Working the Street with the Citizen Nighthawk.
My interests are cyclical. I flit from topic to niche topic much like a bumblebee might from flower to flower. World War II tank lore, woodworking, true American muscle cars (Mustang is a fighting word in my household), you name it, I've been into it for twenty minutes. There are the true constants, though, and they always find their way back into the limelight. Until someone wants to pay me to write obscenely long rants on the moral implications of the New Jedi Order's modification of the Code, or the effect of post stall maneuverability in starfighter dogfights, Star Wars will forever be a side hustle. The other two, flight and firearms, rarely find the opportunity to collaborate.
Four years in the Air Force might indicate where my bread is buttered. I had just passed three years on a major metropolitan police department in North Texas (yes, that one), so I needed something robust enough that could take the abuse cops put on the gear they actually like. I thought anything over a hundred bucks was folly, that I wouldn't dare put an "expensive" piece of "jewelry" on my wrist before I head out to work the road. The fact that the Nighthawk has more arrests under its belt than a lot of my coworkers should indicate how wrong I was (as well as the state of modern policing, but that's a separate discussion). I didn't think gateway drugs were real, but the Nighthawk spoke to me in ways I didn't know a piece of wrist candy could.
I had a Suunto Core 2 All Black as my daily driver for field training, which was a knee jerk reaction. An aversion to the "boring obvious choice" presented by the infinite G-Shock variants, but it was only a minor improvement over the omnipresent (at least in my department, for some reason) Garmin Instinct 2. The Nighthawk opened my eyes to the possibility of rugged yet tasteful work watches. I didn't have to go with the flow of smart watches and kitchen sink nonsense if I didn't have to.
When I was first considering the Nighthawk, I sent an Amazon link to my older brother, a fellow watch nerd. He looked at the dial, almost crowded and busy if not for Citizen's excellent design, for a minute, and replied, "that is a very Dan watch". I wasn't anywhere close to being on the fence, but that sealed the deal right there. I had a Timex MkI he'd traded me for snowboard bindings, a Casio Duro he'd convinced me was all the watch I'd ever need, the Suunto, and a Casio F105 I'd had since basic training. I thought my boxes were checked, I had my bases covered.
I did my best to justify the Nighthawk as a practical purchase, and truly it was, but not in ways I expected. As a millennial, I had to relearn how to read analog time, hopefully for the last time. You know what's even easier than getting to the timer/stop watch function on a G-Shock? Using an analog second hand, that's what. The slide rule bezel is another major selling point and an awesome feature, but I've watched no less than four YouTube videos on how to use it, and I'm lost if you ask me to calculate anything more complicated than miles to kilometers.
Beyond the practical application, the Nighthawk is just a fun watch. The links of the bracelet have the profile of an airfoil, which looks cool but also allow for a very comfortable, snug fit. The dial is ridiculously busy, but once the sun goes down it becomes a very different watch. The GMT function is accomplished using tiny little planes, for Pete's sake. The Nighthawk has been my go-to for work, play, adventure, and everything in between. Heading back home to the East Coast, I didn't even have to change the time, my GMT planes took care of that for me!
I thought the Duro or the MKI would be my foot in the door for an addiction to watches, but they didn't open my eyes the way the Nighthawk has. It's more fun, wearing "nicer" watches to work the road, and it's only encouraging me to head further down the rabbit hole.
Dan from @noon.atyoursix is a North Texas street cop, Star Wars nerd, and Yankee carpetbagger just starting out on his watch journey. You can find him at a Stars game or or watching DCS videos, wishing he would quit finding stuff to spend more money on.
