Hands-On: The Citizen Eco-Drive Promaster Land GMT

While I might be the number-two GMT fan here at Hodinkee, I do try to keep up with my favorite type of watch. But there are so many releases, and it’s hard to track every brand. With some upcoming travel, however, it was good timing to take a look at some new offerings from Citizen.

Shoutout to the community at The Grey Nato—more specifically Neall Brick, Director of Merchandising at Citizen Watch America, who will be on a panel with me next week at Citizen’s NYC Flagship, who pointed out that Citizen had launched a new field-watch-oriented GMT in multiple variations. Even better, the watch was an Eco-Drive model, timed perfectly for the 50th Anniversary of the brand’s innovative “powered by light” technology. We have two options in the United States, as shown here. If you’re a fan of hunting down things in other markets, there is also one with a black dial in a steel case on a bracelet, and another with a dark green dial on a NATO with a black-coated steel case and bezel. I’m going to give you the rundown on the ones I was able to get my hands on. I also think that, in a sea of black-dialed GMTs, it’s nice to look at something different for a bit anyway, right?

First things first, I actually want to tackle some of the criticisms, including the visually obvious one. GMT bezels, more specifically rotating ones, are often a make-or-break feature for travel-time acolytes. I get it, as a GMT daily-er myself. Before I got a GMT, I always somewhat dismissed watches like the Rolex Explorer II (to which this bears a passing visual resemblance and a more than passing functional one) for not having a rotating GMT bezel. The new Promaster Land GMT doesn’t have one either. But personally, I’ve found that I don’t use the GMT bezel. In fact, I’m more likely to have TanTan grab my bezel and turn it one click just to annoy me.

Instead, I put stock in two things: is the watch a local-jumping GMT (aka, a “flyer” GMT), where the hour hand jumps but the reference time zone stays the same? If yes, great. But how snappy is changing that hour hand? Weirdly, I have a hard time getting to the half-click for the Rolex GMT-Master II and often end up accidentally changing the time, not the hour, so nothing is perfect (well, maybe except for the Patek 5164A—RIP). But once you’re in the right crown position, the hand on a Rolex GMT-Master II clicks quite well.

The Promaster Land GMT is partially a “flyer” GMT—a hybrid of sorts. You might not be surprised to read that, at the extremely affordable price, the independent hour jumping is a little mushy. It takes about a full clockwise rotation of the crown, in the right position, to jump the hour forward, but the GMT hand also kind of rocks a bit when you do it. Once it’s set, however, everything is correctly aligned. The other downside is that, unfortunately, you can’t set the hour backward (that’s the “hybrid” part), and if you’re going from Europe to the U.S., that could be frustrating. Instead, you have to go forward and reset the date by rotating the crown counterclockwise (on the same crown position).

Once you get past those critiques, the Promaster Land GMT is extremely solid for less than $600 ($595 on bracelet and $525 on NATO). The anti-reflective, domed sapphire crystal is particularly striking and magnifies the 30.1mm dial (my GMT-Master II is 30.9mm), which is a real bonus on a watch that’s a compact 39.5mm. The dial is also quite deep, which adds to that magnification feeling, though the minute track on the rehaut can get lost as the shadows from the case cover the dial. 

The dial texture is nice as well—a grained effect that is a step up from a matte finish, but in keeping with a field watch. The blue (or the black that I didn’t see) seems far more versatile, but the red is striking. Either way, the large numerals and indices are extremely legible, and the lume charges quickly and lasts a long time (though the type of lume used isn’t shared by Citizen).

Speaking of charging quickly, I think Eco-Drive is kind of an overlooked, under-appreciated movement technology these days. After 50 years of light-powered watches (and other people getting on board with the technology), it’s easy to take it for granted. Like every Eco-Drive movement, the caliber B878 can be charged by any light source, not just sunlight, which differentiates it from the other similar watches I own. More than once, I’ve had to set a watch in a windowsill and wait a day before I can wear it—or I just forget that I put it there for a week. A full dose of light keeps the watch for six months.

From a wearability standpoint, I think it’s a great option for a wide variety of people. The stainless steel case sits somewhere between fully brushed and fully polished, which works well for the field watch aesthetic, and while on the thicker side at 13.4mm, it doesn’t telegraph it much on the wrist. Whether you already own a GMT at a higher price point and want something affordable that draws less attention while traveling, or you are looking for your first travel-ready GMT, I don’t think you can go wrong.

For more on the Citizen Promaster Land GMT, visit the brand’s website.