 Awesome watch! |
| Review Date: March 21, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Jeff, CA |
Even though I'm not a pilot, I've always liked the Skyhawk/Navihawk titanium line of Citizen watches. My brother is a commercial pilot and has an older one. He loves it. They are just too cool. But I never liked the fact that they didn't have a backlight for the LCD displays. Well now they do! It has an amber backlight that works great. This watch is the new titanium version of the much heavier stainless steel JY0000-53E that came out last year.
Of course the weight of this watch is ridiculously light due to the Titanium construction. For such a big watch, I can hardly tell it's on. I can't stand a heavy watch bouncing on my arm. And be aware, this is definitely a big watch. But that seems to be the trend now (which I like).
The atomic time function works like a charm. I also like having world time at my fingertips. I have family members that live overseas, so it's nice to be able to check their local time at a glance.
It's great knowing I will never have to change batteries with this watch. The solar-powered "Eco-Drive" is an incredible feature that every watch company should have.
The watch has 2 alarms, world time zones (43 cities), solar power, atomic time, a countdown timer, a chronograph, a slide rule, UTC time, a 24 hour clock, ultra-light and nearly indestructable titanium construction, 200 meter waterproof, mineral glass, and it looks outstanding. What more could you want? I think it even does the dishes, bathrooms, and windows. But I haven't looked up those features yet in the 115 page manual (English portion).
One thing that's missing is a one-touch feature to bring all hands to the 12 o'clock position to clear the LCD displays during certain times of day. The hands occasionally obscure your attempts to read the LCD's. Another little gripe is you have to pull out and turn the crown to check the date. And it'll show you the date of your second time zone only. You have to do a couple more steps to get your home zone date if your second time zone is across the dateline from you. I think there's a way to set the LCD 2 to show the date all the time, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. (Correction 4/1/08: I don't think there is any way you can get LCD 2 to show the date.)
Forget Rolex, Breitling, and Omega. They might look cool and have their high-falutin image, but they have nowhere near the functionality and practicality of this new Citizen. And they all cost about 10 times more. They are also much heavier.
Bottom line: It's virtually indestructable, ultralight, maintenance and adjustment free. I never have to set the time again nor will I ever have to change a battery or put it in a watch-winder (for automatics). I'm a big fan and proud owner of one of the coolest watches on the planet. |
Awesome Watch!
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| Review Date: June 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: E. Sung, |
So I've had this watch about a week now and I love it! The build quality is awesome and you can tell the Japanese Workmanship is still going strong.
Looks - I think the watch looks great. It is quite big on the wrist but that it looks good for today's standards. It is looks like a heavy duty watch that was given to designers to make elegant. If I had to make a car analogy, I'd say it would have the same feel as if Lexus made a heavy duty truck.
Workmanship - The quality is great. The hands align perfectly on the mark. The second hand ticks where the second hand is supposed to tick which I find annoying if it doesn't. (I've seen omegas that don't even align properly.) The minute hand also moves slightly every time the second hand ticks, the quality is definitely there.
Functions - Calendar, Timer, Chronograph, Alarm 1, Alarm 2, and of course Atomic Time syncronization. There is also a dual time zone function which is very helpful (home time zone and away time zone, you just press a few buttons and it switches them vice versa). The only problem is that if you want to see the current date, it will show the date of the away time zone. This is slightly annoying as to see the current date and time, the zones would need to be set to the same city. The calendar function however would be more helpful to real pilots (which I am not) as they will probably actually land in the away time zone.
Weight - This watch is a good weight, not too heavy, not too light. It is well balanced. This pretty much means that you should expect the non-titanium (i.e. stainless steel) version to be very heavy!
Illuminating hands - at night the illumination is pretty good. There is ample surface area of illumination making it pretty easy to read. The illumination seems to die down pretty quickly however though I haven't tested about how long it lasts. (The watch hands can illuminate briefly in the daytime when you are out in the sun and then walk into a normal lit room, I don't mind it personally.)
Sliding Rule Bezel - I like the function and I think it is really useful. If you take the time to learn this old school calculator, it is really neat and handy. It is best for multiplication and division, it doesn't do addition or subtraction.
Eco Drive - It is hard to tell how well this works, but so far so good.
Overall - I love this watch, it is rugged yet elegant. It also has an extremely impressive set of bells and whistles. The titanium looks good but also makes the watch light enough for wearing all the time without having to think about it. I give it 4.7 stars. Nearly Perfect. |
Beautiful watch
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| Review Date: June 18, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Paul Nevai, Columbus, OH United States |
This is my 4th radio controlled watch (3 Casios & 1 Citizen).
THE GOOD: It really is beautiful. It is very-very well made. It synchronizes perfectly both here and in Europe (except for steel-framed buildings). The dials are easy to read, even at night. Even after two years of daily wearing, the watch still looks absolutely great.
THE BAD: The LCD info is way too small, I can't read it while in motion (I have 20-20 vision with my glasses on). Way too many totally unnecessary and useless features. Too heavy (titanium but huge). Alarm is impossible to hear (my hearing is less than perfect). The watch band can't be micro-adjusted.
