My last post was all about "watch surgery"—saving a water-damaged, flea-market Marlboro 2005B chronograph through a full movement swap. But there was a missing half to that story: what actually pushed me to stop procrastinating, hunt down that donor movement, and get my hands dirty?
It was this watch right here—its rare ana-digi sibling, the Marlboro 2005A.
Around my birthday this year, a close friend completely shocked me with a gift. He had no idea I had the analog 2005B sitting dead in a drawer, but he knew I’m a huge Citizen fan in general. He had sourced this 2005A from Japan, and to my absolute delight, it was virtually brand new in NOS condition, complete with its original box and papers 📦✨.
Holding it for the first time was a revelation. It is a super heavy, massive chunk of stainless steel on the wrist 🏋️♂️. The case construction, weight, and overall finishing are remarkably high-grade—for something that originated as a catalog promo piece, the execution is honestly mind-blowing.
I initially tried using this 2005A to cross-reference the race tracks on its bezel and help date the 2005B. Little did I know, the original manual in the box double-functioned as the warranty card with the expiration date printed right on it! But since the paperwork was entirely in Japanese, I completely missed that detail at first :-)
While the 2005B is a purely analog chronograph driven by the Citizen A510 (or Miyota AS10), the 2005A packs the Citizen C460 ana-digi engine. And honestly, what a cool caliber it is! It features world time, a chronograph, a timer, an alarm, and that killer bezel listing the 2005 Formula 1 circuits.
Seeing this pristine 2005A sitting on my desk was the ultimate catalyst. It turned what was once a forgotten flea-market project into a two-piece historical puzzle. I couldn't just leave its analog twin broken in a drawer when the complete 2005 Marlboro F1 catalog pair was sitting right there.
Repair-wise, the 2005A was delightfully boring compared to the 2005B's full movement swap: just a fresh battery, a quick AC reset, and it fired right up 🔋. Finding a replacement C460 module would have been a real nightmare, so I definitely dodged a bullet there!
It feels awesome to finally have both of these 2005-era siblings restored, running, and paired up together in the collection 🫁⏳.
