Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1027 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: Citizen Eco-Drive
• Water-resistant to 666 feet

Features

• Global Atomic Timekeeping (AT) with Radio-Controlled Accuracy
• Black Dial with Digital Display Light
• World Time in 43 Cities, 2 Alarms and 99 Minute Countdown Timer
• Perpetual Calendar with GMT Display
• 200-meter Water-Resistant

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.

Customer Reviews

Great watch to wear and look at!
Upon receiving the box, I was surprised how well packed the parcel is to prevent any accidental damages. The watch didn't look as large as the dimensions made it out to be, in part due to the dual tones of the watch and the tapering of the case that wraps a well sized wrist nicely. On first looks, it is a very busy looking watch with tonnes of complications on the face, however, when broken down to their individual components, it actually is well organized that allows easy reading. The finish and materials of the watch is very good and can rival similar designed steel watches from luxury brands. There are many functions to the watch and if the manual is not well read by the owner, it may limit what the owner may enjoy from the watch as the watch settings are complicated (even for something as simple as setting the time). Overall, a very good looking watch that stands out due to its rarity.

Some bad points to the watch is the use of mineral glass that is not as resistant to scratches and the convex nature of the glass those encourage scratches to be more prominent at it's centre and magnified to its sides. Secondly, all functions are chosen with the crown and if the crown is not durable enough, it may be damaged due to excessive wear and tear from changing functions. Thirdly, the luminescent chemical does not last as long in the dark.

Personally, all the bad points are easily over-shadowed by the other benefits and features of the watch, hence I strongly recommend this watch to individuals who use E6B calculators and world time or those who simply like watches that provide practical complications on watches.

Skyhawk A-T: All the features I wanted
I spent a good three weeks researching various watches to replace the automatic that was failing to keep time. I was looking at the Citizen Calibre line of watches as well as the Seiko Coutura line, but I finally decided that the Citizen Skyhawk A-T was the only watch that had the three features that I really wanted:

- Battery-free operation
- Atomic clock accuracy
- Backlight

Like others, I was a bit concerned about the size and weight, and I did try on the titanium version, which costs $150 more, but I found that it was *too* light. It felt like I was wearing tinfoil. The stainless steel has a "reassuring, solid heft" to it, but it's by no means too heavy. And, the attractive dial is continually attracting comments. Not to mention that the hands and large markers are easy to read against the black dial. It's a very striking watch, and quite noticeable.

Feature-wise, this watch is jammed-pack, which is quite amazing when you consider it's a solar-powered watch: time in 43 cities, countdown timer, chronometer, perpetual calendar, two alarms, and an atomic clock radio receiver??? I was a little concerned about it not getting enough light as I work in an office and wear long-sleeved shirts, but the power gauge never goes below "full charge." Very reassuring, indeed. It was really amazing to pull it out of the box when I first got it, and all the needles starting spinning to put the watch to the correct time.

The only problem I've had was with the daylight saving time feature. As I live in Phoenix, we don't observe DST (who needs an extra hour of 120 degree heat!), and so I set the clock to Denver time and turned the DST off. But, every night, when the watch would receive the signal from the atomic clock in Colorado, I would wake up finding it an hour later than it really was, as the watch would automatically turn DST back on. After pouring through the manual, I found that you had to both turn off DST for the city the watch is set to, as well as turn it off for the atomic signal update. To do this second step, you have to set the sub-dial to RX-S and turn the "SMT" feature to "Ma." This essentially keeps the atomic clock signal from updating the DST feature.

With that figured out, I really found that I enjoy this watch immensely. It is a truly complicated watch--probably one of the most complicated I own, but the instructions are very clear. Also, I hear what other reviewers say about the backlight only showing the date, but you can easily pull out the crown and switch between date and time, so if you put it on "TIME," the backlight will display the time in the LCD. So, generally, I keep the watch on the calendar feature, so I know the date. But if I need to turn on the backlight to see the time, I pull out the crown, turn it one-quarter clockwise to the "TIME" selection, and push the light button. It sounds like a pain, but it really isn't. I find that I could do this quickly and easily, even in a darkened movie theater. The trick is to keep both LCDs on your home time, so that the analog dial and the digital LCD show the same time.

As for the links on the band, I wouldn't recommend trying to remove them yourself. I tried using a thumb tack, as another review suggested, but it seemed that I had to force them out, and it felt like I was damaging the pins. So, I stopped at a local jeweler who sized my watch for $5.

So, in conclusion I've owned many different watches over the years, including a Seiko Kinetic, which I really loved. But this is the first watch that I feel that would actually serve me for many years to come.

Fantastic watch! But there's a software glitch
First of all, let me say that I absolutely love this watch! There's little I can add to the other reviews except to say that it's all I hoped it would be and I'm VERY pleased with mine. Since I'm sort of a gadget freak, this timepiece is perfect for me.

There is something you should know, however: Certain versions of this watch have a software bug which will cause them to display the date incorrectly starting in 2010. Citizen is aware of this problem and will reprogram the watch free, but the bad news is that you have to send it in to their repair center. Whether your watch is affected depends on the serial number on the back; a call to Citizen (800-321-1023 in the U.S.) will verify whether you need to send yours in.

So, knowing this, why do I still give this review five stars? Well, the watch is awesome, and the fact that Citizen is proactively dealing with the problem is very impressive. I placed two calls to the number above today and they were very courteous, efficient, and helpful. Kudos to this company for excellent customer service and excellent products.