Citizen Men's Eco-Drive Signature Chronograph Watch with Perpetual Calendar, BL5440-58E

This is a nice looking watch. But, I returned it for a couple of reasons.1. The clasp is much to easy to release. It's not built sturdy enough to be considered a sports watch. I highly recommend considering something else if you plan to wear it in the water/ocean.2. The watch itself has a good weight to it. However, the bracelet is lighter than I expected. This causes an imbalance in how the watch wears on your wrist.3. Finally, the chrono function requires the user to pull the crown to the first stop and put the watch in chrono mode. Other chronos I own start and stop with a press of a button. I wasn't happy with added bit of complexity. Also, there's no 1/10 second subdial. I obviously missed this in the description.It's an attractive watch. But it simply didn't fit my needs/requirements.

My first watch was a Citizen made of titanium from their standard line. Several months ago, I decided I wanted something larger and of higher quality.After researching and trying to balance budget/quality, Citizen Signature seemed to be as good as it could get for me. The idea of automatic watches without perpetual calendars just doesn't seem appealing to me. I want a watch to keep good time without my intervention every few weeks. I also wanted a watch that I could not wear for a few days or weeks and still be able to pick it up and have an accurate time -- what could be better than light powered for that? Even if you store it in the dark, the second hand stops after some time ti conserve power, and when it sees light again, quickly sweeps back to the appropriate second.This watch is also easy to adjust - solid screwed links. A 1mm flathead is all that is needed so adjustments are home area easy. Took me a few days to find the perfect fit - in addition to regular sized links there are also two half links included. Two half links are slightly larger than one regular link, so playing between the combinations of half and regular links can help you fine-tune the fit.PROS:- Comfortable bracelet- High quality feel all around- Mostly matte finish, with nicely polished accents (primarily in the bracelet)- Lume does not require much light to be effective- Sporty yet luxurious allows for wearing in formal and casual settings- Markers on bezel are raised stainless steel- The bezel itself is very strong scratch resistant black-ion plated -- I wouldn't worry about this scratching (because I bravely tried to and couldn't)- Very clear sapphire - I've read repeatedly online that it's some of the best people have seen- Good amount of reflections/shine on watch face itself without being overbearing- Rotating bezel lines up perfectly and feels solid- L-TM (local time) function is awesome for travel. If you travel a time zone or two away, switch to local time and with just a small twist of the crown, you can spring ahead or back exactly one hour to quickly set the time.- Perpetual calendar - never set the date again!- Clasp looks good, good functionalityCONS:- I had to order this watch twice to get one without quality control errors. The marker for 6 o'clock was not lined up perfectly. Amazon had no problem with a return (free shipping)- The second hand is just slightly off from the markers. I've had two of these models and two other Citizen Signature models in my hands, and this was the case with all of them. Some more off than others...but if you perform an all-zero reset of the hands to their "zero" positions, I've found that you can get closer usually to being right on than the condition you may receive it in.- Not a well established brand name/re-sale may be difficult. If you like to sell watches after a few years, you may lose out more than if you spent money on a more recognized watch brand.- While the clasp has never let loose on me, someone using this as a dive watch for example may not feel this is the most secure clasp style.- Scratches very easily. Had a few drinks at a bar after work once and noticed my watch band was hitting the bar top which produced a decent amount of scratches. Could even feel some with my nail. Stainless steel does scratch though, and was expected...but this did feel like excessive scratching for the one time.- Stainless steel also polishes easier, so removing most scratches shouldn't be a problem.- The mixture of matte and polished surface in the watch band looks amazing out of the box, but requires special attention when removing scratches to avoid dulling polished surfaces and making matte surfaces shiny. Taping off dull/shiny portions and using Cape Cod polishing cloths and a Sandflex (fine) hand block for the matte portion is time consuming but should work well. I've yet to use Sandlflex, just Cape Cod which works great on polished areas.- Plastic like (though nice looking) watch face behind the sapphire. Still looks good though...and this is completely essential because the light passes through for charging the solar cell.Overall, very satisfied - the scratching/polishing issue is the one stand-out con for me. The style and overall quality/feel make up for this though. Watch bands can always be replaced anyway.---UPDATE 3/25/15: Upgrading review from 4 to 5 stars.SCRATCH REPAIR: In my initial review (left untouched above), the biggest con was how easily it scratched. I haven't been in a situation since then where it's gotten nearly as scratched, though under normal daily wear it doesn't typically touch any hard surfaces. Either way, scratches should be of no concern with this watch because it cleans up perfectly. I ended up using Cape Cod polishing cloth for the shiny steel and Sandflex (fine grain) block for the matte finishes (tape off whatever you're not polishing to avoid mistreating each finish) and was able to restore it to factory condition myself in very little time.SAPPHIRE CLARITY: I was at an event where a co-worker next to me was wearing a modern Rolex watch, and the firs thing I noticed was the glare off of the sapphire. While the Rolex had low glare and was much better than my old "regular" Eco Citizen, it was interesting how much more clear the sapphire coating appeared on my watch. Of course, the materials behind the sapphire differ and perhaps the Rolex uses thicker/more durable sapphire that affected this, but I thought it was interesting how the Citizen retained clarity over a much wider array of angles compared to the Rolex. Now, I'd certainly take the Rolex still - but thought this was a unique chance to see this difference in sapphire clarity.BENT PIN: This watch works well with a variety of bracelets, and are easy to swap yourself with a watch pin tool and 1mm precision screwdriver. Upon doing so, I noticed a pin was bent slightly (the longest pin closest to the 30 min marker, just before the 22mm spring bar). This led to trying to acquire the properly sized replacement pin from Citizen. Long story short, they never did send me a pin that was exactly the same size as the original, but approx. 1mm shorter instead. This causes the screw head of the pin to be recessed a little more than the others (not really noticeable, but still) and means the pin isn't supporting the band equally by ~1mm (it's screwed into one side completely, leaving a little less pin to support the other half). Neither of this is a big deal, but I found it odd that this was the only pin they had listed here. Makes me wonder if a simple error in identifying this pin in their system led to this slightly smaller pin being the replacement. I'm also concerned about why this pin was bent in the first place. Citizen says they haven't run across this issue before, which I suppose is a good thing that I'm a special case. Ana S. over at Citizen however was fantastic to work with, and even sent me a pre-paid label to ship the watch back so that she could take a look at the band and resolve my issue.

