We picked up our rental VW Polo and made the 20-minute drive from the airport to where we would stay the next two weeks. Another random choice, mostly dictated by our budget limitations and proximity to the airport, but as fate would have it, a great one indeed. We stayed in a cheap but perfect little Air BnB in Puerto del Carmen, near a beach called Playa Chica. In the couple of days that we spent in Madrid, visiting friends and family, I made my way over to a small watch store on the corner of Alonso Cano and Viriato where I asked the watchmaker to test the watch’s water resistance, a test which it passed with flying colors. After some research, by which I mean that we checked where we could fly to from Nuremberg via Madrid for less than €40, we decided that our destination would be Lanzarote. It was in March, that my girlfriend and I decided to go on holiday to the Canary Islands. Despite it being the winter, the honeymoon phase ensued, so I wore this was from December through to Match almost exclusively, and always on the rubber strap. I decided to keep it real, and go with a similarly uncomfortable vented black rubber dive strap, with the no-deco scale actually visible and not totally faded away. The extremely stiff and uncomfortable vented black rubber dive strap was soon replaced with a fresh substitute. And against all good sense and even knowing better, I did just that. This was quite encouraging, as it proved that the watch was at least in wearable condition and that I would be able to enjoy it without having to pay for a costly service. Kudos to the seller for his McGyver-esque wrapping skills, as well as for setting the watch before shipping - a five-star rating was never more deserved. Taking it out of the makeshift packaging, I found it to be in a better state than I had expected, ticking away, on time, and with the day and date both correct. However, the seller did promise that it was in working order, for the €50 asking price I decided to take the risk. It was in pretty rough shape, at least judging from the low-quality images provided. The watch featured a black dive bezel, an asymmetric case design with the crown at the 8 o’clock position, and at a glance looked enough like an SKX to pique my interest.
This was until one fateful day, a Citizen Promaster dive watch appeared in the search results. Typical results included rubber dive straps, or bezels, and other spare parts for automatic dive watches, as well as some completely destroyed or junk pieces. As you might imagine, this didn’t turn up anything but junk. Going back a couple of years, I had saved a search for “automatic dive watch” or more likely “Automatik Taucheruhr”, with a limit of €60 for the price. Trawling through the mud of the Kleinanzeigen listings, you can certainly strike gold.
And one where bargains can be had, as people use the platform far more casually than other more widely accessible auction sites, as well as watch-only sales portals such as Chrono 24. This creates a somewhat closed ecosystem. Thousands of ads go up each day, however, the ads are in German, most sellers speak only German, and they will likely only ship within Germany. In Germany, the platform eBay Kleinanzeigen (which translates to “small ads”) is equivalent to Craigslist, or other classified ad sites. But for those whose first peek into my collection comes in the shape of this article, I’ll briefly explain. If you’ve read any of my previous articles, this will definitely sound familiar. I did know one thing - I wanted a proper automatic dive watch. However, being a student at the time the price was not one that I could even think about paying. As you might have read in my previous article on the Seiko 7002, it was the Seiko SKX line that firmly held my novice watch collector’s attention. I can freely admit that this watch was never on my radar. This Citizen diver may not be the most iconic dive watch out there, but it does have quite an impressive history, as well as the specs to make it a thoroughbred diver.
In my case, It was a Citizen Promaster NY0040 and a holiday on Lanzarote, as well as a dive shop opposite my Air BnB that beckoned me, like a siren’s song, into the ocean’s murky depths. Well, as far-fetched as some of those fantasies maybe, some are more achievable than others. Whether it be ripping around a racetrack in a souped-up deathtrap of a single-seater while rocking a vintage Rolex Daytona, gambling and drinking the night away in a smokey NYC jazz club backroom with a Cartier Tank, or lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center, moon-bound with an Omega Speedmaster on your wrist. I’m sure that at some point or another in our watch collecting we have all fantasized about using our watches for the task they were designed for.
0 kommentar(er)
