The Citizen Tsuyosa Is the Affordable Watch of the Summer

When it comes to watches, there are basically two prevailing schools of thought. The first lends itself to the thrill of the hunt, and the pleasures in amassing an ever-expanding assortment of fresh new drops and vintage grails. The second is a more tightly curated approach that favors a core collection of timeless pieces which tend to look good with everything and are built to last. The new Citizen NJ105 Tsuyosa, a sturdy automatic steel sports watch with a selection of dials in neutral tones as well as covetable hues like blaze yellow and robin’s egg blue, is that rare breed of watch that caters to both sides of the ideological divide. And at just $450, it’s a crazy good value, to boot.

Citizen has long been a go-to for rock-solid affordable tickers like the ProMaster diver and the Garrison pilot’s watch. While many of these best-sellers are powered by Citizen’s famed EcoDrive solar movement, in recent years the watchmaker has earned a rep as a destination for stylish automatic watches, too—which is where the new Tsuyosa comes in.

With its svelte 40mm case, offset crown, and Japanese automatic movement, the Tsuyosa is the kind of everyday-wearable timepiece destined to earn a regular spot on your wrist, whether you’ve got a two-watch collection or a display box full of them. Refined enough to wear with your crispest summer suit, but sporty enough to complement your off-duty chinos and tees, the Tsuyosa (Japanese for ‘strength’) joins an ever-growing class of steel sports watches like the Tissot PRX and Seiko 5 that are as covetable as they are versatile. 

It also delivers on two of the most-hyped trends in watches recently: big-energy dial colors and integrated bracelets. The Tsuyosa’s cheerful dial assortment is an indirect nod to Rolex, which added a series of bright, solid-colored dials—including yellow, coral red, green, and turquoise—to its Oyster Perpetual line in 2020. These were so popular that (in inscrutable Rolex fashion) the crown discontinued the yellow and coral orange models, which now trade for nearly four times their original retail value on the gray market. The Tsuyosa’s integrated bracelet, which is designed as an extension of the case rather than an afterthought, is similar to iconic 1970s watches like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, IWC Ingenieur, and Patek Philippe Nautilus, which are currently among the most zealously flexed tickers on the planet. 

All of this gives the Citizen Tsuyosa a whole lot more clout than most other watches in the sub-$1,000 bracket. It also makes it a prime candidate for your wrist this summer and beyond. Whether you opt for a classic black dial or a jaunty turquoise one, however, comes down to where you stand on the minimalist-maximalist wardrobe divide. Fortunately, there’s really no wrong answer.