Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1669 in Watches
• Brand: Citizen
• Model: JY0000-53E
• Dimensions: .15 pounds
• Band material: stainless-steel
• Bezel material: stainless-steel
• Case material: stainless-steel
• Clasp type: fold-over-clasp-with-double-push-button-safety
• Dial color: black
• Dial window material: Mineral
• Movement type: Japanese-Quartz
• Water-resistant to 660 feet

Features

• Ecologically friendly, light powered Eco-Drive Caliber U600 Japanese-quartz movement; Charges in natural sunlight or indoor light
• Max power reserve: 180 days to 30 Months with Power Save; Low charge warning: 3 days; Charge time from stop state to max charge: Incandescent Light - 150 hrs, Outdoors, Cloudy (10,000 Lux) - 60 hrs, Outdoors, Sunny (100,000 Lux) - 20 hrs
• Durable, hardened mineral crystal; Case diameter: 48 mm
• Stainless steel case; Black dial; Perpetual-calendar, world time (43 cities) functions
• Water-resistant to 660 feet (200 M)

Amazon.com Product Description
Sporting a rotating slide rule bezel, the Citizen Skyhawk A-T stainless steel men's flight watch offers advanced timing functions and the latest technology. It's powered by Citizen's unique Eco-Drive, which absorbs sunlight and any artificial light through the crystal and dial to recharge the watch continuously. The fast-forward timekeeping features include time and calendar in 43 cities, thirty cities, three world time alarms, a 99-minute countdown timer, one-touch interchangeable analog/digital time, and 1/100-second chronograph that measures up to 24 hours.

The large round silver stainless steel case measures 48mm (1.89 inches) wide and 16mm (0.63 inches) deep. The black dial background features large white hands with luminous tips as well as luminous square dial markers. It's completed by a stylish multi-link stainless steel braclet band. Other features include water resistance to 200 meters (660 feet)--which will stand up to the rigors of recreational scuba diving.

The Citizen Watch Brand

The company was established in 1924. The founding fathers selected the name Citizen so it would be "Close to the Hearts of People Everywhere" and soon after adopted the company’s formal name, Citizen Watch Company.

During the last seventy-five years Citizen has expanded its business throughout the world and has achieved recognition as the global brand. The past twenty-five year period has coincided with the company’s dramatic rise to its current position as the world’s largest watchmaker, a distinction Citizen has held every year since 1986.

Beyond sheer size, Citizen is also recognized as a worldwide leader in advanced technology. From the world’s slimmest LCD watch to the first voice recognition watch and the world’s first professional dive watch with an electronic depth sensor, Citizen’s record of "world’s firsts" is unmatched.

More recently, Citizen has staked out a new position as the leader in Ecologically Friendly timekeeping with its Eco-Drives watches that are light powered. With models ranging from dress models to sports models to professional dive watches, Citizen Eco-Drive runs continuously in any kind of natural or artificial light for a lifetime of use. Fueled by light, it never needs a battery.

Eco-Drive Frequently Asked Questions (See the full Citizen Eco-Drive FAQ here)

How can you tell if the Eco-Drive watch is getting enough light?
In normal use, the watch displays the time and the sweep-second hand moves in one second intervals. A very important feature of Eco-Drive is the Low Charge Warning Mode which as a result of low battery voltage, causes the second hand to jump two seconds at a time (while still keeping correct time).

How long will an Eco-Drive watch run after it is fully charged?
If your watch is put away where no light is available to it while in a fully charged state, depending on the model, it will run for from 45 days to 5 years.

How can the Eco-Drive watch be recharged?
Besides sunlight, it can be safely charged by exposing it to a fluorescent desk lamp, with the dial (face) up and within about 8 inches or an incandescent lamp (regular light bulb) no closer than 20 inches. Never use a halogen lamp since the heat generated by it can cause damage to your watch. The most efficient and the quickest is in direct bright sunlight (not windowsill) and never on the dashboard of a car.

Customer Reviews

Citizen Skyhawk AT Atomic Watch - JY0000-53E
Skyhawk A-T
Model: JY0000-53E

PROS:

I bought this watch as I finally came to the realization that I needed a timepiece that did everything and required no upkeep. No battery changes are therefore required as the solar panel face is more than sufficient to keep the internal batteries charged in regular use (fully charged, the watch is rated to operate 6 months without sunlight and the watch easily stays fully charged even in regular office use - there is a charge indicator on the face).

The most important (and costly) feature of the watch is that it keeps perfect time. It permanently stays within one second of actual time as it has a radio receiver that automatically resets it to the exact time every day in the US through a radio broadcast from the US atomic clock. Europe and Japan have similar broadcasts from their atomic clocks and the watch can be set to receive from those broadcasts if you are in those areas. Note that most of Canada, Mexico and Eastern China are also covered by the aforementioned broadcasts but some areas at the outer rim of Europe are not. I would suggest that if you are in doubt about whether you are in range of atomic clock broadcasts that you look at the full instructions for the watch which can be found on the citizen site under "technical information" (it has maps showing coverage areas).