THE UGLY: None
SUMMARY: Great watch, highly recommended.
P.S. Call up Citizen and check if your watch needs a ROM update.
P.P.S. Although it synchronizes well in my home in the US, it failed to synchronize in most hotels and European style apartment buildings I stayed at in the US and in Europe, even if I placed it outside the window (don't do this unless properly supervised by an experienced adult). |
Great watch!
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| Review Date: August 21, 2008 |
| Reviewer: C. J. Madson, Pensacola, FL |
Great watch! I bought it from designertimepiece.com. They're not an authorized reseller, however I felt it was worth the large discount in price . I only paid $460 shipped! The watch is of great construction and very light. The digital displays are a tiny, be prepared to look at your watch if you're using them. The backlighting is awesome, works great on NVGs. The face is easy to read and the atomic clock feature is great! Just make sure you take off your watch at night; apparently it needs to be motionless to receive the signal. The battery charges quickly in the sun; after an hour or two on the window sill it was already at full charge.
I'll update after a few months.
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great state of the art technology watch at a reasonable price
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| Review Date: December 11, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Peter T. Cheung, fremont CA |
This is the watch to get if you want the state of the art technology in a watch and at an amazing reasonable price. You can shop aound for the best deal and if you do not mind the risk ebay has a few shops offering it at half off. I buy most of my stuff from amazon but sometimes ebay has extremely low price. I did get cheated twice on ebay and always only buy from ratings >99% with a lot of sales.
Most people buy this model first of all for the atomic clock. I live in California and it works great. At first I try to connect to the atomic clock transmission "on demand". I am not sure why it did not get the signal. Then I put it next to the window of my second floor bed room. Next morning when I check it did updated by the atomic clock. (I check against the US clock on the web and also the status shown on the watch that said it successfully received signal from the radio and set the time with it)
The second most likely reason to buy this watch is for the solar power. The watch when I receive it already is fully charged (unlike most cell phones). The manual said it will run for 6 months if fully charged. To fully charge the watch from almost completely discharged takes 20 hours under the sun or 60 hours with cloudy sky. I'll have to put it under the sun once every 3 month or put it under my desk light once a week. I wear my watch under long sleeve shorts and never expose it to light.
The third reason is for the weight (titanium). Even though the watch is "Hugh" it is light, lighter than a standard Rolex. I have not tried the other versions of the same watch, but you can save $50 to $100 for other versions that are heavier. If I have a second choice it would be the black belt one which will give the watch a cooler look in color.
There are a lot of functions this watch can do and most of which I am not going to use. The watch come with a cd that has all the info you need for adjustments to the watch. That is much better than the very small print manual which I have a hard time reading. I make a copy of the cd onto my laptop. I can assure you I cannot remember how to do most of those things without referring to the documentation. I'll give you one example. The watch has a home clock and a second "world" clock which you set to a city you travel to most often. Let's say now you fly there and you want to switch the two clocks. 1. Pull the crown to position 1 (there are 2 positions). 2. Turn the crown to adjust the mode to tme or cal (there are 8 modes). 3. Push button A and B at the same time until you hear a sound. The two clocks will have been switch. 4. Turn crown back to original mode. 5. Return crown to original position. It is easy if you follow instruction but difficult to remember.
The size of the crown is big compare to other watches like the standard Rolex. It is ok if you only need to do a few things. If you try many things like me when I got it new, you break your nail. So you may want to get a tool to help you if you are planning to use the crown for more than 10 minutes. Almost all adjustments require using the crown. The chronograph functions once set you will only use the two buttons and not the crown any more. Same for the 2 alarms once it is set.
There are many more pro's for the watch but I want to say something about the con's. The led display is too small for me and even when using the light it is hard to read. If you really want to use the digital readouts a lot you have to have very good eyes. I have yet to find out what is the use of the UTC hours and minute hands?
12/16/2008 Now I have used the alarm a few times I would like to add a few comments. There are 2 alarm settings. They are all very easy to do. The alarm setting is in the digital section. Be careful about the am and pm setting. It is not by the hr and min section and is at the bottom next to on and off. Someone else said the alarm is difficult to hear but I found it is quite acceptable and laud enough for me.
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great watch all the way around
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| Review Date: February 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: R. S. Naszcyniec Jr., Alpharetta, GA USA |
I went a long time thinking about a watch and finally decided to make a decision. I had Rolex and other high end names in mind when I started and was ready to spend the $$ to get what I wanted. However, Citizen provided me with a nice package of options on this watch at a very reasonable price. I cross time zones often so the ability to switch to my local travel time while knowing the date and time at home are important to me. Having not worry about batteries is a big bonus and the automatic time setting means one less thing I need to think about.
