watch. The large diameter of the crown pushed me over to buy it.

Why I hesitated. Round Cyclops and square date - Well I am getting older - nothing that being OCD and having some time on a Saturday morning in the garage can't fix (sounds scary and it is). Hard to say what the blue bordering on the hour markers will look like in the flesh. I read one review that the lume is two colors which may be kind of cool or kind of irritating - we will see. It comes with a bunch of junk - binoculars and big metal box which I will be obligated to keep in the closet. What really is super titanium - Duratect's 1/2 bro?

Some have complained about the black bezel and the design around the pip looking like undergarments. O.k. (The Royal Marines went Commando and put their briefs on the pip perhaps. To be on the safe side I will keep my Cammando pip away from my Sumo's 12 o'clock Vag marker) Some have complained about the price. I got it for $500 delivered which is quite a bit below what I saw it sold by various sellers but still not cheap. Simple E168 movement. I can live with that rather than some more complex perpetual movement that I have in some of my JDM Duratect Citizens given the tool nature of the watch.

Ultimately, to me this watch trumps on a feature by feature basis many tool german/swiss minimal aesthetics divers especially when considering price. I am kind of always on the look out for the "ultimate beater" which I can wear all the time. We will see how this one scratches that itch.

Will post some picts when I have it in my possession and have worn it for a while.

 

[APam002]

very nice ! nt

,ddd

I broke my New Year's resolution of not buying any watches in 2015 on a Citizen Royal Marines 300M Titanium Diver - BN0148-54E.


Citizen UK


Citizen UK

UK Citizen Watch Vendor's site.


From a UK watch vendor's site. Customer provided image.

First of all, all of this limited edition malarkey kind of bugs me. Second of all, it did help me rationalize that there are a 1000 of these made and vendors selling new are running out so I bought the last one offered by a UK vendor. Should have it in the US I am guessing Wednesday-Thursday. Will post some pictures.

Why I bought. Overall minimal look. Citizen claims its Super Titanium is 1,000-1,200 on the Vickers hardness scale which is close to or even matches Sinn's claimed 1,200 Vickers for its tegimented steel. Sapphire crystal. 300m. Lightweight. Rectangular retro hour markers. Thin 12.5mm for a dive watch. The large diameter of the crown pushed me over to buy it.

Why I hesitated. Round Cyclops and square date - Well I am getting older - nothing that being OCD and having some time on a Saturday morning in the garage can't fix (sounds scary and it is). Hard to say what the blue bordering on the hour markers will look like in the flesh. I read one review that the lume is two colors which may be kind of cool or kind of irritating - we will see. It comes with a bunch of junk - binoculars and big metal box which I will be obligated to keep in the closet. What really is super titanium - Duratect's 1/2 bro?

Some have complained about the black bezel and the design around the pip looking like undergarments. O.k. (The Royal Marines went Commando and put their briefs on the pip perhaps. To be on the safe side I will keep my Cammando pip away from my Sumo's 12 o'clock Vag marker) Some have complained about the price. I got it for $500 delivered which is quite a bit below what I saw it sold by various sellers but still not cheap. Simple E168 movement. I can live with that rather than some more complex perpetual movement that I have in some of my JDM Duratect Citizens given the tool nature of the watch.

Ultimately, to me this watch trumps on a feature by feature basis many tool german/swiss minimal aesthetics divers especially when considering price. I am kind of always on the look out for the "ultimate beater" which I can wear all the time. We will see how this one scratches that itch.

Will post some picts when I have it in my possession and have worn it for a while.

 

[jringo8769]

that is a beauty....

 

[bedmac]

That's a looker for sure and I could see having one. One question: is the cyclops on the underside or the topside of the crystal? Put another way, is it proud of the surface like a Rolex? Or is the crystal basically flat?

 

[bb-sf]

That's a looker for sure and I could see having one. One question: is the cyclops on the underside or the topside of the crystal? Put another way, is it proud of the surface like a Rolex? Or is the crystal basically flat?

