Citizen Garrison vs Timex Expedition Field Post Titanium
Two titanium field watches at similar money, both with sapphire. One has a hardened surface and five years of cover but publishes almost no dimensions. The other publishes everything and covers you for one year.
Buy the Citizen Garrison BM8560 if you want the titanium that resists marking and a warranty that lasts: Super Titanium is surface-hardened, it runs on light so there is nothing to service, and Citizen covers it for five years. Buy the Timex Expedition Field Post Titanium if you want a mechanical watch, 200m instead of 100m, and the dimensions published before you commit — Timex gives you a 50mm lug-to-lug and 13.5mm, and one year of warranty that excludes the crystal.
Titanium used to be a luxury material. These two watches put it under a sapphire crystal at a price that would once have bought a steel quartz watch, and they do it in opposite ways.
Citizen's route is Super Titanium: titanium with a surface treatment that makes it harder than steel rather than softer, powered by light so there is nothing to wind, open or overhaul, with five years of warranty behind it. Timex's route is plain titanium, an automatic movement, 200m of water resistance, and a published set of dimensions.
Our titanium versus stainless steel guide explains why the two grades behave differently. This page is about which of these two watches to actually buy, and the deciding factor is not the metal — it is that only one of them tells you how big it is.
On prices: every buy button on this page reads its figure from the live price layer and stamps the date it was checked, or else reads "Check price on Amazon". No price is written into this text. Service figures quoted here are the manufacturers' own published rates.
How we picked
We have not worn these watches. What follows is what we checked instead, on documents you can open yourself — the same criteria, in the same order, on every roundup on this site. The full method is on the methodology page.
01Which titanium
Citizen's Super Titanium is surface-hardened and resists marking better than steel. Plain titanium is lighter than steel and softer than it. The brands do not mean the same thing by the word.
02What the maker publishes
Timex publishes lug-to-lug, thickness and lug width. Citizen publishes none of the three for this reference. On a 42mm watch that is a real problem.
03Power and servicing
Light-powered with no overhaul schedule against an automatic whose caliber Timex does not name.
04Water resistance
100m against 200m. Neither is a diver; both clear swimming comfortably.
05Warranty, with exclusions read
Five years from Citizen, excluding the power cell, case, bracelet and strap. One year from Timex, excluding the crystal, strap, case and battery.
Disclosure · Some links below are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through one we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not decide what goes on this page or in what order — here is exactly how that works.
Quick picks
Ranked on the Keep Score below — six published specifications, weighted identically on every page. The last row is the one we would not buy.
#
Watch
Best for
Keep Score
Price
1
Citizen Garrison BM8560-02X
Super Titanium, sapphire, 100m, light-powered, five years of warranty.
If you want titanium that does not mark, and long cover
Keep Score is arithmetic, not opinion — six published specifications, weighted the same way on every page. The formula is on our methodology page, so you can re-run it yourself.
01
Citizen Garrison BM8560-02X
Best for: If you want titanium that does not mark, and long cover
Super Titanium is the point. Plain titanium is lighter than steel and softer; Citizen's hardened grade resists marking better than steel does, which turns titanium's usual weakness into a strength. On a field watch that gets knocked about, that is the right trade.
Light-powered by Citizen's E101 Eco-Drive, so there is no battery to change and no overhaul schedule — and five years of warranty, the longest term on either watch here by four years. Sapphire and 100m on a 42mm case.
Citizen publishes neither the thickness, the lug-to-lug nor the band width for this reference. On a 42mm watch those are the three numbers that decide whether it fits, so try it on before you commit. Citizen publishes no service price at any tier either, and the five-year warranty excludes the power cell, case, bracelet and strap.
Sapphire is the upgrade the 37mm Chandler never got, on a Super Titanium case with Citizen's five years of cover. Citizen publishes neither the thickness, the lug-to-lug nor the band width for this reference, so try it on before you commit to 42mm.
