Citizen Zenshin (Forza) Watch Review | Know THIS Before You Buy One
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Citizen watches have never been my favorite.
Only three years ago, when I did my full review of the brand, I found they were well constructed, with exciting technologies and extensive history at reasonable prices. I could see why they’d accrued a sizable fanbase. Nevertheless, I also found some big downsides, including mismatched bracelets with inadequate adjustment systems, awkward lug widths, minor QC issues, and a penchant for exclusively large sizing.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle, though, was the styling. I know, it’s each to their own, but 99% of the Citizen catalog sent me to sleep quicker than a vat of wine, followed by a right hook from Mike Tyson. Outside of a few expensive and obscure Japan-only models, which did look good, nothing set my juices flowing, let alone fitted me. Essentially, I wouldn’t have touched Citizen with a barge pole if it hadn’t been for this YouTube channel.
Far forward to today...and I’ve bought three of them. Yes, three Citizen watches. That’s because nowadays, Citizen is fit. They’re one of the hottest brands in the affordable space, no doubt.
They’ve had a string of hits, including some good-looking new Promasters, the quirky Bullhead reissues, and then the highly-popular Tsuyosa models. That last one was basically an affordable Rolex-like integrated bracelet watch, which looked fantastic for the money. What really set the tone, though, was the sub-seconds version of the Tsuyosa, which came soon after with a beautiful concentric dial texture that made it look even better.
At that point, I was like, OK, Citizen, now you have my attention. The Tsuyosa still doesn’t fit me, but I like where you’re going with this. These are watches I am very much awake for. What’s next?
Citizen Forza Collection
Then this popped up on my feed. BOOM! And again and again and again. It was like that scene from The Ring; it wouldn’t leave my screen. It’s the new Forza Automatic (also named the Zenshin in some regions), and seemingly every watch Instagrammer and YouTuber has covered this in some form or another. Undoubtedly, this is the most hyped Citizen ever. I’ve seen it called a luxury watch killer, a cheaper Grand Seiko, and basically the best value watch ever made.
While you could chalk this up solely to clickbait, at a glance, such comparisons somehow seemed plausible for once. You see, the Forza seemed to have another god-tier dial for a budget watch, with a texture that appears halfway between the washi paper and meteorite dials typically reserved for much more expensive watches.
What’s more, unlike the Tsuyosa, this watch wasn’t made of stainless steel. Instead, it shipped with a far more ‘advanced’ Super Titanium case. I had to take a look at it.
So, I headed online to buy it and was a little stopped in my tracks. You see, when I searched for ‘Citizen Forza’, I was also met with two other watches that nobody seemed to have covered. A regular three-hander and a chronograph, both of which shared the same elaborate dial texture but were instead powered by Citizen’s famous Eco-Drive solar technology.
I couldn’t help but feel curious. I lobbed those in the cart, too. I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss something!
And I’m glad I did because I would have missed something. Something I think most reviewers have missed. In essence, I’m not sure the automatic is the one to buy.
Citizen Forza Automatic Review
Of course, we’re gonna start off with the big hitter. This is the Forza Automatic, the codename for this particular color is the NJ080-80M. It’s the light blue version, which seems to be the most popular from what I’ve seen online. It typically retails for a shade under £500 or $500USD, but can be had for a chunk less from grey market sites.
Dial
Up close, you’ll see that the texture looks pretty much as good as in the product photos and does look akin to a bunch of much more expensive textured dial watches. It’s not as three-dimensional as some other dials I’ve covered before, such as the San Martin desert dial watches, but the shallow ridges and bumps still provide a pretty magical effect that transforms as you move the watch around.
When you look at it up close, it becomes even more remarkable. How did Citizen make something that seems so complex for a watch at this price? I remember saying the same about the Tsuyosa Small Seconds too, which was even cheaper!
At this point, Citizen is seizing the crown from Seiko as the king of lower-cost watch dials, especially given the ballooning cost of newer Seiko releases. It looks premium, the printing of the text is serviceable, and the markers and hands are relatively clean, too. Surrounding this inner area is a set of engraved rings that form the minute track. Some of the other variants use this section to add a second color, which I think is an improvement over this single-tone blue version. Perhaps it’s an illusion of a smaller dial size or the dark ‘eyeliner effect’ that frames everything up properly, I can’t be sure. I just know those are the colors I’d lean towards. That said, Citizen has done a great job choosing these colors, which each bring something different to the table.
