More than just pretty face, the Citizen Eco-Drive Calibre 8700 stainless steel men's watch also has a perpetual calendar that automatically adjusts for odd and even months and leap years through 2100. It features a perfectly round silver-tone stainless steel watch case and bezel that's complemented by a supple black leather strap with crocodile-like texturing. The silvery white dial background is accented by day-of-the-week and 24-hour subdials, as well as a mode subdial that displays the selected function (local time, calendar, alarm). It also offers luminous, black-outlined hands (with seconds hand), a date function at 4 o'clock, and Roman numeral dial markers. Other features includes a dual-time function for tracking a second time zone, scratch resistant mineral crystal with anti-reflective coating, and water resistance to 330 feet (100 meters).This watch is powered by Citizen's unique Eco-Drive, which absorbs sunlight and any artificial light through the crystal and dial to recharge the watch continuously. With regular exposure to light, the Eco-Drive continuously recharges itself for a lifetime of use. This watch's Eco-Drive provides a 180-day power reserve, and it can be recharged with just 4 hours of exposure to light.Summary of Features:Retrograde perpetual calendarAlarmDual timeNon-reflective mineral crystalMonth-Day-Date functions12/24 hour timeScrew-back case Since its foundation in 1930, CITIZEN has promoted a multi-cultural mindset that fosters excellence and creativity. The very name of the brand conveys a deep respect toward craftsmanship and considered as familiar by citizens the world-over. So as a “citizen” of the world, we bear the responsibility to help cultivate a culture of positive change and on-going evolution through our craft. We take that mission seriously and steadfastly welcome what the future may bring. As a true manufacture d’horlogerie, CITIZEN integrates a comprehensive manufacturing process from creating individual components to a watch’s final assembly. It’s an artisan’s approach to watch making based on pushing forward the boundaries of technology and leveraging our experience toward exploring new possibilities. One pivotal technological breakthrough was the development of a light-driven watch. CITIZEN pioneered this engineering innovation well ahead of other watch manufacturers as early as 1976, which led to the launch of the highly acclaimed Eco-Drive in 1995. Utilizing electrical power converted from virtually any light source, this extraordinary innovation changed forever the way watches could be powered. Eco-Drive eliminated the need to ever replace batteries, which made it especially beneficial to areas where such specialist batteries were not obtainable. This leveled the field for citizens of virtually every country to be able to experience unrestricted joy of wearing and using a CITIZEN watch. The product development policy, “The Fusion of Technology and Beauty,” remains a constant motivation for us to merge cutting-edge technology with perfection of design beauty, which as a consequence inspires people to strive to be their best at any time. CITIZEN launches a new campaign in collaboration with Wieden+Kennedy, Better Starts Now. This is the simple belief that no matter who you are or what you do, it is always possible to make something better — and now is the time to start doing it. We believe that better and now are both infinite, and that there is always a next ‘better’ and a new ‘now’ in which you can start pursuing it. It was clear from the onset of this project that we are dedicated to this ideal…not to the past but to the present, and all the way we can improve it. To help communicate this belief to the world we have created a new global CITIZEN brand movie, brand identity and brand website that represents out Better Starts Now philosophy.
M**.
Very Satisfied!
I have owned this watch for only a couple of weeks, which is closed to nothing in terms of watch ownership, so I do plan to update this review if I discover anything new. With that being said, I absolutely love it so far. It looks solid and well-designed. CITIZEN's Eco-Drive seems to be working well so far. I plan to wear this watch daily so I should not have to worry about insufficient charge on battery, which is a nice feature (though it may turn down fans of mechanical or automatic watch). This watch features some complications like perpetual calendar, alarm, and local time, and tweaking these settings may seem discouraging at first if you are more used to watches with fewer complication or digital. But the watch comes with a CD that explains how to set these functions with videos, and once you see the instruction, the setting process becomes surprisingly simple. The alarm function works fine, but no one should rely on this watch to wake up from a sound sleep. It makes rather soft beeps without much sense of urgency, and stops after a short period of time.I really like this watch's appearance too. I haven't gotten tired of looking at it yet. The face of this watch looks simple at first but I think the way all the functions and displays are laid out is quite beautiful. This is not a watch that you would wear to make a fashion statement, but I feel that this watch could be worn to compliment suit&tie as well as casual, as long as you don't go overboard with either end of the spectrum... but what do I know about fashion? The actual watch looks better than the photos on Amazon, I can tell you that much.The only knit-picky comment I would make about this watch, at least for the one I received, is that it has a small imperfection; there is a tiny debris on the minute hand that appears as a dot. I'm sure it is rare, and frankly I don't care enough to send the watch back for replacement for this tiny defect. But if there is any negative comment I could make about this watch, this is it.Overall I am very satisfied with the purchase of this watch. Now I look at my watch not only to tell time, but also to enjoy the timepiece itself.
