Hands-On Review: Citizen Eco-Drive BN0150-10E Promaster

If you were looking for a professional diver’s watch with an ISO6425 certificate, the Citizen Eco-Drive BN0150-10E Promaster is perfect for you. It costs less than 200 dollars, fits perfectly on the wrist on a day-to-day basis, and is totally reliable. One of the best diving watches for quality price in the world.

The workmanship is good, the strap is comfortable, it has a rotating bezel to calculate the dive time and it has Eco-Drive technology: it is charged by sunlight, which makes it almost zero maintenance. It is one of the best Citizen Eco Drive watches.

But let’s see the review in detail. We give you our opinion after having tested the watch for several weeks.

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Citizen Eco-Drive BN0150-10E Promaster: Features and Design

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Citizen Men's Promaster Marine Eco-Drive Watch
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Citizen Men's Promaster Marine Eco-Drive Watch
  • Material Watchband: plastic black
  • Dial Colour: black, with luminescent hands
  • Case Material: stainless steel, satin / Bezel: rotatable on one side with minute scale and illuminated dot
  • Case Diameter: 44mm
  • WATER RESISTANCE: 20 BARS.Band width: 21.0 millimeters.Sport type: tauchen.Water resistance depth: 200.0 meters.Case diameter: 43.0 millimeters

  • ISO 6425 Certified Professional Diver’s Watch
  • Eco-Drive with 6-month charge reserve.
  • 44mm steel case with steel screw-down crown and case back.
  • Rubber strap.
  • Unidirectional rotating bezel.
  • Mineral glass with anti-reflective treatment.
  • WR 200 water resistance.
  • Warning function and insufficient charge.

Let’s first review the design of this beautiful watch, one of its great successes. Not only it is the perfect diving watch, but it is also a watch that you can wear every day without a problem thanks to its great dial design and comfort.

Citizen Eco-Drive BN0150-10E Promaster Design

The dial is black, and both the indices and the hands are quite large and visible (they have a fairly powerful lumen, even the one for the seconds. It lasts all night). You just have to see the photos we have taken:

The hour hand is quite thick (white in color), the minute hand has orange around the edge, and the indices have an arrowhead ending at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock. The other hour markings are thick points. Then the minutes are marked on an outer bezel inside the dial to make things easier for us.

The date window is displayed at 4 o’clock, possibly so as not to break the arrowhead aesthetic of 3 o’clock. Its legibility is not bad.

Citizen Eco-Drive BN0150-10E Promaster Design

As a good certified diver’s watch, it has a unidirectional rotating bezel to calculate the dive time:

  • How does the rotating bezel work on diver watches? The ring rotates only to the left to prevent misuse. We have to align the triangular mark with a dot with the lumen with the minute hand. As time passes, we can determine how many minutes have passed with the bezel scale.

The bezel could be toothed around its entire circumference (more comfortable to move with neoprene gloves, but this depends on personal taste) and have 120 clicks instead of just 60. Still, you can’t have everything (it doesn’t affect its proper functioning).

The screw-down crown is located to the right at the bottom. It is protected with a ledge. Then we discuss its settings and how it works.

The 20mm rubber strap is quite long and somewhat stiff at first (perfect for diving) and it even has a small table printed on it (ND Limits) that indicates the depth in meters and the time in minutes that you can be underwater without having problems. decompression. Be very careful with this, that these times do not take into account successive dives or previous plane flights.

The strap visually does not reach the quality of the rest of the watch.

The crystal of the sphere is mineral, so no sapphire crystal in this case (it would be spectacular if it had it). The entire steel case is beautifully polished.

The steel case has dimensions of 44cm, but it does not feel very large on the wrist. The back is laser engraved and is beautiful. It comes with a world map and all the data from your watch, including the type of movement. The watch is quite comfortable.

How does it fit on the wrist?

My wrist is 19cm, to give you a good idea. The strap, as we have already mentioned, is long enough to be able to put the watch on top of the neoprene or gloves.

How does it fit on the wrist?

The watch does not protrude much and can be worn under a shirt sleeve or sweater. The strap improves your comfort as the days go by. Perhaps a NATO strap would do just fine for “land” wear.

