A Canada-exclusive Citizen Promaster!

sagebrush

1 year ago

I've been hunting for the perfect Citizen Promaster for my husband's birthday - one of the very few people under 30 who enjoys using a rotary slide rule. (Grandpa was a NASA scientist and made damn sure that all the kids learned what a logarithm was.)

Well, Citizens are pretty easy to find at any shopping mall... so comparing the available models and colourways is not too difficult. Although there seem to be about 500 different Promasters on the market at any given time. Hey, at least with Eco-Drive you could store them all in a glass display case and never worry about setting them.

Particularly easy to find: the brand has a long collaboration with the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy's air acrobatics group, which leads to a lot of tastefully coloured blue-and-yellow designs...

But wait a minute. We're Canadian. So this watch's presence in our domestic market... well, it's almost sinister. What's next? Canadians in Hollywood? Toronto playing in the NBA?? Tacos that cost under $6???

So I was immensely pleased to discover that a local company has commissioned a competing Snowbirds version - that's the Canadian military air acrobatics group, based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. That's right, the Blue Angels might be good but they'll never be from Moose Jaw.

The black-and-red look honestly strikes me as a bit less versatile for daily wear, but at least it's faithful to the Snowbirds logo. (Which is on the dial - look closely.) Plus, it comes inside this awesome plastic helmet. (Leftover Citizen x Star Wars inventory?)

So does your country's flying force have its own Promaster? Or is this strictly a North American thing?

P.S. He's probably getting the Skyhawk JY8084-09H. The brass bezel is just gorgeous imo - good for legibility and I think it adds a bit of a unisex touch that'll be more to his taste.