Citizen’s Best Affordable Automatic Sports Watch Enters Its Aquatic Phase

Citizen knocked it out of the park with the Tsuyosa, breaking Seiko and Tissot’s stranglehold on entry-level, all-purpose automatic watches. Since its 2022 debut, the integrated sports watch collection has grown to include a small seconds version, a downsized 37mm case, an enhanced power reserve and a slew of visual variations.

All of those updates stuck to the same basic design, which was heavily influenced by the Japanese watchmaker’s own archive but inevitably drew comparisons to the Rolex Datejust.

Citizen

The newest addition to the Tsuyosa family breaks the mold by bringing a whole new set of updates that, while technically don’t make it a dive watch for reasons that we will get into, provide a classic diver look.

The most striking update is, of course, the addition of a unidirectional, 120-click rotating bezel. It has a steel coin-edge frame, a demarcated 15-minute segment, numerals at 15, 30 and 45 and a triangle at 60.

Citizen

The bezel insert is aluminum, which some may view as a weakness, but I actually prefer. Ceramic bezel inserts are wonderful, but I prefer the vintage appeal of an aged aluminum dive track. However, a lume pip would have been a nice addition.

Outside the dial, the only other difference from the original 40mm Tsuyosa design is an enlarged, recessed crown, which assists with the automatic movement’s hand-winding capability.

Citizen

The Tsuyosa Shore retains the angular 40mm steel case and integrated President-style steel bracelet from the collection’s original design. It also runs on the same Citizen Caliber 8210 automatic movement, which, despite being a modest but respectable engine, is displayed through a sapphire crystal caseback.

It provides a 42-hour power reserve, hacking and the aforementioned hand-winding capability.

Enlarged to show detail

I appreciate that Citizen, a brand with a taste for over-the-top dials, didn’t stray too far from the original, well-received Tsuyosa look. Following the diver influence, everything is simply enlarged to boost legibility, especially in low-light conditions.

Citizen

It is difficult to notice without a side-by-side comparison, but the applied hour markers are slightly larger on the Tsuoysa Shore to accommodate more lume. The minute track still has printed lume dots at each hour marker, but now features a 1/3-seconds track.

Far more obvious are the widened hour and minute hands, which otherwise retain the same beveled fencepost shape. The most appealing update to the handset is the addition of a Submariner-style lollipop seconds hand.

Citizen

All four dial colors introduced with the Tsuyosa Shore are decorated with the vibrant sunburst brushing found throughout the collection, and they are all topped with the same sapphire crystal featuring a cyclops date magnifier.

The dial is kept clean, with only a brand logo printed at 12:00 and “Automatic” printed at 6:00.

*Not a dive watch

Despite all of the visual evidence to the contrary, the Tsuyosa Shore is not a dive watch, according to Citizen’s strict standards. The Japanese watchmaker takes its divers very seriously, as evidenced by the high-performance models in the Promaster collection, and the new Tsuyosa does not make the cut.

Citizen

The deciding factor is that the Tsuyosa Shore only has 100m of water resistance, which is double that of all previous references in the collection but half the requisite depth to be classified as a diver by Citizen. The main weak point is the lack of a screw-down crown.

That said, the 100m mark is more than enough to make the Tsuyosa Shore appropriate for most casual aquatic activities, from water sports to swimming in a pool.

Availability and pricing

The Citizen Tsuyosa Shore is available now from Citizen for $495 with a steel case and $550 with a PVD gold-tone steel case.

Two additional colors — a steel case with a teal dial and matching bezel, and a two-tone case with a burgundy dial and bezel — were introduced with the launch but are not yet available on Citizen’s American website.

Citizen

Citizen Tsuyosa Shore

Specs

Case Size	40mm
Movement	Citizen Caliber 8210 automatic
Water Resistance	100m

• $495 at Citizen (Blue)
• $550 at Citizen (Green)

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