Citizen Resurrects an Affordable 1980s Classic with Some Help from Honda

JDM FTW.

Close-up of a silver Citizen digital watch with dual black analog dials and a digital display on a blue background.

Add Gear Patrol as a Preferred Source on Google

Published February 23, 2026

·

If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more

For certain segments of gear enthusiasts, the 1980s were all about analog-digital watches and boxy coupes — with both preferably coming from Japan.

Two standouts from the era are the Citizen Ana-Digi Temp and the Honda Prelude. The former was an automotive-inspired quartz watch from 1982 with a unique temperature display, the latter a punchy two-door produced from 1979 through 2001.

Following pop culture’s tradition of circular trends, both models are now back. Citizen has been making various modern versions of the Ana-Digi Temp since 2020, including some Star Wars models, while Honda recently brought back the Prelude as a hybrid for the 2026 model year.

Now, to celebrate the return of the Prelude, these two Japanese legends are combining forces for one seriously cool JDM watch.

Two Citizen Honda digital-analog watches, one black and one silver, on a wooden surface with calipers, socket wrench parts, and a red toy car. — Citizen and Honda? Now that’s the stuff JDM dreams are made of.

A JDM dream

The new Citizen X Honda Ana-Digi Temp “2026 New Prelude” Limited Edition puts a fresh coat of paint and some Honda logos on the Ana-Digi Temp, but it’s functionally the same as other recent versions of the watch offered by Citizen.

The watch’s display is covered and gauges and straight-up looks like a 1980s’ car dashboard, making it the perfect vessel for a Prelude-themed edition — or any retro automotive crossover, really.

On the top half of the dial, there are two clockfaces labeled “A1” and “A2.” Both of these subdials have been given cleaner, more automotive-inspired redesigns for this limited edition. A1 is a 12-hour dial with two hands and it displays the current hour and minutes. A2 is styled like a speedometer and displays the running seconds in timekeeping mode, but can also perform other functions when the watch is set to alternative modes.

The analog-digital display always looked like it came from a car dashboard, but the Honda collab makes the connection that much clearer.

Honda

Speaking of those other modes, they’re chosen on the display on the bottom left of the dial, which is a digital screen featuring an arrow that’s used to select the current mode of the watch. Those modes, from left to right, are time, date (the watch includes the day and is a perpetual calendar), alarm, dual time, and stopwatch.

To the right of the selector screen are two more LCD displays, one on top of the other. The top one displays the running seconds normally, but can also be used to display the date, alarm, second time zone and the stopwatch. The bottom screen displays the temperature in Celsius — the speaker-looking thing to bottom left of the screen left is actually a thermometer — and can also show the 1/1,000th-of-a-second chronograph when running the stopwatch.

To the right of the aforementioned thermometer, which has been given a honeycomb-patterned makeover modeled after the new Prelude’s grille, is the Honda wordmark logo, while Honda’s famous “H” logo sits at the 12:00 position of the dial.

Back of a stainless steel Citizen wristwatch with engraved model details and black buttons on the sides. — The once-and-future Prelude logo is engraved on the solid caseback.

As usual, the watch’s 32.5mm wide x 40.6mm long x 8mm thick rectangular case is made of stainless steel, along with the single-row tapering bracelet. The solid caseback features the classic and now resurrected Prelude logo, along with some specs. Concealed beneath is the Citizen Caliber 8989 quartz movement that powers the watch, while the water resistance is a healthy 50m.

There are two colorways for the 2026 Ana-Digi Temp “Honda Prelude”: One in plain stainless steel with white panda dial, and the other fully blacked out, including the case and bracelet. Both feature the same blue accents on the dial.

Regardless of which color you go with, both include the same special red box featuring the Prelude logo and a removable image of the new hybrid coupe.

The watch comes packaged in a special Prelude-themed box.

Honda

Availability and pricing

Well, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is, these watches are pretty affordable — at least if you live in Japan. Honda’s official “Fun Shop” has them with an SRP of 45,000 Japanese Yen, which currently converts to around $292, which is roughly the current sale price ($285) you’ll pay for a Star Wars-themed version of the Ana-Digi Temp directly from Citizen in the U.S.

The bad news is these new Honda Prelude versions are exclusive to the Japanese market, and each is limited to only 200 pieces. There are places to buy for U.S. customers, but they’re massively price-gouged — The Japanese Factory has it for $700, plus Trump’s 15-percent tariff tax — and everyone seems to be sold out of the more attractive panda version already.

The Japanese Factory

Citizen x Honda Ana-Digi Temp 2026 Prelude Limited Edition

Specs

Case Size	32.5mm x 40.6mm
Movement	Citizen Cal. 8989 quartz
Water Resistance	50m

About the Author:

Johnny Brayson is an editor at Gear Patrol mostly covering watches. He enjoys watches that are packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em details and believes nearly every watch could stand to be a tad smaller.

Want to stay up to date on the latest product news and releases? Add Gear Patrol as a preferred source to ensure our independent journalism makes it to the top of your Google search results.