With a Subtle Update, One of the Best Budget Chronographs Looks Better Than Ever

Citizen’s Promaster Navitimer has always been super functional but is now more practical than ever.

Published February 20, 2025

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Citizen has produced an entire fleet of affordable and highly functional chronographs over the years, but the new Promaster Navitimer blows them all away.

Citizen has always maintained a unique design language and iconography for tool watches. For better or worse, you knew a Navihawk, Skyhawk or Promaster Diver as soon as you saw it.

a silver chronograph watch on a man's wrist

Promaster chronographs have historically packed many features into complex dials and large cases. While this has been functionally advantageous, it has often resulted in very busy looking watches.

The new Promaster Navihawk has broken this trend with a cleaned-up dial and shrunken-down case that invokes chronographic classics like the Breitling Navitimer and the TAG Heuer Autavia. It still does everything you want a chronograph to do, but it looks much better as an everyday watch.

A streamlined appearance

Previous Navihawks were absolute wrist eaters, with cases measuring between 44 and 48 millimeters. The new design has a more practical 40-millimeter diameter case, which follows the general trend of shrinking watch sizes.

the crown and pushers on a steel chronograph watch — The slimmed-down 40-millimeter case design wears much easier.

With that shrinking case size, the dial resembles that of a 38-millimeter watch because the bezel and slide rule scales take up so much room–more on that later. The dial provides a clean background, decorated only by sunburst brushing.

Three inset dials are all solid gray and decorated with a concentric circle texture. The dial at six o’clock displays active seconds, the dial at three o’clock displays a 24-hour clock and the dial at nine o’clock displays the 60-minute chronograph counter.

the case back and steel bracelet of a Citizen watch — The president-style steel bracelet has a micro-adjustment three-piece clasp.

An extremely clean color scheme is heavy on stainless steel, with predominantly black and white markings. A red chronograph hand and small slide rule markers are the only exceptions. The stainless steel dial model takes the minimalism a step further.

three citizen chronograph watches on a silver panel set against the sky — The new Promaster Navihawk collection has three dial color options.

Altogether, the new Promaster Navihawk design is by far the most functional entry yet for everyday wear. A beefy president-style steel bracelet completes the look of a watch that you pairs well with pretty much any outfit. Thanks to the light-powered movement and 100-meter dive rating, this watch can live on your wrist.

A slide rule bezel

Slide rules were invented long before computers or calculators to help do complex equations on the fly. Scientists and engineers used them routinely, but they were especially important to pilots and sailors.

ebay authenticated watches — The Breitling Navitimer popularized slide rule bezels.

The Breitling Navitimer, first introduced in 1952, popularized placing a slide rule on a watch bezel and dial. Long after the function became antiquated, the appearance and appreciation for the complex detailing remain appealing, much like watches in general.

Just like the originals, slide rule bezels have multiple logarithmic scales placed along the rotating bezel and the outside of the dial. Logarithmic scales depict increasing value with decreasing distance.

a silver chronograph watch — The cleaned-up dial has vintage design cues for a classic look.

Tachymeters are the most common example of logarithmic scales in horology, but they have a single scale along the bezel. Slide rule bezels, like the ones found on the Breitling Navitimer or Citizen Navihawk, have multiple scales lined up along the bezel and dial ring, and different values are calculated by turning the bezel to align the scales.

On the new Promaster Navihawk, the outer scale depicts airplane fuel and the inner scale depicts speed. In theory, it can calculate fuel usage over time and distance given a known air speed.

Availability and pricing

The new Citizen Promaster Navitimer is available now from Citizen and authorized retailers for $595. Along with the sleek stainless steel dial, there is a military green dial and a polished bronze dial. It runs on Citizen’s in-house B620 Eco-Drive movement, which is charged by any light source, so it never needs a battery.