Built for Speed: Citizen’s Promaster SST

The Citizen Promaster SST is one serious chronograph. Some watches, just on a first glance, give you a strong sense that they were made to be a real tool, a precision instrument. With its aggressive stance and unique dial and case arrangement, the Promaster SST makes an undeniable first impression, but it’s the watch’s technical capability under the hood that makes it truly special. We talked to the team behind the watch at Citizen to get a better understanding of the Promaster SST, and why it’s a chronograph worth taking seriously.

First things first: the Promaster line exists to offer regular consumers a high grade, professional product, without any compromises. “For all our customers, it means highly technical timepieces that can be worn for daily activities with the option for the utmost functionality in some of the most extreme and tough environments,” Susan Chandler, the Chief Merchandising Officer at Citizen, told us when asked about the importance of the Promaster series of timepieces. Lots of watches try to appeal to a consumer’s sense of adventure, or the romance of a certain activity, but Promaster SST and other watches in the Promaster family are grounded in real world technical use.

Eco-Drive is one of Citizen’s most prominent technological advancements and continues to set the brand apart from others.

When it comes to the Promaster SST (SST meaning Split Second Timer), one gets the impression of an instrument that may have literally just been lifted from a modern race car. With a mix of digital and analog scales arrayed in a manner that is clearly reminiscent of dashboard gauges on high performance vehicles, the Promaster SST is imbued with an aesthetic that captures the very essence of those vehicles. The watch is easy to read and simple to use, and, unlike a lot of ana-digi timepieces on the market, it possesses a certain intuitiveness in its functionality. While it’s capable of giving you a ton of information — world time, lap times, average speed, countdown timing, and more — the watch remains fundamentally user friendly.

The Promaster SST, with its bold use of color, impressive technology, and aesthetics that are ripped right from the dashboard of a super car, is one of the most clearly motor sports inspired watches we’ve come across. But you don’t need to be a racer to enjoy and use it.

Citizen has once again successfully incorporated all the professional features you’d expect in a purpose-built tool watch, and made it accessible to enthusiasts and casual watch lovers alike, regardless of whether you spend your weekends timing laps at a track day, or something much more mundane. The Promaster SST is the rare watch that’s able to get the adrenaline pumping simply by checking the time.

To shop the Citizen Promaster SST Collection, click the links below:

Promaster SST JW0139-05L
Promaster SST JW0137-51E
Promaster SST JW0138-08L