Citizen Watches Mens CB0160-51L Eco-Drive

I bought this watch hoping to replace an old Seiko with world time function that picked up a lot of dings and scratches over the the course of more than ten years, so much so that it was begging to be retired as my every day wear wrist watch. I wanted something that would be able to quickly and easily change time zones when I traveled like my previous watch but was willing to try new technology that had become available in the meantime like solar charging and radio signal synching. My one earlier try at trying a solar powered Seiko ended in me sending the watch back because it refused to take a charge so I decided to try a Citizen.The Good:After taking the watch out of its box, i set it under a desk lamp and in a matter of minutes it started to tick, skipping every two seconds indicating a low charge. This was a success. It only needed more exposure to light to reach a full charge. The watch itself has an interesting but understated face belying the technology behind it. It looks much like a traditional analog watch face backed by a quartz movement with the city names around the outer chapter ring and two small windows on the face indicating additional functions.A traditional looking crown is located in the 3 O'clock on the case and a discrete pushbutton below it are all that are required in the way of controls for setting and operating the watch. The crown is used primarily to set the time zone and daylight savings time modes. Pull the crown out to its first position and the second hand, which is apparently powered by a stepper motor, moves to point at the city name that represents the selected time zone. Briefly rotating the crown up or down will index the second hand the next time zone, either forwards or backwards. Pulling the crown to the second position will allow the user to toggle between DST and standard time, again indicated by the location of the second hand.The single pushbutton is used to control the radio function. Press it and release it and the second hand will start to swing. If it rotates a quarter turn counter clockwise before moving to radio control window it indicates that the charge level for the internal batteries is low. Afterwards, and directly if the power level is satisfactory, the second hand will move to one of the three positions in the radio window. It will settle on OK if the last attempt to synch with the NIST radio was successful or NO if it was not. Hold the button down the second hand will point to the RX symbol to indicate that is attempting to receive the signal in the present time. This is how one would activate the radio synch function manually. Regardless of attempts to synch the watch manually during the day, it will attempt to do so itself in the middle of the night automatically when the signal from the radio carries the farthest with the least attenuation.That covers most of the functions and control of the watch when in normal use. There are combinations of button presses and crown manipulations that allow additional functions, like setting the time manually but those are not usually accessed.The Bad:This is a big watch by my experience and for anyone who is accustomed to smaller conventional watches that reside in the less than 40mm diameter range. It is only 42mm in diameter but gives the impression of being larger and is made of a heavy chunk of stainless steel. It is heavy and large enough, that a full size man will be aware of wearing it all the time. Still, you can get used to it in time.The bigger problem is the radio receiver. It is not entirely reliable. I live in the middle of the U.S. without any mountain ranges between the NIST station in Boulder and have never been able to receive the synching signal during the day. With a couple of exceptions it has reliably worked at night, however. Others have complained about their watches not synching at all and that may be a problem on the east coast or south of the border as they have reported. It is a limitation to be aware of.A small complaint is that the crystal is a bit of a smudge magnet. It is big and clear but skin oil sticks to it and shows if you so much and touch it. A quick pass of a polishing cloth takes the smudges right off, though.The Beautiful:This watch is carved out of a hunk of stainless steel and it was done incredibly well and incredibly beautiful. The bracelet links have a combination of brushed and polished finishes that see indicative of a much more expensive watch. The clasp is a two push button type and works flawlessly. The watch case is faceted so that the reflected light plays off of different surfaces at different angles.The play of light is enhanced by the crystal and watch face which is a beautiful deep blue. The face itself has crests and valleys that run up and down. When looking straight into the watch, the crystal seems to disappear to reveal the detail below. When held at an angle, the light plays off the crests and surface of the crystal to create an effect that is almost like looking into the clear ocean. The crystal seems to lack an anti-reflective coating which leads to bright reflections of light, and in the case of sunlight, even refracts the light creating small rainbows which I have never seen in a watch before.So, all and all, a stunning watch with impressive functions and some flaws that may well be the watch you are looking for. It fills a role for me.

This is a very good watch. I have a 30 minute review on my youtube channel Metal Effort. All the features make it idiot proof. Just set the time zone and let the watch take over. You never have to change the date, you never need to get batteries replaced, and it's great for travel with the easy time zone changing. It is not too big or small, and it looks great. It has a solid well built quality to it.

First of all the watch comes with no written instructions. So I not being the smartest when it comes to technology, had to download a pdf instruction. The watch did not come with a fully charged solar cell or whatever ya call it. I called Citizen this morning and they told me to put the watch in the window for an hour to charge it. So tonight when I checked the watch it tells me it's not fully charged. Because it's not charged, I cannot get a radio signal either. Citizen told me they were open until 8pm pacific time. Tonight when I called at 7:30pm their time, I was told they close at 5pm. This being Friday I now have to wait until Monday to get in touch with them. Their customer service SUCKS big time! I was under the impression when I bought this watch that all I had to do was place it in a window and wait for it to grab a radio signal and everything would be set to go. NOT SO! I would advise anyone to do their research before buying a "Radio Controlled" watch from Citizen. Or for that matter, any watch company. Two local jewelry stores have told me they have no idea how to set this watch up. Monday when I get in touch with Citizen, if they can't walk me thru the setup and get this watch working properly, I will be sending it back to Amazon.

I bought this to replace my Seiko kinetic quartz after 10 years of use. So, this review is solely on what I think after week one.Love the looks! Matte finish give it just the right subtle look, not too blingy. Too bad I'm going to put this through the test of time (if you pardon the pun). Not too much going on on the face of the watch which I like. I am not a huge fan of the chronographic watches - too much to obsess over. I wouldn't mind a 24 hour indicator since I work in medical. Time zone/ daylight savings conversations are a huge plus for traveling. Also, with the radio controlled atomic time and eco-drive, this is a set-it-and-forget-it watch. Lightweight and hopefully will be super reliable.5 stars for features.

This is a beautiful watch! I really like that it is a larger watch that feels extremely solid, and does not have all the diver stuff on it (twisty bezels etc.).The atomic radio function is awesome! I highly recommend downloading the .pdf version of the manual from Citizen. Once I had that it took about three minutes to set up everything on the watch. I love it and have already received compliments on it.

Great watch, great price! This watch never needs batteries. It's atomic, so, it never needs time settings. It came out of the box with the correct time. Would definitely recommend this product!

I took this thing out of the box and as soon as it saw light it fired right into action and self adjusted to the exact time. Held my phone out and watched the second hand pass 60 right as my phone changed over. Pretty cool. The picture is recent. I wear thing thing as a daily driver. I work with my hands, and I even took this watch swimming in the ocean. Sturdy, accurate, classy, and versatile. Pretty impressive watch for the money.

This has high-end Citizen features such as atomic timekeeping, and prepetual calendar but without the slide rule for calculating whether you will have to ditch your plane in the ocean, the thick case, or the complicated dial face. As such makes a nice everyday or dress watch you can set once and forget for a long long time. Great!