Editorial
The Tsuyosa is Citizen's answer to the question every entry-level collector eventually asks: what if I want something with a bit more personality than a field watch clone? Launched in 2021 with a range of bold dial colors, a clean 40mm case, and an exhibition caseback, it punches harder than its price suggests. "Tsuyosa" means strength in Japanese, and the name fits.
Citizen introduced the Tsuyosa in 2021 as a deliberate move into the enthusiast-automatic market, a segment the brand had largely left to Seiko for decades. The watch drew immediate attention for offering colorful sunburst dials, a display caseback, and solid 100m water resistance at a price under $300. Citizen built it around the NH8391, a Miyota-adjacent movement that the brand licenses from the Seiko-derived NH caliber family.
Several dial colors shipped at launch, with additional variants added in subsequent years. It quickly became a recommended starting point for collectors who want something worth opening the back on.
The NH8391 is a licensed Seiko NH movement, which is fine, but it is not a Citizen in-house caliber. If in-house manufacture matters to you, this is not your watch. Beat rate accuracy on these movements varies by unit; budget for a regulation service if yours runs more than plus or minus 15 seconds per day out of the box.
The exhibition caseback is a draw, but it also means the movement is less protected from magnetic fields than a closed caseback would be. Dial color consistency varies by production run. The NB1040-09Z specifically is the teal-dial version; verify the reference number carefully before buying because several colorways look similar in low-resolution listing photos.
