Customer Reviews

Citizen Men's BL8000-03A Eco-Drive Calibre 8700 Watch

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A very very precise perpetual solar powered timepiece capable of tracking the time in two zones (you toggle between locations using the crown), pretty thin, at a great street price. The hands have nice night time illumination. The leather strap and deployant buckle are pretty plush. Some of the functionality is hard to use and there is a cheap look to the metal bezel (which marks easily; the glass seems tough enough).

This thing is really a time computer instead of a watch; when you change modes, the hands change function in such a way that to get back to the time you must be accessing a computer memory. Also, it has the cute (really) habit of napping when it has been in the dark for some long time. Then when you look at it, it senses light, wakes up and the second hand moves madly to catch up.

The crown:
It is way too easy to pull the crown out two stops into the setting mode, which could cost you the correct time, instead of one stop into the position where you can change modes.

The alarm:
To see what at time the alarm is set, you change to the alarm mode and it may take (really) a minute or more while the hands move to show that time (the minute hand actually goes round and round as the hour hand advances ... its a 24 hour alarm which is very nice, there's a separate indicator keeping track of 24 hour time). Then the same thing in the other direction when you need
the time again. The alarm is very very dim, I would not trust it to wake me up. When the watch is in the calendar mode where the second hand shows the month there is no way to see whether the alarm is on (that hand can only be used to show the number of years to the next leap year ... likewise when it shows whether the alarm is on, it can't access that leap-year function).

The second time zone:
Quite easy to use, its synched to the main time in hour increments. Just don't go to Teheran or any other place where time isn't on the hour, that isn't possible without resetting the main watch time. There's a 2ndary dial which tells you whether the 12 hour hands are pointed to am or pm in either time zone.
And it may take a long time to move to the 2nd time, if you need to check that, see the comments on checking the alarm time.

bottom line: the gaffes probably stand out more just because the good parts are so good. Its almost a perpetual motion machine!

I have owned this watch for nearly two years. The features and functionality are well balanced. The solar panel rarely sees daylight from underneath my shirt sleeves, yet the battery has never depleted. The leather wristband is comfortable and shows very little wear. After years of use, my only complaint is that the metal is very easily scratched. Fortunately, the crystal/glass has remained flawless. I have had many people comment on the beauty of this watch. I will only buy citizen after owning this enjoyable timepiece.

Update: November 14, 2007.
The watch is holding up well as the 5-year warranty comes to an end. It took over 4 years of wearing the watch nearly every day for the first scratches on the glass to appear. The wristband shows minimal wear, and the clasp has not given me any troubles. Still very happy with my purchase!

What a fantastic piece of craftmanship. I have had mine for a few months now. Could not be happier. It is powered by any light with a power reserve of more than a year. No more batteries ever. It has all the appeal of an analog watch, with a beatiful classic design without the annoying need to correct the date for odd/even months. It will even correct itself for leap years. Besides date/day of week, it has alarm (soft, not the best if you are a deep sleeper, but useful nonetheless), calendar (showing the month) and dual time zone.

All that plus the Citizen tradition of quality backed by a 5 yr warranty. What else would you want?

I just got this watch, and it's hard to take my eyes off it. I looked at the Calibre 8700 with the blue dial and stainless strap (which a Citizen rep told me is one of their most popular models) but really found the white dial and silver accents, very striking in this model. And I like how the band sets off the face.

I really looked at every Citizen watch on their website, and kept coming back to this one!! The watch is very nice in person, the dial has some detail to it, so it catches the light especially with the silver accents.

As mentioned in other reviews, there are four basic modes that you can switch to:
1. Time
2. Calendar
3. Local Time (i.e. time zone #2)
4. Alarm

since it's not a digital watch (and we don't want it to be since it looks great as an analog!) the hands have to show you all the stuff. So if the Time is set to 3p and you are traveling and are in Singapore where it's 3a, then when you switch the modes, it's going to spin the hands around for 12 hours to show you. This is not good if you want to check and see what time it is 'back home' but is great if you travel, and don't want to keep resetting your watch. When you get back home, just change the dial back to Time and you're back in business.

There are three dials on the watch, in addition to the main hour/min hands, one is a 24 hour dial, with an 'hour' hand that points to the corresponding time in 24 hour mode. Basically this will help you distinguish AM and PM times on the dial, and is important when using the local time (i.e. time zone #2) and alarm modes to keep AM and PM straight.

Next there is the mode dial that points to TME, CAL, LTM, or ALM to let you know what mode you are in (time, calendar, local time, alarm). And lastly there is a dial that points to the day of the week, can let you know if the alarm is set or not, and can also let you know if this is a leap year, or how many years it's been since a leap year ;)

The watch also has a day of the month indicator at the 4 o'clock position, and this is a perpetual calendar, so regardless of 30, 31, or 29 days in the month, it will always be right!