Functions: ISO 6425-certified diver’s watch

Probably if you are buying this watch, either you like its fun aesthetic or you are really going to use it to dive. It is perfect for scuba diving as it is ISO 6425 certified:

« This document specifies the requirements and test methods for divers’ watches and saturation divers’ watches for use in deep diving. It applies to divers’ watches designed to withstand diving in water depths of at least 100 m and equipped with a reliable measurement system to indicate the diving time, which is visible in the dark. In addition, it indicates the mark that the manufacturer is authorized to apply to them .”

By purchasing this ISO 6425-certified watch for diving watches you ensure that it complies with the following:

  • The watch must have guaranteed minimum water resistance and tightness of up to 100 meters.
  • You must see in total darkness that the clock works.  This means that the second hand must have luminescence. You have to be able to see the clock at 25 cm in total darkness. The minute mark must be clearly distinguishable on the watch’s face.
  • It has to have unidirectional rotating bezel with indications at least every 5 minutes.
  • It has to have magnetic resistance: The watch must maintain its accuracy of ±30 seconds/day despite the magnetic field.
  • It has to be shock resistant and withstand a maximum misalignment of ±60 seconds/day after the test.
  • It has to have resistance to temperature changes: The watch is submerged at intervals in 30cm deep water at 40ºC and 5ºC for a certain time: The watch must not have water leaks after this test.
  • It has to have chemical resistance. That is, it has to be resistant to salty seawater for 24 hours to test its resistance to oxidation. And also: The watch is submerged in water at a depth of 30cm at a temperature between 18-25ºC for 50 hours and the watch must keep its mechanism in proper working order.
  • The strap has to be resistant: the watch does not have to fall off at the most inopportune moment. It is applied in opposite directions and it is checked that neither the watch nor the fixing point is damaged.
  • It must have the presence of an end-of-life indicator on watches with a battery.

That is why it is also a fairly accurate watch and even has a stop-second. After leaving the water, it must be carefully cleaned with fresh water and a cloth.

You can use it for oxygen tank diving, but NOT for saturated diving (with helium)The crown cannot be used underwater.

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Rest of the watch functions

It’s a simple watch: it gives you the time and it has a calendar. The entire watch is driven by the crown which has two positions. It’s important to ensure the crown is set correctly before you put it in the water: you have to turn the crown clockwise while pressing it slightly against the case to secure it. Make sure you press it firmly.

  • Accuracy: Within ±15 sec/month (within a normal temperature range of 5°C to 35°C
  • Operating temperature range: -10°C to +60°C
  • Quartz Oscillator Frequency: 32,768Hz

As it is an Eco-Drive watch, you forget about the battery, and all you have to worry about is that it receives its share of sunlight or always has it in sight so that it can be recharged with fluorescent lamps or other light sources.

It will always be better to give it direct sunlight so that it charges faster. If you see the second hand move in 2-second intervals, the charge is low. It has a quick start function and an overload prevention function.

Loading time?

  • Outdoors (sunny): 11 hours for a full charge (in 2 minutes you get a day’s charge)
  • Outdoors (cloudy): 35 hours for a full charge (in 11 minutes you get a day’s charge).
  • Fluorescent lamp at 20cm: 120 hours for a full charge (in 40 minutes you get a day’s charge).

Conclusion: The perfect Citizen diver’s watch?

Well, the truth is that it seems that way. It is a cheap diving watch, with very good features, comfortable (you can use it in your day-to-day without a problem), and perfectly complies with the ISO 6425 standard (Certified Professional Diver).

Its design is very successful, the lumen is very good and it looks good on practically any wrist. You cry when you buy it and see how beautiful it is.

Be careful with its price as it fluctuates a lot. You can find it for about 150 dollars and suddenly it goes up to almost 200 dollars. Wait for the best moment… if you can handle compulsive buying.

  • Direct competitors? Possibly the famous Seiko SKX007 – 009And within Citizen itself the Citizen Promaster NY0086-83L with a nice Pepsi design. This watch has a crown on the left side and a similar dial design.
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In favor:

  • Excellent price for a Diver watch of this quality.
  • Good manufacturing, a good lumen, good strap.
  • Polished steel case.
  • Solar charging with Eco-Drive: little maintenance.
  • 200m WR with ISO 6425 certification.

Against:

  • The bevel wheel could be fully serrated for better handling (this is subjective).
  • It has mineral glass instead of sapphire.
  • The strap has a lower “visual quality” point than the rest of the watch.
  • The rotating bezel has 60 steps instead of 120 steps like other diving watches.

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