Citizen Men's Eco-Drive Calibre 8700 Watch

Amazing functionality but with some ease of use issues

A very very precise perpetual solar powered timepiece capable of tracking the time in two zones (you toggle between locations using the crown) pretty thin at a great street price. The hands have nice night time illumination. The leather strap and deployant buckle are pretty plush. Some of the functionality is hard to use and there is a cheap look to the metal bezel (which marks easily; the glass seems tough enough).



This thing is really a time computer instead of a watch; when you change modes the hands change function in such a way that to get back to the time you must be accessing a computer memory. Also it has the cute (really) habit of napping when it has been in the dark for some long time. Then when you look at it it senses light wakes up and the second hand moves madly to catch up.



The crown:

It is way too easy to pull the crown out two stops into the setting mode which could cost you the correct time instead of one stop into the position where you can change modes.



The alarm:

To see what at time the alarm is set you change to the alarm mode and it may take (really) a minute or more while the hands move to show that time (the minute hand actually goes round and round as the hour hand advances ... its a 24 hour alarm which is very nice there's a separate indicator keeping track of 24 hour time). Then the same thing in the other direction when you need

the time again. The alarm is very very dim I would not trust it to wake me up. When the watch is in the calendar mode where the second hand shows the month there is no way to see whether the alarm is on (that hand can only be used to show the number of years to the next leap year ... likewise when it shows whether the alarm is on it can't access that leap-year function).



The second time zone:

Quite easy to use its synched to the main time in hour increments. Just don't go to Teheran or any other place where time isn't on the hour that isn't possible without resetting the main watch time. There's a 2ndary dial which tells you whether the 12 hour hands are pointed to am or pm in either time zone.

And it may take a long time to move to the 2nd time if you need to check that see the comments on checking the alarm time.



bottom line: the gaffes probably stand out more just because the good parts are so good. Its almost a perpetual motion machine!More detail ...