Manufacturer specifications for the Citizen Garrison BM8560-02X
Movement
Citizen E101 Eco-Drive, light-powered
Power reserve
Not published
Case
42mm super titanium
Lug-to-lug
Not published
Thickness
Not published
Lug width
Not published
Crystal
sapphire
Water resistance
100m
Warranty
5 years
Citizen's five-year limited warranty excludes the power cell, case, bracelet and strap.
200m, sapphire and titanium on an automatic is a spec sheet Timex has no business hitting at this money, and the watch weighs 65 grams. If you want a mechanical titanium field watch for the least money, this is it.
Timex publishes what Citizen does not: 41mm across, 13.5mm thick, a 50mm lug-to-lug and a 20mm lug width, so any standard strap fits and you can check the fit before buying.
Two real costs. Timex does not name the caliber, so you cannot look up parts or what a rebuild involves. And the warranty is one year and explicitly excludes the crystal, strap, case and battery — everything else on this comparison is covered for two to five. The 50mm lug-to-lug is also long for a 41mm case.
65 grams, sapphire and 200m is a spec sheet Timex has no business hitting. The one-year warranty is the reason to think about it: everything else here is covered for two to five.
Manufacturer specifications for the Timex Expedition Field Post Titanium Automatic 41mm TW2Y90900
Movement
Automatic (caliber not published by Timex)
Power reserve
Not published
Case
41mm titanium
Lug-to-lug
50mm
Thickness
13.5mm
Lug width
20mm
Crystal
sapphire
Water resistance
200m
Warranty
1 year
Timex's one-year warranty explicitly excludes the crystal, strap, case and battery.
We earn nothing on this link. BOLDR sells it directly.
It fails this page because it is a microbrand sold direct, so there is no buy button from us and we earn nothing on it.
It is here because it beats both on fit and on movement disclosure: 38mm with a published 44mm lug-to-lug and 12mm thick, on a named Seiko Instruments NH38A — the caliber every independent watchmaker already knows. Sapphire and 200m, in titanium.
BOLDR states no warranty term we could verify and publishes no service price. If you want titanium, sapphire and 200m on a small wrist, this is still the watch — our titanium versus BOLDR comparison covers it against the Timex directly.
The NH38A is the movement every independent watchmaker already knows, which is the whole serviceability argument in one line. A 44mm lug-to-lug on a 38mm case is about as wearable as a 200m watch gets.
Manufacturer specifications for the BOLDR Venture Titanium 38mm
Movement
Seiko Instruments NH38A automatic
Power reserve
Not published
Case
38mm titanium
Lug-to-lug
44mm
Thickness
12mm
Lug width
20mm
Crystal
sapphire
Water resistance
200m
Warranty
Not stated by the manufacturer
BOLDR does not state a warranty term on this product page.
Read from Citizen's and Timex's own product pages for BM8560-02X and TW2Y90900.
Citizen Garrison BM8560
Timex Expedition Field Post Titanium
Case material
Super Titanium, surface-hardened
Titanium
Movement
Citizen E101 Eco-Drive, light-powered
Automatic, caliber not published
Case
42mm
41mm, 13.5mm thick
Lug-to-lug
Not published
50mm
Lug width
Not published
20mm
Crystal
Sapphire
Sapphire
Water resistance
100m
200m
Warranty
5 years
1 year
Warranty exclusions
Power cell, case, bracelet, strap
Crystal, strap, case, battery
Published service price
None
None
Read from Citizen's and Timex's own product pages for BM8560-02X and TW2Y90900.
Super Titanium and plain titanium are not the same material
Titanium's selling point is weight: roughly 40% lighter than stainless steel, and hypoallergenic. Its unadvertised property is softness. A plain titanium case marks more easily than a steel one, and on brushed surfaces those marks show.