Left: Citizen Forza Right: Citizen Tsuyosa Small Seconds
While it’s hard to criticize the dial, if I had to be picky, I do think it looks a little cluttered and bottom-heavy, given the imbalanced placement of the subdial and lower text. As far as automatics go, in the flesh, I think the more symmetrical Tsuyosa Small Seconds is the better-looking of the two, though it is a close contest.
Case Construction
Despite the material differences, the case shape is also quite similar, albeit the new Forza has an even more angular appearance than the Tsuyosa, with squared-off sides and a more standard 3-o’clock crown.
The level of finishing on the case is good for a titanium watch at this price and is more than adequate not to cheapen the watch’s appearance, though the polishing isn’t quite on par with offerings from Casio Oceanus and Swiss Watch Company. Unlike that last model, the Forza also exhibits the duller grey hue commonly found on most titanium watches.
Bracelet
Like some of the Casio Oceanus models, you’ll notice that this Citizen has fixed integrated end-links, which slot nicely into the bracelet but simultaneously will heavily limit your strap choices.
Unfortunately, just like with earlier titanium Citizens, the bracelet isn’t a perfect match to the case. It has a blasted matte finish all over, which works nicely with the flanks of the watch but doesn’t follow on from the vertically brushed upper sections of the watch. The brushing just stops as soon as you hit the bracelet. The overall tone of the metal is the same, so this deficiency isn’t nearly as obvious as with the previous Titanium Citizen I reviewed, but I’m surprised more reviewers aren’t mentioning this, as you will notice it after a while.
The bracelet links themselves are fine. They’re all titanium, so they’re nice and lightweight, just like the watch, though I’m unsure if they’re the same material as the case itself; we’ll test that later. They also have the same polished lip as the lugs on the main housing, which is nice to see, though they’re a little neutered by the underwhelming clasp system. It may be a titanium clasp, but it’s stamped, thin, and only gives you two micro-adjustment holes to pick from. Superior clasps are available elsewhere, that’s for sure.
Movement
The same can be said of the movement. Inside is the Miyota 8213, an automatic movement near-identical to those found in many far lower-cost watches. The only difference here is that the 8213 enables the small seconds complication, whereas the comparable 8210 movement does not. The Miyota 8000 series isn’t exactly great. They have noisy rotors, a low beat rate (which essentially means the second hand isn’t as smooth as some other movements), and they also look very plain, even versions with this gold coating. It’s got a decent advertised accuracy of ±20 seconds per day, but overall, it’s nothing to write home about.
Thankfully, water resistance is good at 10bar, so the movement likely won’t be getting wet. As for scratches, well, it does have a piece of sapphire atop, which is the best crystal type when it comes to scratch resistance. Overall, it’s the optimal choice for this watch, and it looks good on the spec sheet, but it also has a con that many reviewers seem to be skimming over. Like some lower-end Casios, this Citizen sapphire is far from the clearest I’ve come across. It’s got a noticeable cloudiness to it, which hampers the visibility and punchiness of the dial at a range of angles. It’s also sub-par at dealing with reflections, which is a real shame, given the swanky surface that sits beneath. I mean, why would you want to hide that?
Citizen also cut costs in the lume department, which again is being completely overlooked. I mean, look at this; it’s so poor, it may as well be non-existent! Again, here’s proof that a good spec sheet does not always carry over to real life.
Dimensions
As for the fit...it’s OK. In many ways, it falls victim to the same challenge as some other integrated bracelet watches. It’s got a bolt-straight profile, meaning you’re all but guaranteed to have gaps under the lugs, especially if you have small wrists like me. The Citizen website says this watch is 41mm, but I measured it up as 40.5mm, with a 47.3mm lug to lug and an 11.5mm thickness. I’ve always preferred more conforming, curved case shapes, but I have to say the baked-in lug design isn’t as much of a problem as I anticipated, as the bracelet can tilt downwards at a steeper angle than the rival Tissot PRX.
Personally, I think it’s still a little too large for most people. I’ve seen a huge range of wrist shots from buyers and reviewers, and in most instances, I get that gut feeling that the watch just looks a bit too big.
Citizen Forza Chronograpgh Review
Unfortunately, it’s the same fate shared by the CA4610-85Z, also known as the Zenshin chrono...or the Forza chrono; what gives with that naming scheme?
