13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Smart Watch, smart price
Date of Review: Nov 12, 2005
The Bottom Line: This is an attractive casual wear watch with some very nice features (perpetual calendar and solar powered) at a low price.
I love watches. I only have a small collection, but I choose each watch carefully. I spotted this one in one of my watch magazines, and for an inexpensive watch, it had a very nice look to it. It also has some very nice features.
FEATURES
Perpetual Calender: This is my favorite feature of this Citizen. The day, date and month are displayed, and they are also always CORRECT! This means that when the first of the month comes after a month with 30 days instead of 31 days, your watch displays the correct date. Even for the day after February 28th on a leap year! My Omegas and my Breitling don't do that at up to five times the price. I have to take time the first of most months to correct my watches, but not this Citizen.
Eco-Drive: This watch runs on light! Thats right, it needs no battery, and its not self winding, the face is a solar battery and as long as you don't keep it in the dark for too long, it will always run.
Alarm: You can set the alarm to ring once a day. Its a beep beep beep sort of sound, but when I first played with it and didn't shut it off, it woke me up, so it is fairly loud, and it beeps long enough to wake you up. It does stop on its own however.
Military Time: One of the dials displays the hour in 24 hour intervals, so you can read military time on this watch.
Water Resistance: This Citizen is resistant to 100 feet. In practical terms, this does not mean you can dive to 100 feet with it, but that you could safely swim or shower with this watch on. For divers, I will write my review of the Omega Seamaster another day, its resistant to 1000 feet, and it is considered a diving watch.
DISPLAYS
Time - Yeah, its a watch, so it displays the time of the day, in analog. There is no digital read out. The hands are luminescent, they glow in the dark and they are easily visible. The hours are marked off in attractive black roman numerals. The IIII is partially blocked by the date window. And yes, IIII is not a typo, 4 is displayed that way and not IV. 10 is not displayed either, because it is blocked by the military time circle.
Military Time - In case you missed it in features, this watch displays time in 24 hour format. A full circle in the upper left third of the watch has the hours marked off at 4,8,12, 16, 20, and 24 with white hash marks in between. A small black hand points to the appropriate hour.
Day of the Week - A small one third circle in the upper right third of the watch face displays the day of the week. All the days are displayed on the semi circle, and a small black hand points to the appropriate day
Month or Seconds - The Citizens small second hand will sweep unless you set it to display the months, it won't do both at once. I guess Citizen figures you don't need a constant reminder what month it is. The months are displayed in type around the outer circle of the watch face, and the seconds are displayed in 5 second intervals on the circle immediately inside the month display. Hash marks are between the numerated 5 second intervals.
Date: The date of the month is displayed in a small but easy to read window at the 4 oclock position.
EASE of USE The Citizen comes with an easy to follow instruction booklet. Even though the watch comes with an array of features, that are not easily memorized, all the functions are clearly described in the book, and I had no problems setting my watch, or setting my alarm.
ATTRACTION FACTOR Lets face it, most of us don't buy a nice watch to know what time it is. If we did, Rolex, I.W.C., Omega, Breitling, Cartier etc. would be out of business. I tend to like more expensive watches, but for a Citizen, this is a really sharp looking watch. I chose the one with a white face, stainless steel bezel and black leather watch strap. Although it comes in gold color, I personally think a gold colored watch is a wannabe. If you want a gold watch, buy a gold watch. I like it because its attractive looking, and the displays are busy and unique enough to give it a very interesting look. I'll be honest with you, this part of my review is Highly Subjective. Its like art, you either like the look of a watch or you don't. I use the art comparison, because I always think of watches as small wearable pieces of art that have the added benefit of telling you the time.
When to Wear This is the watch I choose for casual wear. It is also nice enough for office wear. I would put on a fancier sleeker watch for formal occasions, (such as an Omega Constellation). I would also not wear this Citizen for sport or play, its not a rugged watch. I'd stick with Breitling or another heavier stainless steel watch for the gym.
Reliability I bought this last summer and I wear it a day or two a week. I have had no problems with it.
Well this is my first watch review, so if I left anything out, please let me know!