Citizen's Super Titanium is titanium with a surface hardening treatment applied, and Citizen's claim is that the result resists marking better than stainless steel — the opposite of the usual titanium trade-off. That is the single strongest argument for the Garrison over the Timex, and it is a material difference rather than a branding one.
It is not a coating in the PVD sense. A PVD layer is deposited on top and wears through; a hardening treatment changes the surface itself. Our titanium versus stainless steel guide goes through both, and makes the point that a coated case of either metal is a consumable.
The dimensions Citizen will not give you
This site ranks fit on lug-to-lug because diameter is the number on the box. For the Garrison, Citizen publishes diameter and nothing else — no thickness, no lug-to-lug, no band width. For a 42mm field watch that is the information you most need.
Timex publishes all three. 41mm across, 13.5mm thick, 50mm lug to lug, 20mm lugs. 50mm is long — it is the same figure as the Spinnaker Bradner, a 42mm diver we describe as a big watch — so the Timex is not a small watch either. The difference is that you know before you buy.
If your wrist is under about 165mm, neither of these is the obvious choice and the 38mm BOLDR Venture, at a published 44mm lug-to-lug, is. Our field watches for small wrists page ranks the whole category on the measurement.
A named caliber against no caliber at all
Timex says "automatic" and stops. That matters for the same reason it matters on a microbrand: without a caliber name you cannot establish whether parts exist, whether an independent has worked on one, or what a rebuild costs. Timex publishes no service price either, so an overhaul is an unknown job at an unknown price.
The Garrison sidesteps the question. A light-powered movement has no mainspring to replace and no overhaul schedule; the power cell is a wear part eventually, and Citizen's warranty excludes it. There is nothing to service, which is a different kind of answer to the serviceability question but a valid one.
Five years against one
Citizen's five-year limited warranty is the longest term on this site, and it excludes the power cell, case, bracelet and strap. Timex's is one year, and it explicitly excludes the crystal, the strap, the case and the battery — which on a watch whose main selling point is its sapphire crystal is worth reading twice.
Neither exclusion list is unusual. Both are the reason we read warranty documents rather than warranty headlines. Our watches with the longest warranty page ranks every brand here on stated term, with the exclusions named.
Which to buy
The Garrison, if you want the harder surface, the longer cover and a watch that asks nothing of you — and you can get to a shop to try 42mm on, because Citizen will not tell you how it wears.
The Timex, if you want a mechanical watch, want 200m, and want the fit published before you spend. Accept the one-year warranty and the unnamed caliber as the price of that. Both are on our best titanium watches page, which ranks the whole material against the rest of the site.
Questions people actually ask
Is Citizen Super Titanium better than ordinary titanium?+
For scratch resistance, yes. Plain titanium is lighter than steel but softer, so it marks more easily. Citizen's Super Titanium is surface-hardened and resists marking better than stainless steel, which reverses titanium's usual weakness.
How big is the Citizen Garrison BM8560 on the wrist?+
Citizen publishes only the 42mm diameter — no thickness, no lug-to-lug and no band width. That is the main reason to try it on rather than order it blind. The Timex publishes 41mm, 13.5mm thick and a 50mm lug-to-lug.
What movement is in the Timex Expedition Field Post Titanium?+
Timex says only "automatic" and does not name the caliber, so parts availability and rebuild cost cannot be established. Citizen's Garrison uses the E101 Eco-Drive, which runs on light and has no overhaul schedule.
Which has the better warranty?+
Citizen, at five years against Timex's one. Read both exclusion lists: Citizen excludes the power cell, case, bracelet and strap; Timex excludes the crystal, strap, case and battery.
Is there a smaller titanium field watch?+
Yes — the BOLDR Venture Titanium, at 38mm with a published 44mm lug-to-lug, 12mm thick, sapphire and 200m on a named Seiko Instruments NH38A. It is sold direct rather than on Amazon.
Sources
Every specification and figure on this page came from one of these documents. Where a manufacturer does not publish something, the page says so rather than filling the gap.
