When we first caught wind of a modern Promaster Diver ?Barnacle? from Citizen earlier this year, it quickly shot to the top of our most heavily anticipated releases of the year. Would this be the watch to unseat our near unanimous favorite from last year, the Seiko SPB14X" Did it need to" Probably not, as Citizen has a real knack for funky divers that Seiko decidedly doesn?t, but this watch, a new Challenge Diver is a different story. This is an everyday wearable diver, and how we end up judging this watch relative to other Promaster Divers is shifted to meet a different challenge, so to speak (sorry). 

The Promaster Dive Automatic collection contains some of the more approachable and familiar dive watch designs from Citizen, and it?s growing. The latest additions capture an historic Challenge Diver reference and attempt to bring it up to modern spec. The story goes something like this: in 1983 a barnacle-covered Citizen watch from 1977 was found on an Australian beach, and upon closer inspection the watch was still dutifully ticking away. The new watch takes this as its base, and applies a modern execution that, on paper, feels exactly on point for current dive watch trends.  The new Challenge Diver, which is much easier to say than NB6021, gets a full super-titanium case and bracelet, and houses the brand?s 9051 automatic movement. This, paired with the charming ?70s design that oozes charm, position it neatly across from the likes of Seiko?s newer upscale...