Customer Reviews

Citizen Men's BL5184-56L Eco-Drive Perpetual Calendar Two-Tone Watch

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I really love his watch.

I wanted a dress watch and a watch I could wear daily without paying some price of a Rolex or other really high priced watches.

This one seems to fit the bill. You get a quality name, watch and a decent price for a product of this quality.

It is a nice looking watch, it is built to last and has many nice functions. It is not too small and it is not so large that it looks gaudy.

The selling point for me on this watch, as I was looking at two others by other companies around the same price, was the eco-drive system.

I do not have to worry about replacing the battery and therefore do not have to worry about having to order a new battery or go through the trouble of finding the right battery.

This watch has the Perpetual calender feature so once you set it correctly you never have to worry about the date being off. It also has the 24 hour feature, an alarm clock, and extra Local Time setting if you need to have time in another zone.

Setting the time is quite nice as well as if done correctly it will move the hands on it's own until you reach the desired time.

One other great selling point to an item is visiting the companies web page who makes the watch. I did so with the three watches I was considering and I have to say by far Citizen's website was the best.

I am not talking about visually looking nice I am talking about with information and the care to give the customer good information and support.

If you find yourself one of those people who have trouble setting watches, or if you are a visual person and do not do well following written instructions.

The site offers flash media instructions on how to set the time, local time, alarm, date and other features on this watch in step by step videos that can be replayed as needed. It is a very nice feature that just shows the care Citizen puts into it's products.

Another feature on the watch that seems like the descriptions leave out....is the saftey clasp on the band.

It has two buttons that you need to push in at the same time to release the intial clasp but also has an extra clasp to hold all of that in as well....this is not a clasp that will just fly open by accident, yet it is very easy to open when you need to remove the watch.

One thing of note I will say is that if the watch has been in it's package a long time, as I imagine they are while in storage before delivery, then open the case and sit it under the light or in sunlight for a day or at least 5-6 hours to make sure it is fully charged.

I am a collector. I have 4 Eco drive watches. I have some I bought over 5 Years ago. NO PROBLEMS!! This watch is classy and is easy to use. Very expensive watches are not this good. BUY THIS ONE!!!

This is a very nice watch. My husband likes to collect watches but keeping up with the battery changes is a hassle after you have multiple watches. The Eco drive eliminates that problem and helps keep more battery disposals out of our envirnoment.

I received this watch as a gift after my other watch's battery died. The Eco-Drive is a neat concept, but this is a horrible watch. Right from the beginning it had issues. The upper right dial stayed between tick marks. I know there is a calibration procedure for adjusting it by whole tick marks, but not for adjusting it within tick marks. I sent it away to Citizen and it came back just a broke. We ended up exchanging the watch for a different one with the upper right dial correctly in place. A month ago, the second hand stopped moving. I figured it was low on charge so I set it out in the sun for an afternoon with no resolve. After having it in the sun for a week it still doesn't work. I guess it must be sent off for service again. I even tried the reset procedure, but I have had no luck. I will never buy a citizen again.

I bought this watch in June 2005 and I've had enough with it. I'll be buying another watch very soon.

First, setting up the watch for leap year, month, date, and time is confusing and requires a read through the owner's manual every time you need to change anything on the watch. If I only had to do this once, it wouldn't be much of a problem, but read on...

Second, the crown is too sensitive and if you accidentally turn the crown a notch, the watch will change modes and depending on what mode the watch goes into, you could be waiting a long time for the watch to resync to "TIME" mode. I don't like looking down at my watch and the watch not be in TIME display mode and have to screw with the watch just to see the time.

Third, to understand this problem you have to understand what it takes to change the date. First you pull the crown out to position one, then you twist the crown left to advance one day. Twist the crown again to stop the watch on that particular day. Easy, right? Well, the crown sensor loses/gains? sensitivity over time and even though you twist the crown to stop, it won't stop running through dates. Sometimes. But sometimes it does stop. And when you push the crown back into normal mode, the watch will *usually* advance one more day and one more month. Yeah, usually. Since changing the month is done by pushing button B and has absolutely nothing to do with the crown, why would the month advance *sometimes*? It doesn't make any sense. And why would pushing in the crown advance the date by one day when it's a twist of the crown that does that? Also, a few times the leap year or month has magically changed on me, screwing up the dates.

When I set the crown to position one or two, and set the leap year, time, date, etc to how I want it, pushing the crown back into normal mode shouldn't change the year, time, date, or anything! So why does it?

