The affordable automatic watch market is crowded. That is great for buyers, but it also means a watch has to do something genuinely interesting to stand out. We think the Citizen Tsuyosa Small Seconds does.
The dial is the first thing you notice
Pictures do not always do textured dials justice. In different light, the surface changes character, and the separate seconds display at six o’clock gives the whole watch a more unusual balance than a standard three-hander.
That small-seconds layout is one of our favourite details. It is not there because the watch needs another complication. It is there because it makes the watch more interesting — and sometimes that is reason enough.
A proper automatic, without the intimidating price
For somebody buying a first mechanical watch, Citizen makes a lot of sense. You are getting an automatic movement from one of the biggest names in Japanese watchmaking, rather than paying for a logo from a fashion brand.
Our view
This is the sort of watch we would happily own ourselves, which is a fairly important test for anything we sell. It is interesting without being odd, recognisable without being boring and mechanical without being financially ridiculous.
Image: Citizen Tsuyosa Small Second NK5010-51L product photograph via Time Access. Model reference checked against Citizen Tsuyosa Small Second listing.
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