Given the additional expense for the atomic time reception feature, it would be pointless to buy this watch outside of those areas that can receive atomic clock broadcasts as one of the other Skyhawk watches would be a better choice. Without any radio reception, the watch is rated to no more than 15 seconds loss per month so should you travel outside of reception areas the watch will still keep excellent time.

Reception of atomic time broadcasts in the US has been very good, despite the fact I live towards the east coast and the time broadcast emanates from Colorado. Nine out of ten nights the watch updates and I have never found the watch to be more than half a second off from actual time after several months of use.

As this is a pilot's watch, one of the greatest features is that you can easily and quickly move between time zones (without having to reset the watch) and it would be useful for anyone who travels or is calling people in foreign countries (so you don't accidentally call them at 3 am). You can display one time on the hands and a different time zone on the LCD if you wish. Two dials also display UTC and 24 hour time.

Countdown timer, date, chronograph and two different alarms exist on the watch, using the LCD to work and set. A significant improvement over previous versions of the watch is a backlight on the LCD. The slide rule on the outside does permit rudimentary multiplication and division, as well as calculations relating to some airplane functions. The watch is waterproof down to 600 ft so you don't have to take it off while swimming or in the shower (note: this is not a diving watch and it really does not meet the requirements for diving).

All around this is an extremely useful watch if you need to know the exact time, may travel a lot and have some interest in the rest of the functions. It is a good looking, quality timepiece, very solidly made and I would highly recommend it, but you need to take into account some drawbacks stated below before a purchase.

CONS:

A review would not be a review without stating any negative aspects of the watch so here they are. First of all it is big and somewhat heavy, being made totally out of stainless steel (no titanium version is available at the time of this review and it would be worth the extra price should one become available). Even by the standard of a diving watches (which are usually pretty big) this is a big watch. It's somewhat thick but really the diameter of the face is what might be considered large. On anyone with a slight frame, it may appear oversized and be uncomfortable. For those who are used to wearing all-metal diving watches it does not take long to adjust to the size and weight. For those preferring slim, elegant dress watches, this watch would be a bad choice.

The watch is also quite complicated (as it does so much) but it does come with excellent documentation and even an interactive setting instruction disk. Intitial setup takes some time, but once that is done you soon get used to using its features. If you are not the type to spend at least a little time learning how to make best use of the watch this may not be your timepiece.

One feature that I am surprised Citizen kept on this watch was the requirement you pull out the crown to set some things. This is somewhat annoying and I worry about the durability of constant use of the crown in that manner. Although the strap is very solidly made and quite comfortable, you can only adjust it by adding and removing links. Once you realize you can use a thumb tack to push out the link pins (in the direction of the arrows stamped on the reverse of each link), you can adjust it yourself but it's a fiddle (NOTE: the pins are split at one end (the NON-split end going back in first). Make sure you put them in the right way round, and back in through the side of the links they came out).

If you are looking for the cheapest price on this watch make sure you buy it from an authorized dealer (even some ebay stores are) as the warranty probably is not valid if you buy it from someone else.

Without a doubt, for those interested in this type of watch with the aforementioned functions and features, it's a fantastic watch. For those of slim build or not used to wearing the bulk of a large diving watch, this may not be a good choice.

Great Aviation Watch
Just bought this watch and it is much better than I thought. It is larger than average (I have been a Casio G-Shock man most of my life), very solid, easy to read dial, although some of the lettering is smaller than I would like. The digital readout I like so much for UTC is somewhat smaller than I would like, but no strain is needed to read it. It also has a backlight, which is nice.

The atomic feature is also very nice for those who like absolute precision. It basically works this way:

The watch has a receiver in it that receives a signal from the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) transmitter in Ft. Collins, Colorado once a day, usually at night. It then synchs the watch with that time, which is the official U.S. time. It does this every day at the same time, or you can manually synch it yourself. Or you can set the time manually.

One note on synchronizing the time. The radio signal you receive is very low (60 hz), so it is very difficult to receive during the day. Sometimes during the day it will not even receive the signal, but in the middle of the night it will get the signal at maximum strength, even inside the house, and I live in Florida.

Citizen makes probably the highest quality watches for the money, and are always a leader in technology.

Great watch!
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2BJFW63RKEV2G Short video of the closeup of this watch. It has all the functionality I was looking for with solar power and atomic time setting. The back lighting is amber to not ruin your night vision. Face shows 12 hour local, 24 hour local, 24 hour GMT (UTC), and digital display can show date or another time zone. The sliderule works great for checking gas millage. Perfect watch at a reasonable price!