Customer Reviews

Citizen Men's BL5250-53L Eco-Drive Titanium Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Watch

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a prior owner of a tag-heuer( bezel broke; paid to have it fixed; broke again, then fell off...watch worked great but looked silly without the bezel) and a luciene picard( couldn't see the silver hands against the silver background and I work in the dark), I needed something that looked stylish, worked and THAT I COULD SEE! I picked up a watch band pin remover tool considering the other review on the size of the watch band. Have been extremely happy with how the watch has lived up to expectations so far. If it fails to hold up to life's abuse(I tend to be hard on everything I own), I'll put in an addendum.

Addendum: I've now had this watch for about a year now and it has lived up to my expectations 100%. I have no criticisms and will buy another one if I end up breaking(or losing) it in the future.

Addendum #2: I've had the watch over 3 years now and with the exception of a few scratches on the crystal, it's been flawless. The perpetual calendar should get a positive comment as not having to change the date on every month or so is really convenient. I stand by my first addendum on which watch I'd buy in the future.

Great watch. I am really happy with this purchase, for $250 i think you will be hard pressed to find a watch with the same features/quality.

The watch has 3 modes, time, chrono, dual time(local time) & alarm. You switch between the features by turning the stem to the desired function in the bottom sub-dial. To keep this review short and sweet..

The good...
- Never need to replace the battery!! - This is a huge when you think about the cost of replacing the batteries in some watches that need to be sent to a service center.
- Titanium composition makes the watch & bracelet lightweight but strong compared to a stainless steel equivalent.
- Perpetual calendar - never need to adjust the date when its a 30 day month once you have set the calendar.
- 5 year Citizen warranty should anything ever go wrong.
- Instructional CD comes with watch - easier than reading the manual

The bad...
-No wetsuit expansion clasp on the bracelet.
-Rotating bezel isn't that easy to turn (compared to previously owned watches with a bezel)
-Switching between time & dual time takes a while for the hour dial to change time zones which is annoying if you just want to quickly flick to see what the dual time is (the top left sub dial is for telling the currently displayed time in 24 hour format not the dual time).

I paid $250, and for that price, I'm satisfied. The watch would be ideal if not for a couple of minor issues. First, the thickness. I love the diameter of the watch. In that regard, the size is perfect. But it's a little more clunky than I would like and I notice that Amazon doesn't divulge the thickness it the listing. My guess is they realize that this information may sway some buyers. Also, unless I'm doing something wrong, the alarm is only functional when the watch is in "Alarm" mode, which makes it unusable as a watch (pretty bizarre). Lastly, the on-line pictures make this watch appear silver but it is not. The titanium gives it a slightly different color.

But the bottom line is that the watch looks great, is EXTREMELY lightweight, keeps great time, has a perpetual calendar, and never needs a battery. So if you can look beyond what I mentioned in the first paragraph, I think you'll like this watch.

Every thing was "as advertised". Keeps great time and the features
work quite well.
It takes awhile to wade through the instructions but it's time well spent.
The only complaint was that the unit comes with a band that would be too large for Andre' the Giant. I had to take it out to get sized.
I've taken the time to come back and edit.....still a great watch.
Had it a month or so.
Only problem I've had is that my chubby wrist turns the stem during normal wear and puts the watch into another mode.
A little irritating.

I bought three Citizen watches, and found myself wearing this one more than the other two. The case and bracelet are totally Titanium, which is great for me because when I sweat, it doesn't itch. The watch is very accurate; the alarm is useful,as is the chronograph. Once set, I never had to adjust it. The date in the window is very readable. It's taken a few knocks, and it still works like nothing happened. Keep it charged, but follow instructions!

This product does exactly what it is designed to do; extracts electricity from light and keeps exact time.

Eco-Drive watches are masterpieces of design and function. This is my second Eco-Drive, purchased only because my other watch was damaged while moving. Watches are not jewelry for me, but essential tools. Function defines form and this is a superb example of such form.

Buy one, wear it. The titanium is light, eye pleasing. But most of all the watch is accurate and always has power.

This is my second eco-drive watch; I liked my titanium Skyhawk so much that I wanted the perpetual calendar. It's 99% what I thought it would be..

