Citizen NH8391-51A Review

It is already more than a month that I've received my Amazon package with a beautiful watch inside. And I loved it!

Citizen NH83xx or alternatively Citizen C7 series of watches have been in my radar for a long time now. Their design dates back to 1965 with Citizen Crystal 7 series. Not sure why, but they are not very popular among watch collectors, and this was making me hesitant to purchase one. Finally I made my decision to buy one of them as a gift for my 29th birthday. After couple of days of deep thoughts taking into account all other watches in my collection I went forward with the white dial version - NH8391-51A. The watch costed me ~$250 including customs fee and delivery. Now after a month of use I want to share my views about the watch.

Design

Watch looks very beautiful in my opinion. Case is mostly brushed, with 2 polished strips going through the both sides. Bezel is polished as well. Dial is rather plain white, without any sunburst effects, covered with a slightly domed mineral cryistal. There is a heptagonal shape day window at 12 o'clock position, and a date window at 3 o'clock position. Day window is surrounded with a beautifully brushed frame. Applied polished steel indices look attractive and hands play with them very well. Some lume is available at the outer edge of the indices and inside hands, but it is barely noticeable. Out of different options I like the white dial version, but there are many other dial colors available as well. Black, blue, green, yellow etc. The watch features an exhibition case-back. Crown sits at 3 o'clock position and is fairly easy to operate.

Bracelet

The watch comes with a fully brushed oyster style, single link bracelet featuring solid links and solid end-links. Quality and feeling of the bracelet is much better than Orient and Seiko counterparts at similar price point. The brushing of the bracelet matches the case very well unlike entry level Orient and Seiko bracelets. It is very comfortable as well. You can resize it to you wrist size by removing links, however, it lacks micro-adjustment capability.

Movement

The watch comes with Miyota 8200 automatic caliber. It features both hacking and hand-winding. I tested the accuracy and it was less than 5 seconds a day fast. Quite successful result in my opinion. Rotor of the movement is a bit loud and you can sometimes hear it rotating. Also it is unidirectional, meaning it will only wind the watch counter-clockwise, nothing to worry about in my view.

Durability

Both case and bracelet feels quite solid and durable. However the glass on the surface is mineral, so it might get scratches comparatively easier. Water resistance is 50 meters which should be more than enough for everyday use. While case-back is screw-down, the crown is push/pull.

Wearability

Dimensions of the watch is fairly manageable with today's standards. 40 mm case diameter looks and feels good on wrist. Lug-to-lug size is 49 mm, but the bracelet has male end-links which increases the effective lug-to-lug and makes the wearing experience worse than it could be. Also, I noticed that the length of bracelet clasp when open is not wide enough, i.e. if you have big hands and narrow wrist, then you will struggle to wear the watch, but once you wear it will stay loose on your wrist.

20 mm lug with allows for easy strap replacement in case you do not like the bracelet.

I did wear the watch to couple of formal and informal events during one month, and it went well in all situations. It is suitable for dressing up and down.