The Citizen Promaster Aqualand 200M Depth Meter is part of a long tradition of dive-watch innovation but is also a model distinct from the rest of its peers. Japan’s Citizen Watch Co. has been making watches for more than 100 years, and started making purpose-built watches or divers in the early 1980s. Since then, Citizen has been expanding the variety of styles, functionalities, and even movement types available in its dive watches, which have become a significant pillar of the brand’s rather large product portfolio.
[toc-section heading=”A Brief History of Citizen Dive Watches”]
The Japanese watchmaker, today renowned for technical innovations like Super Titanium, satellite-controlled timekeeping, and its signature solar-driven Eco-Drive movement technology, was an early contributor to making wristwatches waterproof. It released the Parawater, regarded as the first “water-resistant” Japanese watch, in 1959 — several years before its main Japanese rival, Seiko, released its first dedicated diver’s watch, the . Parawater watches (as above) were waterproof to 50 meters of depth, an impressive feat for the era, and they were the forerunners of Citizen’s contemporary line of dive watches, which began in the 1960s but really kicked into gear with the release of the Promaster Marine in 1982. (Citizen dive watches, despite their diversity, all fall under the “Promaster” category today.) That same year, Citizen released its 1300m Professional Diver’s Watch, its first in a titanium case, which went into the record books as the most water-resistant watch in serial production at the time.
[toc-section heading=”The First Citizen Aqualand (Quartz)”]
In 1985 — before the debut of cult-classic models like the “Fugu” and “Orca,” and several years ahead of the first Eco-Drive models — came the first Citizen Aqualand watch. It was the first quartz-powered diving watch equipped with a digital depth gauge, and most would agree that it set the stage for many advancements to come from Citizen in the area of analog-digital timepieces. The depth gauge, in fact, was just one of an array of dive-friendly features including depth measurement, dive time measurement, maximum depth memory, an electronic log to store data from previous dives, and even an alarm that would alert a surfacing diver if he was ascending too rapidly. As others have noted, the original Citizen Aqualand could be regarded as the last electronic watch specifically designed for diving before such devices were made obsolete by the rise of the dive computer in the later 1980s, spurred by the success of 1983’s pioneering Orca Edge.
Citizen’s first Aqualand model was Ref. C0023 (40th anniversary reissued version pictured above and below), and contained the brand’s quartz Caliber C020, which powered both the analog hands (hours, minutes, and seconds) and the digital displays on the curved LCD screen at 12 o’clock. The 200-meter water resistant case was in matte-finished steel and fairly enormous at 50.7mm in diameter and 14.8mm thick. Part of the reason for its hugeness, of course, was the bulbous, protruding depth gauge device on the 9 o’clock side, which had a water pressure sensor that could measure depths up to 80 meters and display them (with accuracy to a maximum 3% deviation) on the LCD screen. Other displays included the aforementioned dive data and alerts as well as digital chronograph and alarm functions. Meanwhile, a screwed down 4 o’clock crown controlled and set the analog timekeeping. At the time, all of this functionality not only required a titanic case but also more than one battery: the C023 used three, and replacing them was not easy thanks to the solid caseback fastened with six screws.
Several other versions of the Aqualand joined the original steel-cased one during the model’s production run into the 1990s, including some with golden accents and a special black-PVD-coated titanium model with gold accents worn in the movie Le Grand Bleu by French action star Jean Reno. The nearly identical Ref. JP2000 followed, now with upgrades including a screw-down caseback (dispensing with the six individual screws) and one battery required rather than three. It contained a newer movement with more electronic memory (up to 400 minutes of dive time) and a calendar accurate to 2099. As was the case with its predecessor, the digital readout on this version of the Aqualand automatically switched from timekeeping mode to dive-date mode once it was submerged in water. As of 1989, the Aqualand is part of the larger Promaster series, which Citizen established as a catch-all category for pretty much all of its tool watches, built around a “land, sea, and air” theme.
[toc-section heading=”Citizen Promaster Aqualand Models (Eco-Drive)”]
The Promaster Aqualand Ref. BN2029-01E was the first in the line to adopt Citizen’s Eco-Drive technology, powered by the Caliber J250. The latest version of that model, which ushered in an all-analog design for the depth-meter-equipped model, debuted in 2017. That watch is even more massive than its predecessors, at 53mm in diameter and nearly 18mm thick, weighing in at 161 grams in steel. The depth gauge, which measures down to 70 meters, is activated by the pushers at 8 and 10 o’clock, which surround a sensor that juts out of the case’s left side but nearly as prominently as on earlier models. Depth readings can be read via a dedicated central hand on a scale that is part of the dial’s busy, concentric-ring design. This scale, and the dive-time scale on the unidirectional rotating bezel, are joined on the dial by a 3 o’clock date indication and a power-reserve indicator that displays how much energy remains in the Eco-Drive movement’s light-charged battery.
[toc-section heading=”Reviewing the Promaster Aqualand Depth Meter 200M Edition”]
The most recent revamp of the Aqualand Depth Gauge watch came in 2019. The Ref. BN2038-01L, which is currently on the market and priced at a very reasonable $636, is the most streamlined version yet of the pioneering dive watch and the most recent iteration to veer from the model’s historical ana-digi design for a stylish, colorful, all-analog look. The watch, precisely called the Promaster Aqualand 200M Depth Meter, remains Citizen’s most rugged, utilitarian dive watch, and the closest thing to an actual wrist-worn dive computer that any watchmaker offers. Its capabilities, however, are trimmed down from the most multifunctional of its analog-digital versions: in addition to the eponymous depth meter function (which measures and displays down to 70 submerged meters), the watch retains the maximum depth memory, rapid-ascent alarms, and auto-start dive mode that activates these functions upon the watch’s contact with water., in addition to the analog power-reserve display and date window.
As far as the specs and wearability elements, the Promaster Dive Aqualand 200M Depth Meter is much less “tool” and much more “style object” in its overall aesthetic but is still a very large watch: at 46mm in stainless steel and 16.4mm thick, and weighing nearly 160 grams, it’s emphatically not a desk diver. The 4 o’clock fluted-textured crown screws into the case at 4 o’clock to secure the 200-meter water resistance. The unidirectional rotating dive-scale bezel has a vibrant bicolor execution, with the first crucial 15-minute segment in red and the remainder in dial-matching bright blue. As on the larger model above, the pushers at 10 and 8 o’clock to operate the depth gauge surround the water-operated sensor.
The color-coded, all-analog, predominantly blue dial, beneath an impact-resistant mineral crystal, features separate hands for time and depth tracking, all driven by the Eco-Drive movement inside — Caliber J250, the same mechanism as in the more tool-forward 53mm watch. Rounding out the well-organized dial, the power-reserve indicator appears at 9 o’clock with its own dedicated hand pointing to a miniature scale that arcs from “Ready” (battery fully charged) to “Empty” (time to surface and let this watch sit in the direct sunlight for a while). and a date window at 3 o’clock. The sword-shaped, partially openworked hands and the large geometrical hour markers are coated with Super-LumiNova for a bright blue-green glow in the dark, or in the stygian depths of a serious dive. The Promaster Aqualand 200M Depth Meter retails for $795.
What’s next for the Aqualand series? Citizen released a 40th anniversary reissue in 2025 that was very faithful to the original from 1985 — including a non-Eco-Drive quartz movement and the familiar ana-digi dial design. Whether or not that watch, which was a 5,800-piece limited edition that has long since sold out, betokens a “back-to-basics” approach to the Aqualand, only time (and eventually Citizen itself) will tell. You can learn more at citizenwatch.com