As mentioned earlier, the watch has an energy saving feature which, when in the dark for about 30 minutes and not getting enough light to charge the watch, will stop the second hand at 0(12) to save energy. When light hits the dial, it will move the second hand rapidly to where it should be :)

I will add that yes, this is a cool watch with lots of cool features, and you might have to do a bit of reading to figure them all out if you want to use them, but basically Citizen tries to make that as easy as possible. They give a detailed instruction book, they give interactive lessons on a free CD that comes with the watch, and you can go on their website and they will visually demonstrate the features to you too! What more can you ask for?

First, about the watch: I absolutely love it. Nothing bad to say at all, except maybe if you frequently need to set the alarm, it can become somewhat annoying. When setting the alarm, the hands don't just move directly to the hour and minute of the alarm time, but go round and round counting out the minutes and hours. Also, if you don't care what time the alarm was previously set to but just want to change it, you still have to wait until it gets to the previously set alarm time before it will let you adjust it. Since I plan to use the alarm infrequently, it's no big deal and kinda fun to watch.

Now, to the strap: I bought this watch with a leather strap to keep the watch as light and comfortable as possible. The strap is beautifully made of rich patterned leather, and it's definitely much lighter than the steel bracelet. However, the deployment clasp on the strap was not well thought-out. There are sharp corners everywhere: two on each end of the clasp, and also on the release buttons in the middle. In addition, the ends of the clasp turn up sharply, which means at least one side is likely to cut into your wrist all the time. This is particularly problematic when your wrist is resting on a surface and the weight of the arm rests on the sharp points. (Others with different diameter wrists may have a different experience).

The solution: I closed one side of the clasp at a time and put that side only into a vise (after wrapping it in thick paper to avoid scratches). By slowly tightening the vise, I was able to take most of the curve out of the clasp. The entire process took maybe 5 minutes. The clasp is immeasurably more comfortable now, and I'm finally 100% satisfied with the watch. Thought I'd share this strategy with anyone who might run into the same problem!

This watch is really good. Looks great, is pretty accurate (I've only had it for a month now). The only issue is that if you have to set or check the alarm, it could take a couple of minutes to do so depending on the current time and when the alarm is set. This is particularly not useful for quick setting. Also, if you want to set your "other" time zone, can only be done in 1 hour inc/decreements. So forget about 30 min differences.

But these are trivial issues, the hour/minute have very good visibility even in low light conditions: reflected light from these hands make it easier to read.

I purchased this watch while on a Princess cruise at under $200. It gains about 5-10 seconds a month. Many people have commented about the retrograde look. I love how simple it is to set the time. With most watches you must wait until the second hand points to 12 and pull the crown all the way out. You then must set the minute by backing into the correct setting since setting it forward can lose part of a minute. You must then push the crown back in at the exact time being careful not to rotate it. With this watch you pull the crown all the way out and the second hand jumps to 12. A slight click of the knob moves the minute back and forth a full minute. You then push the crown all the way in at the exact time.

Very good watch for the money. Cool to look at and good quality for the price. Minor gripes are the second time zone is not that useful as you have to pull out the crown and it then goes to the second zone so you can't see the two time zones simultaneously. Kinda defeats the purpse when traveling and wanting to see your home zone at a glance. As other say alarm is low volume. Sometimes hard to see the small details with older eyes. overall, however, a good watch for $250.

I've owned this watch for about 3-4 years now. My only complaint was the band. The crocodile band wasn't really me. Plus after about a year, the band, where it attached to the case began to break apart. I replaced the band with a plain, black leather band. I think it looks better than the original band, and a little more comfortable. All in all, good watch. Keeps the time well.

I received this as a Christmas gift and agree with previous reviews that it is a visually stunning watch. I think the "complications" of this watch make it even more interesting and compelling as a timepiece. I also think the clasp wristband for leather is innovative; I think it will prolong the life of the wristband as the band itself is not getting tugged each time I put it or take it off.

I will say that the mini-dvd that comes with the watch is very helpful and it covers most features of the watch and watch settings in a very user friendly way (although there are a few minor features that are only covered in the user manual). Some may find the size of the manual imtimidating and I have seen some reviews indicate the watch is too complicated. Fear not! Once you understand that the watch is either in a "mode" (1 pull of the stem) or setting (2 pull outs of the stem), the meaning and operations are straightforward. Just use care to do only 1 pull out (not 2) when attempting to set the mode; if you do two pull outs by mistake and are in time mode, the watch's time will be stopped.

The leap year indicator is interesting and important for the perpetual calandar. I also think the day of week pointer and scale is pretty cool. I think the high contrast black-on-white makes it easy to read and makes the watch dressy enough for the office, but also casual enough for anytime use.

I have purchased my share of low end watches only to have them fail for one reason or another. My Timex didn't even take a licking and it still failed (the stem no longer works, in order to set the time I have pull it out and stop the watch until the time of day catches up with its setting). I am hopeful that this watch will serve me for many years; i'll update this review each year let y'all know.