 |
| ||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||
 Citizen Eco-Drive Men's Perpetual Calendar Watch #BL5250-02L By: Citizen Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 19 More Information Fantastic Watch!  On: 2008-06-11I am what many would call a watch nut and own over 30 ranging from Timex to Rolex. For me to buy a watch there has to be "something there" for me to get excited about. At $240, this is one of the very best buys on a fantastic watch that you can find! I was so impressed with this watch I purchased a second one as a gift for my father in law who by the way, was very impressed with the watch himself. Before getting into all the things I like about this watch I want to point out one of the other reviewers posted a problem with the buckle on his watch having some "points" on it that dug into his wrist and made the watch uncomfortable to wear. This must be a factory defect as this is not the case with either of the two that I purchased. While the watch strap is not usually covered by warranty I know from 1st hand experience that Citizen has a dedicated and friendly customer service department and I believe if he contacts them he will find a new strap coming to him rather quickly. Also as to the strap, I have been disappointed somewhat in the past when purchasing a watch and the strap that comes with it is not substantial in length. I have a 7.25 inch wrist and this has not caused me a problem but I would readily notice if someone had a larger wrist they would have to go out and purchase a new and larger strap to be able to wear their new watch. The strap that comes with this citizen will allow someone with a larger wrist than mine to be able to wear this watch with the strap that comes on it. This is very good as I believe the supplied strap is very handsome on this watch. The BL5250-02L is a marvelous little piece of technology at a very good price! At a suggested retail of $400 I have routinely found the watch at local authorized dealers at around $300. My watch was purchased on line for $240 with free shipping and for an additional $5 you could have "next day" shipping. This watch comes to you very user friendly right out of the box. Along with the user manual also comes a mini disk that when played will have you understanding all the features, time settings and adjustments. You will have your watch set and on your wrist in about 10 minutes. Also, if you lose this information you may go to Citizens web page and pull up the same info on an interactive video. The Echo Drive models have a power cell in them that is charged by available light so there is no battery change ever! The perpetual calendar allows you to set the watch once and then it recognizes short months along with leap years so there is no further adjustment for that. Also, there is a duel time zone feature. I use this for setting the second time zone to address the yearly time change of one hour. Doing this with the simple turn of the dial my watch snaps into Daylight savings time mode and then back with another turn when the time comes to go back. It just does not get easier than that. The rotating bezel certainly may be used for more than just looks. One of the ways I use mine is when I plug a parking meter. I just rotate the bezel so my minute hand moving toward the marker allows me to quickly see when I need to be back at my car. The alarm function works but it is not very noticeable. I have two Seikos that have a very audible and piercing sound. In this area I have to say Citizen could improve the watch. However, I do notice it if I am awake. I just dont know if it would wake me from a deep sleep. The finish of the watch is very nice and the strap is very comfortable to wear. The watch while feeling very solid is not as heavy as you may would expect and it wears very nicely on the wrist. The watch is advertised as a "deep blue" face and that is an understatement. For all purposes except in direct sunlight it is black. This does not bother me at all because it looks great and again, in direct sunlight it does have a blue hew that looks good also. Besides great function and price another strong point on this watch is the luminosity of the hands and markers. With over 30 watches my Seikos seem to have a lock on that area but this citizen comes in a very, very close second. After being outside all day I can read my watch all night long from my darkened bedroom. Last but not least, this watch comes with a five year warranty and as I stated before, Citizen has great customer service. I have just touched on the many features of this finely made watch and for you that do not like straps and would prefer a bracelet, Citizen offers the same watch on a bracelet as model number, BL5250-53L. It retails for $500, local price around $400, web price $300. I rate this watch a solid 4 out of a possible 5 stars. I would have given it 4.5 if the alarm were more noticeable. I am very picky and I did not even rate my Rolex 5 stars. I highly recommend this watch and would but purchase it again. In fact, I did when I purchased one for my father in law. If this watch appeals to your eye buy it! Price, functions, ease of use, warranty, and customer service is just icing on the cake! My first Citizen  On: 2008-06-09I just bought my first Citizen. I love it. This chronograph looks so nice. The shiny bezel and dark blue face makes it look so elegant. The leather band makes it look fancy and expensive. The watchs chronograph is easy to use. There is an alarm function and a local time function. Setting the alarm can take a long time, because the hands have to swing around to the alarm time set previously. Setting the perpetual date can also take a few minutes as well. But its fun to watch the hands spin around doing their thing. The eco-drive recharges the watch daily. No more replacing batteries. The 200 meter water resistance means I can swim or snorkel with it. I would prefer for Citizen to use a night light (like Timexs Indiglo). I was worried about buying an expensive watch, because expensive things always gives me buyers remorse. But I dont regret buying this watch one bit. This is the best watch Ive ever bought. Nice watch On: 2008-06-08A nice watch on almost all aspects !!! The look for the leather strap gets better with time since its too shiny when you receive