I just got it today. The cyclops is on the underside, so removing it is problematic and the warning on the case back to only have the watch opened by Citizen is enough to scare me into not giving it to a watchmaker as a project.

Pictures soon.

 

[the_shovel]

Nice watch, looking forward to pix... Does the watch say "Royal Marines" on it...maybe on the back?

 

[bb-sf]

OK - Some Pictures

First of all, from England, ordered Sunday and got to my office Tuesday late morning. Even the box it shipped in was a Citizen box for this watch -



Then you get this box inside


I am not one for unboxings but the packaging seems to be part of the deal with this watch. All dense foam surrounding display box -


You get to the watch






Ok a little more focus on the watch. The binoculars sell for $17 on amazon by the way


Ok the lume. Hour hand matches hour markers - blue. Pip minute hand and second hand meatball match each other - kind of a Seiko green we all know



You asked about the back. It pays homage to the Royal Marines Commandos -



I totally respect military service, but this is not why I bought the watch. Regardless, I would think the watch would live up to the demands of such troops.

Ok, putting the internalized Cyclops up for a practical walking back to my office from the bank while waiting to cross the intersection test - -


Hmmm... not sure it passed. But I still like it! Got to have a little Brit eccentricity! Have you ever owned a real Jag????????!!!!!!! All in goodwill!! The closest I ever came to owning a Brit Jag as a Merican Bicycle so I really don't know what I am talking about either. I ramble on...

Solid Clasp -




Bremont is getting on on the same Royal Marine Commando Band Wagon




Ok. I have a 6.5 inch wrist and the watch wears well. I have a few titanium watches and Citizen does titanium very well. This seems very similar to my Duratect watches. Silky feel. The bracelet and the much of the case is greyish I would say. Some very shiny stainless toned places on the case. The all black bezel makes sense when you see it and has a dark grey metallic look to it in the flesh more than just black.

Lume is high grade Citizen lume, not Seiko lume. Totally dig the big crown and I should have included some shots of it. Crown and crown tube threading seems spot on.

I am in a 6 weeks physical training program and I have a professional exam to pass 7/31 so my intent is to wear this watch exclusively during that time and not worry about it. Shower, gym, dishes, cycling, crunching numbers, drinking coffee while looking at the cute barista while studying - whatever.

I am really happy with it. I am not much for all the collateral stuff. Just means I have to keep it in storage if I ever sell it (I think not likely at this time). That said for certain people it may mean a lot and I respect that. I will say the metal box is really a sturdy heavy metal box. It is not flimsy and it weighs a fair amount. I feel for the UK shipper if they did not calculate that factor into the price.

Internal Cyclops is interesting. I would like it better if the date window below was round and of the same diameter.

Second hand hits spot on all 60 times from what I can tell. Clasp is well made. I am inclined to think Super Titanium is pretty much Dura Tech, but I could be wrong. Lume is good if not Seiko good. The lume color differentiation between hour items vs. minute/second items is cool. Build quality seem to be very high in my opinion. Biggest thing for me is the watch feels great and it disappears on your wrist when you are doing other stuff while being there when you need it.

Bracelet is 20mm at case 18mm at clasp. Links have collars. 12.5mm thick. Not sure on width. Lightweight but feels real sturdy. Not a huge watch but it sits on your wrist with a stealth presence which is soon forgotten about because of its weight but it does catch your attention when you are checking out the time. Finally, I think there is some design mismatch between the blue boarders on the hour marker and the whit boarders on the hands. I think I would have made the boarders on the hour markers better match the hand markers - i.e. ditch the blue - I am of mixed minds on this however.

 

[the_shovel]

Great post & thanks for the pictures, nice watch, the dual colored lume is a nice touch.

 

[iwaddell]

Thanks for sharing and a great post.

And really like the box of tricks that came with it.

 

[bb-sf]

Thanks for sharing and a great post.

And really like the box of tricks that came with it.

Just another data point the watch weighs 115 grams with all the links in and 106 grams with 4 links removed. The metal box it came with weighs a lot more