Citizen debuts five affordable open-heart mechanical watches with see-through casebacks

Citizen Hong Kong has launched five new open-heart automatics, and they're among some of the cheapest mechanical watches the brand sells. Pricing is set from HK$2,580 to HK$2,980, which is roughly $329 to $380.

The line has been split across two references. Four are NH9138 models, and the fifth, the NH9139-80X, is the two-tone one, with a brown dial and a steel bracelet with rose gold plating. Among the NH9138s, the 07X has a copper dial on a brown leather strap, the 15A gets a silver dial with blue hands on black leather, the 82A is silver on a bracelet, and the 82L is blue on a bracelet. The leather pair is priced at HK$2,580, the two steel-bracelet models at HK$2,680, and the two-tone tops the range at HK$2,980.

Everything else is shared between the five. The case is stainless steel at 40 mm across and 10.7 mm thick, the crystal is sapphire, and water resistance is 5 bar. The dial carries Roman numerals and an aperture at the lower left that exposes the balance wheel, and the case back is transparent so you can watch the rest of it work. Citizen covers them with a three-year warranty.

The bracelet versions weigh 129 g. On leather, that drops to 73 g.

Inside is Citizen's caliber 8229. Citizen Hong Kong doesn't publish its figures, but reference listings put it at 21 jewels, a 42-hour power reserve and 21,600 vibrations per hour, running at −20 to +40 seconds a day. It's built by Miyota, which Citizen owns, and it's hand-windable, though the seconds hand generally doesn't hack.

One note on the prices. Hong Kong charges no sales tax, so those figures are directly comparable to a US price before tax rather than inflated by it.

Buy the Citizen NJ0150-56E on Amazon.