While the bezel itself is quite easy to grip, the insert somewhat suffers from legibility issues.
Surrounding the crystal is the Fugu’s signature bezel with alternating grooved and smooth sections, which offers 120-click unidirectional motion and is fitted with a black anodized aluminum insert. Sitting on top of the case is a flat scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, which is a welcome addition and represents a significant step up from the mineral glass crystals that are most frequently found on Citizen’s budget-friendly dive watches. The case extends on either side of the crown to create small but functional guards, while the solid stainless steel screw-down caseback is adorned with an engraving of a pufferfish as a reference to the watch’s famous nickname. The crown itself is signed with the brand’s Promaster logo and it screws down to help ensure the watch’s ISO-certified 200 meters of water resistance. A number of other Citizen dive watches follow a similar approach of placing their crowns on the left side of their cases, and this is something that Citizen has been doing for decades. The purpose of this rather unusual layout isn’t to appeal to left-handed individuals (who only make up approximately 10% of the population), but rather to keep the crown out of the way and safe from harm. Just like the original Fugu model, the modern version features a left-handed crown configuration, which places it on the side of the case at the 8 o’clock location. While both the case and bracelet are covered in a black ion-plated finish, the underlying metal is given a matte brushed texture across the entirety of its top surfaces, while the sides of both the case and bracelet links are high-polished for a gloss black finish. Nicknames and nomenclature aside, the 44mm case of the Citizen Fugu measures 13mm-thick with a total lug-to-lug distance spanning approximately 50mm once you factor in the way that they slightly taper inward to meet the edges of the bracelet. I’m not aware of a nickname for this exact configuration, but given that the “Fugu” moniker applies to the whole range, and since there are even other Fugu models with lume dials or black ion-plated cases, whatever nickname the watch community comes up with will need to touch on the fact that this variant has both of those features. Since relaunching the Fugu in 2018, Citizen has produced a fairly significant number of different colors and configurations of the model, although the specific version that I have in for review is the full-lume dial Fugu with the blacked-out case and bracelet, which is formally known as the Citizen Promaster Dive Automatic NY0155-58X. Watch nicknames can often be entirely informal, but in the case of the Citizen Fugu, it’s one that is such a part of the model’s history that you will even find the Fugu name listed in product descriptions on the Citizen website, and the caseback of the new watches themselves are adorned with stylized pufferfish engravings. The actual resemblance to a puffer fish is somewhat debatable (to say the least), but the same can be said about virtually all watch nicknames, regardless of whether you’re talking about the Seiko “Turtle” or the Rolex “Kermit” Submariner. The Fugu nickname itself means “pufferfish” in Japanese, and it comes from the watch’s distinct bezel with alternating grooved and smooth sections around its outer edge. However, the Citizen Fugu was revived in 2018, and it has since resumed its role as one of the standout affordable dive watches from the brand’s vast catalog.
The original Citizen model known as the “Fugu” debuted back in 1989, and it has a rich history that consists of everything from being used by the Italian Navy to starting many people’s collections as their first-ever automatic watch. Easily one of the most famous dive watches from Citizen’s history is the classic fan-favorite Fugu.
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