Citizen 8943 ‘The Robot’

One of Citizen’s most popular watches in their Ana-Digi series (which still endures today) is The Robot — the 8943.

It shares the same circuitboard as the Citizen 8946 and several others in the 89** range, and pretty much covers all the bases for functionality.

First up, the time is available via the large analog hands, or by digital display where you can set 12 or 24 hour display.

Next mode is the date, displaying day/date (although in setting mode the month and year can also be set (up to 2019) so the day/date display will automatically update.

There is a daily alarm, and hourly chime, a countdown timer and a stopwatch (which looks like it only displays the numbers in seconds, but a press on the middle button will show 1/100 digits as well.

The LCD panel is the entire height and width of the display and is prone to bleeding, although fortunately a large number were produced so a donor watch can usually be found BUT they are comparatively expensive. For a working model be prepared to pay at least USD150 and probably a lot more.

The watch came in three varieties — gold plated with a brown face, and stainless steel version with either a white or black display.

Leaking batteries aren’t kind to these watches, with fine traces directly below the battery which are prone to being wrecked by battery acid. Since some had a damaged circuitboard, and others a damaged LCD, a number of 8943 watches have been rebuilt with a combination of parts.

They look great, and hold their value well — a great investment you can wear everyday!