it. Sometimes, when you put your hand into your pocket and take it out the mode sometimes changes from time to alrm. Overall, Id recommend it and say "Go for it". Good on features, looks and usability. Husband loved it On: 2008-03-10I bought this watch for Valentines day for my husband and he loved it. Its pretty large but makes for an impressive, but still casual watch. EcoDrive On: 2008-03-01I have never been a watch person but I felt I needed one now and Ive been comfortable with this one. It looks very nice and its quality is excellent. citizen On: 2008-03-01i have been wearing steel banded watches for a long time and decided to make a switch to leather. the citizen was pretty much just what i was looking for. i think the face and body is a little bigger than i originally wanted, but now it has really grown on me. The Eco Watch On: 2008-02-23Great watch, keeps perfect time,good looking and fun.Cover the dial for a few minutes, expose the watch to light, and the second hand moves twice the normal speed. It really makes onlookers gasp, great fun. A very well made watch! On: 2008-02-14I bought this watch a couple of months ago and have been using it continuously ever since as my main watch. The eco-drive technology appears to work very well. For example, if the watch is not exposed to light for a few seconds, the second hand stops moving to conserve energy, although the hour and minute hand continue to operate. The alarm function is very useful (though, as expected, not very loud) and of course, one never needs to worry about the beeping wearing the battery out. One annoying feature of the watch is that in order to access the various functions and settings, you often have to wait for the hands to automatically move to the right position. For example, if you want to set the time for the alarm and move the knob to the ALM position, the watch hands will move through the necessary number of hour cycles in order to show the last alarm time that was set. So if the current time is 1600 and if you last set an alarm for 0600, the minute hand will complete 10 revolutions (reverse order) in order to come to 0600. After this, you set your new time - say 0700, and set the dial back to TME (time) mode. The minute hand will now move through 9 revolutions to come back to 1600. This sort of thing happens EVERY time you want to alter any of the time-related states, and in a watch, that is pretty much all you ever do! As far as I can tell - there is no way to make the hands go faster (i.e. by turning the knob yourself). Of course, I dont really use the extra features that much so it is a niggle that I am happy to put up with. Given the eco-drive pluses and the good looks, and the fact that I cannot think of a simpler way of getting the job done (apart from getting a digital display to go with it), I decided to give it 5 stars. Amazon service - as usual - excellent! Citizen Perpetual Calendar  On: 2008-02-08I ordered this watch, based on the pictures and reviews read on Amazon. From what I read and saw, this was exactly the watch I was looking for (a brown leather band chronograph with a larger diameter and thickness). When I received the watch, I was a little surpised with how glossy everything was (band included). The pictures show a more matte finish which I was hoping for. When holding the watch, it felt very light, which should be expected with titanium, but combined with the appearance, just felt cheap. The final blow was the bezel movement. It was extremely loose, and just turned without clicks. It even rattled as you moved the watch around - again, felt cheap. I was very disappointed, and tried to put it away and give it a "second" and "third" impression, but I could not get past these issues, so I decided to return the watch. I decided to go with the Victorinox Classic Chrono instead, and am very pleased with my second choice. Great watch, great price On: 2007-12-29I bought this watch for my son for Christmas, the price was very competitive, it arrived 3 days after I ordered it and shipping was free...needless to say it is even better looking in person and he loved it, definitely the hit of Christmas!!! A Great Buy On: 2007-09-24I purchased the watch as a replacement for my "every day" watch. Buying experience was great. Watch is just as good looking as the picture shows. Arrived quickly in new condition. If you want it, dont hesitate to purchase. Great watch On: 2007-09-15Really like this watch. All components are high quality and the watch looks nice with dress or casual wear. The strap is very stiff but is starting to loosen up with use. Wish Citizen had replaced the 1/20 second dial with a day indicator as I dont use the tachymeter function and would have preferred to have the day of week indicated. I have no problem reading any of the dial info and although the watch looks heavy, the titanium case keeps everthing light. Proud to have this as part of my collection. I am only buying light powered watches as I usually keep 5 to 10 watches in my collection at a time. Battery replacement was becoming a real hassle not to mention a considerable expense (my Tag Heuer costs me $250.00 every 2-3 yrs for battery replacements). Good watch On: 2007-08-29I quickly understood how to use it; its fairly simple. Its big on my wrist but not heavy. The band is top quality. It didnt get four starts because the buckle is designed with metal points that dig into my wrist when I bend my hand inward. They rounded all other areas of the buckle except the one closest to the skin. It leaves painful, deep impressions in my wrist. Ive considered having a jeweler grind down the points or buying a new band. Wearing the watch more loosely is not an option. Too bad a good watch gets hurt by the band. The glowing face could stay bright awhile longer... the luminance fades too quickly. The "blue" face is really black. You have to really search for a hint of blue-ness. The date window could be a little larger... you have to angle the watch to see the date because it is so deep in the window. Otherwise, good watch, nice features. The manual is written well, although Im still uncertain what you use the rotating bezel for. Great all around watch! On: 2007-08-15This watch is a great value for the price. Its a good looking watch with a handsome deep blue face that looks black and dark grey dials