If you are thinking about saving a few bucks by not getting the Titanium model... buck up! There is a world of weight difference between the titanium and stainless steel mode. Unfortunately I could not find one dealer in my area that carries the titanium model so I had to go on faith. Maybe you won't have to take the same leap of faith I did. If you do, I can only say I was not disappointed. I was shocked how much lighter it is. |
Could have a more sensitive radio receiver
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| Review Date: May 21, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Lotus-Seven, |
The titanium case is great, lighter weight and a less shiny look than stainless. I also have the Citizen Skyhawk "Blue Angels" model. The A-T is slightly larger in diameter. The small LCD displays on the AT is not as readible as the Blue Angels' display in daylight, but does have a backlight so is usable at night. I live about 1000 miles from the Ft. Collins NIST transmitter and my example of ths watch just barely will pick-up the time control signal, and only if I place the watch on in a window and position it exactly right. I own a couple of cheap plastic radio controlled alarm clocks and they can pick up the time signal anywhere in our house during the day or at night. This citizen A-T will only pick up the signal at night (when it's typically stronger).
The other differences between the A-T and the older "Blue Angels" model are the push buttons and the watch band. In my opinion,the smoother, rectangular buttons on the B-A are less likely to snag on clothes and the smoother "two-tone" band of the B-A model is much nicer looking. The B-A also has an additional safety catch on the band release, which was dropped from the A-T model. This makes it easer to remove the watch, but also makes it more likely to accidentally release the band.
Bottom line: The automatic time adjustment is great if you're in a strong signal area, but if you don't mind resetting your watch manually every couple of months (mine lost 10 sec./ per month) the Blue Angels titanium model is a nicer design and half the price.
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Excellent Watch-Extensive Features
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| Review Date: May 31, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Mr. Robert J. Rineer, Fullerton, CA USA |
I have had several Citizen Eco-Drive watches. This is the best one yet because of the addition of being able to synchronize with the atomic clock, along with having a Eco-drive light powered battery.
AS far as I can tell, my watch is synchronizing with the atomic clock automatically each night--because when I compare times to my atomic clock table radio, they are both in perfect sync. I have manually synced several times and have experienced no problems in my Southern Cal location.
The watch has a lot of capabilities, some of which I find valuable and some not:
Valuable--99 hour timer and chronometer, digital display, different time zones, and the UTC time
Less valuable to me--24 hour clock (I can usually tell if it AM or PM by looking through the window),the alarms (you almost have to be awake and have the watch next to your ear to hear them) and the dial "computer" (looks pretty complicated).
Setting up the watch and using the tools is fairly complex but generally intuitive. The UTC pointer is pretty hard to see when the need to align all hands to the upright position is required. Switching time zones is not too hard, but unless you have a good memory, you will want to have the instructions close.
The face is huge and you look like you are wearing a computer--I wear mind with the face inside, so passers by usually only see the back of the band.
The titanium is fairly light but I would guess that the steel version could be a bit on the heavy side.
The luminosity looks the same as any other watch--it would really be nice if it had teaser luminosity, like the Luminox.
The crystal is mineral but not sapphire--but I ultimately manage to scratch any kind of crystal, anyway.
The band is a single clasp unlike the double clasp that I had on my previous Eco-drives. However, I used a single clasp Rolex for many years and never experienced any problems--so probably not a big deal.
If this watch has the features you want, this is the watch you can just put on and never take off.
It's not cheap.
I personally love it!
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Comparison with prior edition Citizen Skyhawk
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| Review Date: March 23, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Reiff Lorenz, Dayton, OH USA |
I owned the previous model Citizen Eco-Drive Skyhawk Titanium and recently bought the Skyhawk AT Titanium. Here is a comparison for others who are considering the upgrade. The new edition:
* Has a larger face, with a more readable UTC dial and larger digital display. The face is much more visible at night.
* Has a louder alarm. You still won't hear it if the watch is under a pillow, and don't even think about in the cockpit, but it is much improved. The new edition has 2 alarms instead of 3.
* Does a great job synchronizing with the national time signal. I'm 1000 miles from the signal in Colorado, and I get a strong signal during the day near a window, and also inside at night -- when the auto-sync is scheduled.
* Does not stop the second hand in the dark. The old model would quit ticking when the lights went out. I never minded that the second hand stopped -- it ensured that I never heard the ticking at night. Fortunately the new model is absolutely silent.
* Requires the crown to be pulled out in order to change modes. On the older model, one could just twist the crown without pulling it out. The new way is a minor inconvenience. At least the new crown is larger, with better texture, so it's much easier to pull out.
* Has white numbers painted on a plastic black bezel for the E6B circular slide rule flight computer. These are easier to read than the prior edition's black numbers engraved in titanium, but I doubt they will last as long.
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best watch ever
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| Review Date: April 6, 2010 |
| Reviewer: jay taylor, daytona beach, florida |
It's light, easy to read, waterproof, maintenance-free and has a busy face that makes you seem smart. If you see me flying your plane--whether calculating stuff with the watch bezel or not--you will probably not make it, but the slide rule looks smart.
The titanium pins slide out of the adjustable band pieces and snag things sometimes. Other than that, it's the perfect watch. |
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