Indeed, this one looked even better in the online images, with styling somewhat akin to the Tissot PRX chronograph but with a different movement, case material, and price tag. The three colors this one shipped in all have the trendy high contrast setup, with dark subdials and a lighter dial tone.
The sad part is it’s 42mm. In fact, my calipers had this at 42.5mm, which will inherently be hugely restrictive. At present, there is no smaller version of this one available, meaning unless you are a bodybuilder or competitive eater, or specifically want a big, big watch, the Chrono won’t be on your shopping list.
Dial
It’s a shame, too, as it somehow implements the same dial texture as the automatic version despite running off solar power. Indeed, hiding beneath this dial, or potentially in those translucent subdials, are solar receptive cells that turn light into battery power. Eco-Drive has been a great innovation since it was introduced decades ago, but now Citizen seems to have mastered the way they implement this tech, to the extent where it no longer affects the visuals whatsoever.
On that topic, there’s something to point out with this model in particular. On the website, it’s listed as ‘Salmon,’ yet the product images almost give the impression the watch is more of a golden-brown tone. In person, though, the hue is substantially different. Oddly, it’s much more accurate to its namesake, an orange-pink that is much more akin to a salmon fillet. I have to say though, I don’t really like it. It’s not awful, but it doesn’t combine with the darker accents, like the subdials and chapter ring, nearly as well as the creamer appearance shown in the product shots. Absolutely, the white dial is gonna be the best of the three, avoiding the color clashes that mar the others.
It does have other redeeming qualities. The hands and markers are, again, clean and neat. The subdials are deeply set, with reflective chamfers to highlight each of them. The sweep of this chronograph hand is also a nice-to-have, considering this is usually only a trait of mechanical or meca-quartz timepieces.
Unfortunately, the chrono is even bulkier than the auto, at a shade under 12mm, but in every other aspect, it’s virtually identical. Same water resistance, same bracelet, same crystal, and same case style as the automatic.
So yeah, a good option if you want a big white chronograph watch. But what if you don’t?
Citizen AW0130 Review
Well, that’s where we get to the final contender, the three-hander. This one is the AW0130-85X. I’ve seen some people refer to this as a ‘Citizen Core’...who the heck knows what’s going on with the naming?
Either way, this is the one I’m most excited about, for some fairly obvious reasons. Primarily the size.
This is the smallest of the set, with a 39.5mm width and only a 10mm thickness. The lug-to-lug is also just 46.3mm, including the baked-in end links. It’s not exactly small, but I think it’s way better proportioned than the other two, and the eco-drive movement is also far lighter than the automatic, giving you a truly featherweight final result. This thing vanishes on wrist; you will forget it’s there.
Dial
It’s also less cluttered than the automatic, with a sleeker, more symmetrical dial that’s only interrupted by the oversized day-date window. Let’s be real, that bit could have been slashed down or ditched completely.
Regardless, I think it’s the best-looking of the three and probably the one to get. It’s also $100 cheaper than the automatic as well as the most practical, given the solar stuff.
Solar Feature
My main question is, is this running off magic?
I mean, the dial here looks EXACTLY the same as the automatic one, and it doesn’t even have the panel-like subdials from the chronograph. So, how exactly is such a detailed dial like this taking in light and charging up a battery? It’s truly extraordinary. You would never know this had any functional properties, especially given the elaborate texture.
To my knowledge, the pattern is the same on each unit, as this model’s dial imperfections match those in the stock images, so yours will look just like this. This green version, in particular, is a sweet one.
Of course, this model shares the same basic pros and cons as the other two, and despite the more compact dimensions, it still retains some of that under lug space, meaning it can still slide around a bit. It’s also the most vanilla of the three, especially combined with the standard-looking markers and hands used across the range.
Materials
That leaves us with the headline feature. The one Citizen likes to ram down your throat in virtually every marketing email. SUPER Titanium! Now, we’ve had some trouble with this material in the past, or should I say Citizen’s marketing of it.
On their website, they yell about how Super Titanium is 40% lighter and “5x harder than stainless steel”.
Yet, in our Mohs hardness scratch test video, we found it didn’t perform 5x better than steel...in fact, it didn’t perform better, full stop. If anything, it was marginally worse! The Super Titanium branded watch we scratched, advertised as such by Citizen on their own site, scratched just like a completely untreated titanium Lorus watch, that was a fraction of the price.
