[jpstewart19]

Does anyone have any information or know where I can find any on the Citizen C420 Wingman? I came across this watch that is clearly an early parent/predecessor to the Skyhawk line a while back, and there is very little info on it online (as opposed to some of the other, similar ProMaster models). The serial is 660001, which almost seems like it could be #1, as I can't imagine Citizen made 660K of them and there is such little internet record.

I have have it listed on eBay, but wan't to provide people with more info if I can. Any help from the experts would be awesome.

 

[CitizenPromaster]

What would you like to know? There were many Wingman models in the Promaster line, for example the C080, C100, C460, C720 etc. Yours is the Wingman V (as in 5) and indeed it looks like a precursor to the Skyhawk, though it is more like a digital sister model to the first Navihawk C300 which was launched in 1996 and has more analogue subdials. You can read about the history of Navihawk and Skyhawk here, but it's not really relevant to your watch: https://www.watchuseek.com/f281/cit...g-you-wanted-more-477077-15.html#post32940810
Navihawk C300

My best guess is your watch is from 1996 [6], June [6] and the 1st watch (of this model) produced that month [0001]. I say 1996 and not 1986, because A) according to the manual you can set the date from 1995 to 2099, and B) there is a map in the manual about time zones "As Of 1989". So 1986 is out of the question, though the design language to my eyes is still more 80s Promaster than 90s Promaster.

You can read the C420 manual online: http://www.citizenwatch-global.com/support/simple_pdf/c420.pdf

 

[jpstewart19]

Awesome information & exactly what I was hoping for. The more I look at these Wingman/Promaster watches, the more they are growing on me. I might cancel the sale and add a few to the collection. Especially with the NATO, I think it really gives it an updated look. Are there some that are considered more rare, or are they universally pretty much not collected? Does citizen actually publish production numbers for watches?

Sorry for all of the questions, I am fairly new to what has quickly become a bit of a watch obsession over the past year.

 

[CitizenPromaster]

If it's not an official limited edition then the production number for a specific model is anyone's guess, I don't believe Citizen shares that info. When I googled (images) Wingman most links were to eBay, so plenty have survived, looking for a new owner. There are collectors for everything, but the short time I've been on WUS I don't see 80s Promasters discussed that often (or any Citizen that is not the Nighthawk or a diver for that matter). I think they were more expensive than Casio at the time so more rare and not as easily thrown away maybe?