and shiny bezel. I found the leather band a little cheap looking and feeling at first - maybe a bit too shiny or something but it seems to have gotten better looking with wear. From a distance the combination of the leather band, titanium case and dark blue face is quite nice. Like the other reviewer mentioned the bevel is a bit too shiny depending on the light which can make it look like cheap chrome. Not exactly bad and it depends on how the light hits it, but it may not be your thing. I was concerned this watch might be too thick because of a review of this watch with the metal band - but I found it to be in the same range as other watches I own. Certainly not as chunky as a Casio Atomic Solar G-Shock. The titanium is quite light. I tend to like watches with some heft so for me this might be a slight drawback, although I like the idea of extra strength. Not that I ever have or expect to break a watch case! I dont know how other chronometers work but I expected the dials to spin more. On this one they dont - the second hand does most of the main timing with a smaller dial keeping track of the minutes and if a button is pushed, the fractions of a second in 0.2 sec increments. I thought all the dials would spin simultaneously but maybe that is how chronometers work. When I first set up the watch I thought the function dial was broken. Turns out all it needed was a full charge. So dont despair until youve charged the watch up fully. The manual was short, but I found unlike the other reviews, that it had as much as I needed to know in it including how to center the date in the date window. The watch has a great and unusual combination of solar power, perpetual calendar, plus chronometer and alarm. The alarm is too quiet and not practical to wake up to as others have said. It might work if youre awake and cooking something. I got this watch from the Watch Spot which delivered it really really fast with no problems. Nice timepiece! On: 2007-08-05After lots of research I bought this watch. Lets face it, a Timex will provide accurate time but its the look & style that really matter and this watch has what I wanted (a Brietling appearence) but could aford. Its a masculine and classy watch all the way. I have no need for the alarm or stop watch functions so that doesnt matter to me. likes: looks distinguished, well made, great value, easy to read (day or night), nice functions, and best of all- you dont have to let some moron man-handle your timepiece when changing the battery on a regular basis! dislikes: be aware that the bezel is highly polished which means that it looks a bit like "chrome" or cheap "bling". It doesnt look like a Brietling or Tag, you know? Im looking into having the finish buffed but I might be asking for trouble. This is kind of silly to mention but the luminescent is so strong that when I come from outside the face hands look green because of the glow, and I dont like the look. After a while it dissapates. The other issue for me is that the date window is very small and I usually cant read it. Nice timepiece! On: 2007-08-04After lots of research I bought this watch. Lets face it, a Timex will provide accurate time but its the look & style that really matter and this watch has what I wanted (a Brietling appearence) but could aford. Its a masculine and classy watch all the way. I have no need for the alarm or stop watch functions so that doesnt matter to me. likes: looks distinguished, well made, great value, easy to read (day or night), nice functions, and best of all- you dont have to let some moron man-handle your timepiece when changing the battery on a regular basis! dislikes: be aware that the bezel is highly polished which means that it looks a bit like "chrome" or cheap "bling". It doesnt look like a Brietling or Tag, you know? Im looking into having the finish buffed but I might be asking for trouble. This is kind of silly to mention but the luminescent is so strong that when I come from outside the face hands look green because of the glow, and I dont like the look. After a while it dissapates. The other issue for me is that the date window is very small and I usually cant read it. My favorite watch On: 2007-07-06I have many watches that I really like, but I hate to wear them to work for fear that the crystal or case will get scratched. I decided I needed a watch with no sentimental value to worry about. In looking for a watch the criteria I was looking for included solar power movement, perpetual calendar, and a bezel. I also wanted something that would be comfortable to wear. The fact that the case is titanium (and therefore quite light for its size) s just a bonus. This has been just a terriffic watch, and Im extremely satisfied. It has exceeded my expectations in all particulars! A perfect watch by: Anonymous On: 2007-05-14 Elegant, functional, original & very accurate. Very happy with this watch. Even in the night Im enjoying looking what time it is... Well worth every penny by: Anonymous On: 2007-02-14 I bought this watch from Amazon because I wanted a brown leather chrono since i have so many black / silver chronos. But I must admit this gorgeous watch went way up on my list of personal favorites. It feels more solid then it looks on pics, and I have yet to see a picture of this watch to capture the wonderful tint of the face. You will not be disappointed with this gorgeous, solid yet light watch. Well worth every penny On: 2007-02-13I bought this watch from Amazon because I wanted a brown leather chrono since i have so many black / silver chronos. But I must admit this gorgeous watch went way up on my list of personal favorites. It feels more solid then it looks on pics, and I have yet to see a picture of this watch to capture the wonderful tint of the face. You will not be disappointed with this gorgeous, solid yet light watch. Another superb Citizen by: toddm74 On: 2007-01-11 First off, I purchased this watch through Amazon because Ive never had anything but positive experiences when dealing with them or through them. I have the Nighthawk & have greatly appreciated that watch. This watch is equally interesting. From the photo I expected the face of the watch to be bigger, but due to the bezel size, the face is not as large as the Nighthawks. Still, its a fascinating watch. Buy it. You know you cant live without it. |