The good: the dial face is very dark blue (near black) and the subdials are gray; the face is much better looking than the picture. It's a massive watch, but very lightweight.

The bad: the manual is unreadable; the print is way too small. Go to [...] and download the Adobe Acrobat version. Also, I expected a perpetual calendar watch to have a good alarm; this watch (and my Skyhawk) does not. I would literally have to tape the watch to my ear to hear the alarm. I can't hear the alarm six inches from my ear (my hearing is perfect). It is not a diver's watch, even though Citizen states that it is water resistant to 200 meters. I use my Casio for diving.

Since I do not depend on the alarm, and don't intend to dive with this watch, it does what I need it to do. I wanted a watch which I don't have to set every other month, and will recharge itself.

Out of the box this watch looks and feels great. However, the zero setting, too often required, is painfully methodical, the mode change easily switches as the protruding bezel often touches my wrist and, as a result, the perpetual calendar, alarm, and chronograph are accidentally altered! After having reset the perpetual calendar for the fifth time for some reason, the date is perpetually crooked! I would not recommend this watch and am surprised by the great reviews. My assumption is that many of these reviews were written during the first week or two.

Calibre 2100 is a very advanced watch, but it is too big. The most disadvantage is that Calibre 2100 doesn't have perpetual calendar, so you need to remember ajusting the date at every non-31 dates month.

8700 is beautiful, but it doesn't have titanium band which is lighter and stronger and allergy free. Also, the stem will be loose after using a while and the luminous material only keep shining for less than one hour at night.

This watch has both perpetual calendar and titanium, it is lighter than 8700 and much lighter than 2100, and it has perpetual calendar. It has the same luminous design as nighthawk. Its water resistance is 200 meters which is the same as 2100 (8700 only 100 Meters.)

This is the watch I need.

I've read all the other reviews for this product, and I have to say they seem to be on point for the most part. The watch is a little thicker than any watch I've ever worn, but that doesn't take away from the experience. The controls are easy to operate, and the instructions for setting the date/time/month/year for the perpetual calender were a little hard to understand at first, but all you need to do is take some time. It took me about 5 minutes to set the watch up.

************ Figured out Alarm Mode will work************

I have a correction to make about the Alarm Function. It is not true the Alarm only works in Alarm mode. After messing with it for a while, I now know that you can set the Alarm, and still use the watch in normal mode, and the Alarm will sound once a day. In Alarm mode, the second hand points to {Alarm Off / Alarm On} along the outer ring, you can change this setting by being in alarm mode/pull the center knob out to first or second position, and then pressing button A. It will switch back and forth between on and off. I hope this helps with the misinformation. The instruction manual doesn't do a good job or explaining this so it's very easy to miss on first or even third inspection.

The Alarm chime is loud enough. Now I know there are about a handful of users upset the Alarm isn't louder, but give me a break. The Alarm is loud enough, if you are awake, and sitting around in anything but a loud environment it is fine. If you really expected a Watch alarm to be loud enough to wake you up, then by all means be upset, but for my two cents. All of you with that attitude regarding the Alarm Chime should take a step back, and re-evaluate your needs when it comes to a wrist watch.

I'd say I have average arm diameter, and out of the box the chain was a little long. I like my watches to be loose, but not able to rotate excessively. So, I went into Wal-mart, and used their tools to take out two sections from the chain. It was very easy, but almost lost the inner sleeve. (It's a very tiny hallow tube the rod section passes through going from one side of the chain to the other keeping the links together. If anyone tries this, make sure you don't loose that tiny sleeve. The sleeve just slides back into it's hole, since it only goes in one way.

The chronograph is going to be very helpful during long distance runs. I don't like digital watches, but really missed being able to keep accurate time during my races. The way the chronograph is set up to display time, anything longer than 1 hour might be a little hard to tell. I haven't check it out, but for timing an event for 15 min. or even 50 min. would be ok. Also, for the first second, the second hand rotates once then displays each additional second one mark at a time.

This is my second Citizen Eco-Drive watch, and I really love their style and craftsmanship. My last watch was a Citizen Corso Model #BM8080-59M, and it's worked fine for the last 3 years. The face has taken a real beating, and the band has held up better than I expected.

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