Citizen Eco-Drive Classic Watch

This is the fourth Citizen I have owned. I was interested in this one first because it has the sapphire crystal. I’m hard on my watches, and the crystals always take a beating. Hopefully this one won’t get scratched up like the others. The Eco-drive really does work well. After a very long time you will have to send it back in for a new battery, but that is well over five years from purchase. This watch is also radio-controlled, which may sound gimmicky, but does work. I have two wall clocks at home which use this feature, so I figured it was worth a try with the watch. It took several days to get the signal, which was also the case for my wall clocks. I live a long way from the transmitter in Colorado, so that delay was not unexpected. It seems like it takes a clear night for the signal to get here, but after finally setting the watch on a west-facing window sill on a clear night, I found the watch had synced with the wall clocks. The calendar knows how many days are in the month, so you don’t have to change the date at the beginning of the month. My other watch was always wrong because it didn’t have this feature. The super-titanium, or whatever they call it, is very light. I have small wrists, and went with this watch largely because it has a small case. With the titanium and the small case, it is very comfortable on my wrists. The hands do not glow in the dark. If it’s dark, check your phone. If there is any ambient light, the hands are so reflective that you can usually read the time anyway.

I’ve always gotten my father an atomic clock watch with solar power when I could. He was always asking me to set his watch. So I got him a Casio waveceptor. It was great for 14+ years. Then it died a horrible death. So I was looking at offerings from Casio and Citizen. This watch had class and looks the other didn’t have. Yes it was triple the cost. That turned out to be well worth it. First, no digital screen and classic look. He loves that. Second, scratch resistant everything, the band has duratec coating to resist scratches and sapphire crystal. My dad’s Casio had scratches over the stainless band, the case and crystal. He wore the bleep out of that watch. Adjustment of the band is a little tricky if you are not careful. This Citizen has the looks he loves, the accuracy he loves and the ease of wearing and not winding or replacing batteries he needs. I was more than happy to give this to him, he hasn’t stopped talking about it.

With a couple of minor exceptions, this has all of the features that I look for in a watch: quartz movement, solar powered battery, radio signal accuracy, lightweight titanium and good looks. Actually, this is my second Citizen watch with these same features — I purchased my first Citizen 14 years ago an it still runs great. The new watch is a bit smaller and dressier, and I love it. The minor exceptions are first, the dial is not the same color of blue as pictured; it is a very dark blue which looks black under most lighting. Nothing wrong with black but I already have a black watch and was lookin forward to the blue. The second thing to note is that there are no lumes on the dial or hands of this watch. No biggie, but still a surprise. Overall, this is an excellent watch that should last many years.

Horrible. Two different orders, both were dead on arrival. Spent an hour troubleshooting, no luck getting them to power on. Do not buy these on Amazon!!!