One of the first watch brands I can recall being familiar with was Citizen. In the 1990s and to this day, really, they were available in every mall and in seemingly every jewelry and department store. As an adolescent, if I was looking at watches in a store (the only way to look at watches in the ’90s), I was probably looking at Citizens. Their ubiquity through the years speaks to their consistent quality at a particular consumer-friendly price point, and the goal was simple: sell watches in every style to anybody who wants one. Goal achieved. 
I can?t say for sure because my enthusiasm for this hobby hadn?t really come into its own at that point, but if I had to venture a guess I?d say most of the watches in the case at Macy?s that I had my eye on when I was 12 were quartz. And still, even in the midst of a well-documented resurgence in interest in watches from a new generation of customers, Citizen?s offerings remain primarily battery operated. That?s why it?s so gratifying to see the enormous Japanese watchmaker introduce a series of wallet-friendly mechanical options as part of their Promaster line to a few different regional markets. If you live in Europe or South East Asia (or can source a watch from those regions), you suddenly have new options on the affordable mechanical front. For everyone else, there’s hope that these new regional releases represent a sign of things to come on a global scale. Let?s take a closer look at these new, affordable diver...