I ordered one of these and upon close inspection, the arrows for each hour on the dial were misaligned and not centered on the rectangles above. I ordered a second one to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me, and the second one had the same 3 or so misaligned arrows. I don't know if these are "factory seconds" or what, but I am returning both. I guess the old adage about getting what you pay for applies here, as it is marked 2/3 off regular price... Citizen Men's BL5440-58E The Signature Collection Eco-Drive Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Watch

Accuracy is 1 second in a month when on hand. Excellent.The trick I found and would like to share: how to adjust daylight saving time DST and change time zone WITHOUT losing current time.=>Do not use TIME mode. Instead wear watch in L-TM by default. In this mode, changing watch by any number of whole hours is done by pulling the crown to 2nd click and rotating it. Can't be any simpler. Makes BL5440 a nice travel watch.Review:This is a high-definition looking watch. Contrast display due to combination of deep blacks, steel & top-grade sapphire coating.PROS- does not have a color theme (no blue, red hue except for the tip of the second hand only). Color neutrality is nice to have.- accuracy of my watch has been +/-0 seconds in 3 days. I cannot tell yet, but it looks the watch will lose no more than 3 seconds a month.- sapphire is a must have- sapphire coating is the same quality as in OCEANUS series that I own too- excellent lume. As bright and lasts as long as the lume of Oceanus T2600. All night and still in the morning. A blue-green glow.- 24hr dial is very useful to quickly see what time is it in other time zones- steel Heavy, but I am willing to take heavy as long as it does not scratch as easily as titanium. My carbide-coated Titanium T2600 Oceanus got scratches all over in about 2 years. Previously, carbide coated titanium Manaslu watch too did not hold.CONS- second hand is not dead center on each mark. Pretty close, but OCEANUS does hand alignment more perfectly. But not bad either, as it turns out not very noticeable.- not a true dual time watch: cannot use smaller face to show another time zone.I made a switch from a long-time use of my OCEANUS T2600 watch.OCEANUS is still in top shape and works, but I found CITIZEN BL5440 to be more pleasant to look at.OCEANUS is a little washed out looking and the strong blue hue gets annoying over time. I prefer thecolor neutrality of BL5440.

Ugly in reality.