K**S
Has its merits but can be hard to read
PROS: Solar, Perpetual calendar, Dual time, Alarm, Date, day and 24h displays, Luminous at night hands, Leather band with a clasp, Well built, Relatively small and light, Unique and classy lookCONS: Hard to see (white hour/minute hands on white background), Too much reflections (reflective crystal, polished case, shiny face elements), Face is too busy (understandable given all the functions), Not a sapphire crystalCitizen BL8000-3A like all other Calibre 8300 series is a complex, gadget lover's watch. Lots of fun to set it up and see how handles move by themselves to change to secondary time or to point to a month. But I'm on a fence with it. On one hand it has everything that I wanted and listed in Pros, especially no bigger than 40mm case, perpetual calendar, dual time and a leather band with a deployment clasp. All of this seems to be nicely build in an attractive and unique looking package.On the other hand depending upon angle and ambient light it can get hard to grasp time at a glance. White hour/minute hands on a white background are the main culprit (what Citizen was thinking?). But there is also too much bling going on making it hard to see the time - reflective crystal, shiny polished case, reflective inner elements of the face including Roman time marks and even borders of the already barely visible white hour/minute hands.If you are wearing far sight glasses this watch gets really hard to decipher. With a good vision and if you like gadgets and hate fiddling with the calendar every other month it's a great looking and very usable watch.
J**L
the leather sucks!
The watch is very nice. the quality sucks, as does their Customer service and warranty policy.I had the leather band stitching come apart after wearing it about 2 dozen times. never in the rain or washing hands or a pool even.I have watches from 20 years ago that I wore through out high school that held up better. I was told the band is not covered. I understand if I abused the watch but the leather product fell apart. This is a QC issue and they just don't care. $300 watch and no service.
D**S
Nice, but not lasting
Got this watch in 2010. Very classy looking watch with great functionality. Now, it's a paperweight. The eco drive must have gone dead...even after charging in bright sunlight, dead. I think this will be the last Citizen watch I purchase. I will be contacting Citizen, and will update the post if anything changes; however, at nearly a $300.00 price point...I expect to get more use than just over a year and a half. I would recommend looking elsewhere for a watch that doesn't need to be "serviced" in such a short amount of time.
A**N
Four Stars
for man, a little bit small
A**.
Amazing watch
buying for the second time as it got stolen at the gym... highly recommend - great features, thin and great looking - only wish they did it in a matte finish...
J**E
Ich hoffe, das mein ganzes Leben lang dauert
Ben benieuwd of hij zijn beloftes waarmaakt. Inmiddels langer dan een jaar in mijn bezit en doet het perfect. Geen klachten, Batterij doet het goed en tijd loop goed. Ben tot nu toe erg tevreden
B**O
Une montre écologique
Ce système Eco Drive est particulier.Ce ne sont plus les mouvements de la montre qui vont comprimer un ressort, mais celui-ci capte la lumière qui est convertie en énergie électrique, et stockée dans un accumulateur. Elle fonctionne alors comme une montre a quartz, avec une très grande différence par rapport à la montre quartz à piles bouton, plus besoin de changement périodique de pile.Les capteurs sont sous l'écran de la montre,invisible à l'oeil car situés sous des trous minuscules percés au laser. Montre vraiment écologique.Cependant, la mise en marche,plus précisement la mise à l'heure est relativement complexe.Le mode d'emploi,livré sous deux formes, une papier, mais aussi sous forme d'un mini CD à lire sur un ordinateur, est détaillé, mais c'est vraiment necessaire.D'autres marques proposent des montres solaires,et certaines ont la mise à l'heure radio piloté,qui donne vraiment un grand confort. Pour conclure je n'ai pas encore expérimenté la sonnerie,et ne peux me prononcer sur ce point, qui serait un plus.Au total,montre réalisant un condensé technique remarquable,mais qui demanderait quelques simplifications pour la mise en route initiale.
H**D
Très belle montre
Aussi charmante que discrète , lui manque le Verre saphir et le radiocontrolled pour être complète! Mais déjà à ce prix c est extraordinaire .merci amazon
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2 weeks ago
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