My first automatic watch was a Citizen Promaster I purchased at Changi Airport on route to London. I had just picked up a job in Ghana and I didn’t want to use my TAG Heuer S/el on the job, so I decided to purchase a dive watch that I could bang around and not be too worried about it. The Citizen Promaster was the right watch at the right time for me.

So for around $200 AUD I had myself a pretty reasonable dive watch with a rubber strap firmly attached to my wrist. I still have this timepiece, although it is non-functioning at this point in time, it sits in my safe along with my other timepieces to one day cop a service to get it running again. What was interesting is that I now have a collection of automatic watches and I was surprised at how long the timepiece went before it required a service – or should I say how short the interval was. Still, I liked the timepiece and wore it non-stop for years.

What affects the life of the automatic timepiece is the quality and longevity of the lubrication. I get the feeling Citizen did not invest in premium grade lubrication. I will need to research with my local watchmaker and the lubricants they use for servicing. So my old Citizen Promaster sits in my safe on a metal bracelet in dire need of a service. I had previously taken it in to be serviced, but the prevailing view was forget about it. But now, a decade later, maybe it is time to get my old Promaster operational again.