Today's entry was inspired by a Valentine's gift from my better half. She knows that I'm a watch freak, and she must have seen the Safari history caches in my computer; for I got a package addressed to my office today with this gift!
I supposed it was a bit of a blow that she chose to bypass the caches on the other blow (if you get what I meant, wink!) and instead got for me the blowfish. I'm referring to the Citizen Fugu, of course. And in full lume, no less!
For the longest period, if one wanted to get a ISO-certified automatic-winding diver watch that won't break one's bank balances, it was a toss between the Seiko SKX and Citizen NY004.
The SKX went on to be the natural choice for modders given the ample availability of aftermarket parts.
Meanwhile, the NY004 gained respect as the military-issued watch for divers serving in Italian, British, and French Navy. The Italian Navy had so much confidence in the NY004 that it was rated for 500m WR instead of the more conservative 200m printed on the consumer dial.
The NY004 was discontinued in 2016, while SKX was reportedly discontinued in 2018 but with ample stock to cater for the next couple of years.
Which then brought us to the current Citizen Fugu. Citizen had in Oct 2018 launched an updated version of the much-loved NY004, now called the NY008, and it had moved upmarket compared to the earlier reiteration. Marketed as Asia limited edition releases within its Promaster range (Citizen's answer to Seiko's Prospex), the NY008 reportedly had better design and lume. These models started appearing in Malaysian ADs just before CNY.
Which would you prefer between both these NY004 and NY008 reiterations?
Which would you prefer between both these NY004 and NY008 reiterations?
Limited to either 500 pieces (TH, and MY/SG) or 999 pieces (rest of the range), collectors quickly snapped up the pieces, with the all-time favourite reportedly the NY0080-12X all-lumed dial.
At the time of writing, the all-lumed dial was on sold-out basis in most watch sites and fetching a premium on ebay. Yes, it went from RRP : RM1,440 to RM2,705 on ebay these days!
And yes, if you bought a local AD piece, it came with a 3-year warranty from Citizen!
Besides the full-lumed NY0080 model, the other reportedly best-selling models were the Thailand NY0089 and Rose Gold NY0083 limited edition pieces.
But in terms of lume, no other pieces in the Fugu collection would come close to the NY0080. I meant, just look at that dial!
Since I have a fair bit of Seiko SKX pieces, I could do a direct comparison between both of them. While the specs were pretty close, the Fugu wore smaller, had winding but non-hacking movement, and had the crown placement at 8 o'clock. For left-handers, this watch would be like a dream-come-true. No more having the crown poking into one's wrist, for 'em lefties.
Note too that the crown was signed with the Promaster logo, cool!
I find that the original strap to be too stiff, which would no doubt improve over time as wearing it ought to stretch it up a little in the longer while. But well, I liked to get the watch wearing well right from the word "Go!"; so I changed the rubber strap to a Camo Nato that I ordered from overseas over CNY, and now, it wore beautifully and comfortably on my wrist.
The green Camo matched the dial to an extent too, so I felt that this could be a combo that I could experiment with.
And seeing this handsome piece, I have since (as you might have guessed) called up some AD contacts and ordered the NY0083 to accompany this NY0080. I might even add more of these pieces since they informed me that the other pieces, except for this all-lumed dial, were in stock. Let me sleep over it tonight...
Happy Valentine's Day, dear readers and hope all of you have a good time with your loved ones tonight...
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