As a result, I assumed that Super Titanium was yet another bogus marketing invention to ramp up prices. Nevertheless, multiple commenters disagreed. They said there were ‘different versions’ of Super Titanium available, with differing levels of performance, and that my watch was bottom tier.
The thing is, as an English speaker, you’d never know this when buying. All Super Titanium watches on non-Japanese sites are just listed as ‘Super Titanium’ across the board. If these coating tiers do exist, you can’t tell on the spec sheet. And Citizen’s documentation about this material? It’s basically non-existent!
The English Super Titanium webpage makes no mention of any different performance tiers.
Indeed, you have to head to the Japanese version of their website, navigate to this specific page, and then translate everything as you scroll with a tool like Google Lens to learn about these covert differences. There is no official equivalent of this page outside of Japan. No documentation even ships with the watches.
Now, some Citizens do have wording on the case rear, so if you’re already in the know, it could help. But if you’re not, like 99.9% of us, you’d have no clue.
The Citizen watch we previously scratched just said ‘base titanium’ on the back, which, according to commenters, meant it was bottom-tier or had no coating at all and barely qualified as Super Titanium despite being advertised as such. Apparently, I explicitly needed to look for the word ‘Duratect’.
Well, these Forza watches do say ‘Duratect’ on the back. I mean, it doesn’t say *which* version of Duratect this is. The Japanese webpage lists 7 types of Duratect, none of which are simply called ‘Duratect’ according to that page.
I’m assuming it’s the Titanium Carbide version, given the watch is titanium and it has been used on other similarly priced ranges, but I can’t be sure.
It then gets more bizarre because, with some leeway for mistranslation, it says at the top of the page “titanium with Duratect is Super Titanium”. Well, the last watch I bought was titanium and was marketed as Super Titanium by Citizen. So, it must have been Duratect, too, right? Even though it lacked the ‘Duratect’ branding.
So, how did these new Duratect-branded watches fare? Well, exactly the same as last time! My Mohs scratch kit gave marks at level 4, light to medium scratches at level 5, and deep scratches at level 6. I took on feedback from the last test and used a slightly better technique this time, but I still got identical results. I got the same score on both the bracelet and the main housing, by the way. For context, this is slightly worse performance than 304, 316L, and 904L steel; the three main steel types used in watchmaking. It’s also comparable to untreated titanium on a dirt-cheap Lorus watch.
In this instance, the ‘Duratect’ wording didn’t make a shred of difference.
This whole mess got me thinking. Is this even legal? To lead with such umbrella claims about the hardness and scratch resistance when many of the products sold under this ‘Super Titanium’ moniker don’t come close to those performance claims?
Well, I’ve looked at the ASA website, the Advertising regulator here in the UK, and I’d be surprised if Citizen *weren’t* breaking multiple laws by omitting this key information and selling lower-tier products under the same banner with identical performance claims. I’m not saying they *are* breaking multiple laws, just that they *could* be, and if they were, that would be pretty scummy.
Nefarious or accidental, legal or not, this mess needs clearing up. Especially because they don’t need to be doing this; they’ve got bangers without all this misleading nonsense!
The only other way I can see the hardness claims holding water is if they were deliberately comparing to a weaker steel not typically used in watches, or if they technically meant hardness in terms of impacts or some other category, despite often pushing the scratch-resistance angle online.
Either way, it’s highly misleading. Maybe the very highest-end Duratect treatments do reach those heights, but if so, the hardness claims should be attached only to those models, not the full range!
Final Thoughts
I wouldn’t say these findings ruin the value of the Forza range or anything. They’re still good watches with great dials, and they are reasonably priced. If the three-hander fitted me, I’d keep it.
It’s just that Super Titanium shouldn’t automatically be seen as this god-tier flagship feature or put on such a pedestal by reviewers when most watches with this branding scratch just as badly as industry-standard materials or even plain titanium! Super Titanium advertises some other niche advantages too, but I think scratches are the most common thing you’ll run into.
Citizen needs to be way more transparent with their tiering, naming, and marketing. Content creators should also stop automatically hyping up Super Titanium and taking the extreme marketing claims at face value without doing any basic testing. It turns out Super Titanium often isn’t so super!
At least other companies like Casio clearly tell you when their watches use Titanium Carbide, without any fuss or jargon, and microbrands like RZE have one coating that works excellently across the board.