Just before summer every year, a handful of watches show up looking like they were built for the season, and most of them turn out to be divers playing dress-up. Citizen’s latest feels different, and I’ll admit I’m a little taken with it just from press photos alone. The brand just revealed the Citizen Promaster WaveTracker, a bunch of Eco-Drive sailing watches that wear the bold, sporty look you’d expect from a tool diver while doing something else entirely.
The Promaster range has been one of Citizen’s most dependable corners for years, home to the well-loved diver (like the one I’ve owned for years) along with affordable GMTs and pilot’s pieces. At first glance, the Wave Tracker reads like another Promaster diver. Look closer, though, and the bezel gives it away. That outer ring isn’t a dive timer at all. Citizen designed it as a 360-degree bezel with an inner sailing compass, the kind of feature aimed at people tracking wind and heading rather than bottom time.
All four share the same hardware. They land in a 42.4mm stainless steel case with a hybrid dial, a digital display at 12 o’clock showing tide and moon phase data, and an analogue sub-dial at 6 o’clock for model selection. There’s 200 meters of water resistance, sunrise and sunset times, and a race mode that kicks a stopwatch into gear once a countdown timer runs out. The 1/100th second chronograph is the kind of nerdy, almost overbuilt touch I’ve always enjoyed when Citizen leans into its technical side.
Power comes from the Eco-Drive Calibre U812, which runs off any light source. Eco-Drive has earned its reputation for reliability, and it’s part of why these stay easy to live with day to day. Three of the four arrive on a steel bracelet: a classic black dial and bezel, a black dial with a green-and-black bezel in a gold-toned case, and a blue dial with a blue-and-black bezel. The one that keeps pulling my eye is the black dial with the bright orange bezel and matching urethane strap.
Pricing runs from $795 for the PU strap version up to $950 for the gold-toned model. That doesn’t sting all that bad and I think it sits in fair territory for what Citizen is packing in here. For now the watches are only confirmed for the US and Japan, though it’s hard to imagine a European release staying off the table for long.
Whether the Citizen Promaster WaveTracker turns out to be one of the more compelling summer watches of 2026 probably comes down to how that hybrid dial reads on the wrist in daylight. I’d want to see how legible the digital and analog elements stay when they’re competing for space at opposite ends of the dial. Until one lands on my wrist, I’m content to keep wondering.
Co-Founder & Senior Editor
Michael Peñate is an American writer, photographer, and podcaster based in Seattle, Washington. His work typically focuses on the passage of time and the tools we use to connect with that very journey. From aviation to music and travel, his interests span a multitude of disciplines that often intersect with the world of watches – and the obsessive culture behind collecting them.