“A good watch should be self-sufficient.”
Yet another return to Citizen’s Eco-Drive! Why most of us are damn interested in it is primarily it’s the first Solar-Powered range of calibres to blend technology with rich and classic design details. Watches that typically look like gadgets have limited wearing potential; two-toned, stainless-steel bracelets and elegant, luxurious dials are more acceptable when normalcy reigns.
As a primary matter of safety, a protective, non-reflective glass is the most desired. It goes without saying Citizen will definitely build a rock-hard case to protect equally sturdy objects inside , so the next worry is on the max power reserve and it brings a royal relief. 180 days on a full charge and without the power-saving/sleep mode kicking in between; well, that’s pretty remarkable. For three days you keep getting the low-charge warning; that’s enough to calculate how much light to feed when. Lastly, everybody expects some gimmick: Here you have a retrograde perpetual calendar function, an alarm function, a dual-time function and a 24-hour subdial apart from the usual month-day-date. Great for wearing to the Yacht Clubs or in any other water sports community. Its 330 feets of water resistance goes well with snorkeling and swimming. Not suitable for deep-sea/saturation diving, though.
On its urban side, it goes well with fashionably stylish attire, including business wear. It’s more than just pretty face with a sweet tone to it. Its perpetual calendar (adjusts automatically to Feb, leap years and odd and even months) is programmed till 2100; now, that’s little more than what we usually get (2099) with others.
At 39mm across, it still looks bit on the larger side; the wide, round silver stainless steel watch case seems to create some sort of an illusion of proportional blowup and the thin, gold-tone outline of the bezel also adds to the definition. The silver (brushed) and gold (polished) finishes mixes very well on the deep blue (almost black) dial.
The best part is, you don’t have to rely on assumptions. There’s a mode subdial (the bottom one) with the modes displayed. Select any function and the watch will work that way. There’s lume on the hands but the gold borders add a very charming touch to the whole gold part. Or, it rounds it off very nicely. The scratch-resistant mineral crystal (with anti-reflective coating) knocks glare and reflections off and allows a clean viewing of the dial underneath even, under very bright lights. The two-sided coating stops the gold accents glaring at you from inside.
To use, it is an attractive and comfortable watch with an ease of use. Unlike many complicated watches, this one needs no fumbling with the options and this is perhaps the biggest proff of Citizen’s amazing technological breakthroughs!
