Frequent travellers will know the sensation of slowly gliding down over a night-time cityscape to the moment you touch down at the place of your destination. Gazing out the window of your aeroplane, you see a nearby city light up thanks to street lights, cars or other industrial and urban lighting. The play of dark versus light can be as daunting as it can be beautiful, and it’s this contradiction of sensations that Citizen captures in its latest and quite frankly striking limited edition of the very capable Series 8 880 GMT Mechanical, the gunmetal and gold-coated reference NB6035-55H, with a handsome snowflake-like dial.
Ever since Citizen launched the Series 8 880 GMT Mechanical range in 2023, it has been making waves in the travelling watch-lovers community. What it was and still is, is a relatively (or very, depending on your perspective) accessible, genuine travel-ready GMT watch with rock-solid specs and interesting details. The bold shape of the case, unexpected combinations of colours, and a highly practical movement made it a solid choice for anyone who regularly crosses borders and time zones. After all, you don’t want to worry too much about being on time for your connecting flight, or a scheduled transfer to your hotel, once you touchdown wherever you’re heading to!
The Series 8 880 GMT Mechanical’s edgy case takes a turn to the dark side for this new limited edition, which finds inspiration in night-lit cityscapes. The 41mm by 13.5mm steel case is finished with a dark grey “gunmetal” coating, which mutes the overall look of the watch. To give it some proverbial pop, a yellow gold-plated bidirectional rotating bezel is fitted on top of the base, and given a black-and-white insert for the 24-hour scale. For the rest, it remains similar to what we know, with a sapphire crystal on top, a see-through caseback, a pull-out crown and a water-resistance of 100 meters.
The dial is quite something, and yet again, inspired by urban cityscapes and scenarios. Where the debut model had a grid-like texture reminiscent of the Tokyo skyline, this one evokes the sensation of fresh snowflakes gently setting down on a city street at night. The gradient effect runs from black on the outer edge to snowy silver-white in the centre, with a flake-like texture to give it life. The indices and hands are finished in yellow-gold, with luminous inserts for night-time legibility. A finishing touch is the yellow gold frame around the date window, and the arrow-tipped GMT hand is not to be overlooked as well, of course.
Inside this new reference NB6035-55H beats the in-house automatic calibre 9054. As a full-fledged manufacture, Citizen is capable of making virtually everything itself, which is commendable, especially on this price level (more in a bit). The movement runs at a rate of 28,800vph and delivers a respectable 50 hours of power reserve.
Its biggest plus is the fact that this is a true GMT movement, which means the local hour hand can be adjusted by one-hour increments in both directions through the crown, making life easy then frequently crossing time zones. The finishing is a touch simple, perhaps, but at least the rotor is decorated and signed with the brand’s name. One remark to be made is the stated accuracy. Citizen specifies a deviation of -10/+20 seconds per day, which is quite a broad bandwidth.
Citizen puts the Series 8 880 GMT Mechanical NB6035-55H on a case-matching grey-coated (I prefer gunmetal) three-link stainless steel bracelet with a signed folding clasp. It is limited to 1,600 pieces worldwide and retails for USD 1,800 or EUR 1,295. And before you argue “that’s a lot for a Citizen,” do take into consideration this is a Traveller’s GMT that’s completely made in-house. That makes it much more practical than most other GMT watches in the same price range, which often rely on so-called office GMT movements.
For more information, please visit CitizenWatch.eu or CitizenWatch-Global.com.
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