At least one of the aforementioned problems has happened the last half dozen times I've tried fixing the watch - making setting the date IMPOSSIBLE. If this sort of thing happened to someone else, I'd probably laugh but instead I'm crying and writing this review.

Yeah, so I got fed up with this watch even though I had high hopes for it when I bought it. This watch blows. Find another if you value your sanity.

I got my Citizen Men's Eco-Drive Perpetual Calendar Two-Tone Watch #BL5184-56L in July, 2005, and I have been very pleased with it. I wear it every day, and I have NEVER had to worry about the battery (the Eco-Drive works!). By the way, I live in Wisconsin, and I work in an office, so it's not like this watch is in the sun a whole lot. The light that it does get is enough, and it has never been an issue.

I wanted (needed?!?) a calendar on my watch that took care of itself. I never wante to worry at the end of a month, if the calendar needs adjusting. With this watch, once it's set, it will work for your life time.

I don't use the "stop watch" too often, but that works well. I don't think I've ever used the alarm (cell phone alarms are easier to program, in my opinion). I have used the time-zone feature - and that is nice if you travel between two zones with any frequency. When you do have to change the time for those trips that cross several time-zones, it can be a bit tricky to do right. On two occasions, I did that wrong, and changed the date too - and then I needed the manual (or the Internet has great instructions too!) for how to change the date back.

The clasp and metal band and its links have all worked fine - with no issues, and again, this is used daily, and it's now about 4 years old. A great purchase!

This watch is an excellent value.

Many good looking dress watches are breathtakingly expensive, so much so, in fact, that I couldn't wear one of them without worrying all of the time about breaking or losing it. This watch, on the other hand, is affordable and gorgeous; the combination of the dark blue face, the bright gold-colored accents, and the brushed stainless steel case and band parts is perfect. The pictures online really don't do it justice at all. It almost shouts "Expensive!" but it's quite reasonably priced, particularly when you consider all of the features.

Further, though the watch has lots of functions, it isn't one of those gaudy designs that looks like the control panel for the space shuttle. It's not a small watch, but it's not one of the huge, overbearing ones, either.

A nice feature is the two-button clasp release on the band. It's easy to use, but there's no way that the clasp will accidentally fly open and drop the watch to the floor.

Citizen has been in business for decades, and their reputation for quality is well-deserved. Their reputation for innovation is, too, and this watch is a good example of one of their finest advances, the Eco-Drive system. Since the watch is charged when it's exposed to light, there is no battery replacement, ever. This is a mature technology, too. My previous Eco-Drive watch ran like a champ for nearly 15 years before an unfortunate encounter with a washing machine claimed its life. I fully expect this one to do the same, and if it doesn't there's always the excellent 5-year factory warranty.

My watch came set to the correct time and date-- though I'm not sure how they managed that trick. The written instructions for using the stop watch and 24-hour time features, and for setting the watch seem a bit daunting at first, though a little thought makes them clear. However, the package contains a CD that has flash video clips that very clearly show how to reset everything. I don't expect to have any problems when I have to adjust it for daylight saving time.

I feel that I got a lot for my money. I'm very pleased with the way the watch looks and functions, and, based on my previous experience with a Citizen Eco-Drive watch, I expect to get many years of service out of this one.

I'm a watch guy. I love watches. I have watches like ladies have shoes, and I select which watch to wear carefully. But with my large watch collection, I kept looking for that "perfect" watch - one that I could wear anytime, would look great, keep precise time. I think I've finally found it!

This watch does exactly what I've always wanted. And with Eco-Drive, I don't worry about batteries at all. This watch is easy to read, looks fantastic, and the extra functions are just icing on the cake.

My only gripe is the date is a little small for my eyes. But overall, I've found my "perfect" watch!

This watch has great functionality and best of all is solar powered so that it can be used for a life time. I have enjoyed many watches in the past only to have them die or die after the battery was changed and moisture set in. I am glad that I paid the extra money for this version which has more features like the stop watch, alarm, and calander over the base version. The con I have found is that the small dial on the side of the watch does get turned to other Modes which makes the face show something other than the time. Also for the amount of money it would be nice to have a light. Like all the Eco-drive watches, if you wear long sleeves all day that cover the watch face the battery will get low. If I ever lost this one I can say that I would be looking online to buy another one just like it.

I bought this watch for my friend, and he loved it. This watch is perfect for everyday as well as special ocasions, since citizen constantly delivers perfect quality and sophisticated design.