Citizen

Citizen Men's Eco-Drive Blue Angels Skyhawk Watch #JR3090-58L

• Light powered Eco-Drive Caliber C650 Japanese-quartz movement; charges in natural sunlight or indoor light
• Max power reserve: low charge warning: 1.5 days; charge time from stop state to max charge
• Time and calendar: 30 cities, chronograph; blue angels sky hawk: titanium

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Give a special gift to that special man with an eye on the sky with the Citizen Skyhawk JR3090-58L titanium watch that honors the Blue Angels, the legendary US Navy precision flying team, with an official Blue Angels insignia on the caseback. Titanium is nearly 50 percent lighter than steel, but 30 percent stronger. It's also particularly resistant to salt water corrosion. 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 twenty-two time zones, 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 black bezel offers a bi-directional rotating slide rule with yellow triangle accents. The midnight blue dial background features large silver-tone hands and Arabic numerals. It also features a durable, lightweight satin-finished titanium bracelet, water resistance to 100 meters (330 feet), and a scratch-resistant, non-reflective mineral crystal.

The Citizen Story

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 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.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 4.2 x 3.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0007OER12
• Item model number: JR3090-58L
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,051 in Watches (See Top 100 in Watches)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For geeks with style, March 3, 2005

By 

E. Nam (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is for the Citizen Skyhawk BlueAngel edition titanium watch, however, most of the comments are relevant to the entire Skyhawk series. I received this watch (Mar 2) days ago. So far I am very happy with it. I had a hard time deciding between the Blue Angel and the "regular" Skyhawk; I had an even harder time deciding between titanium and non-titanium. Below is a list of pros and cons of the watch(es) roughly in order of decreasing importance to me. However, I do want to make clear that I do love the watch, the pros WAY outweigh the cons.

Pro:
- Watch looks beautiful, though some may find it "too busy".
- Watch never needs batteries (solar charging) and even has power saving modes, which is fascinating for a techno-enviro-energy saving guy like me.
- I've always been a sucker for dual display (analog/digital) watches. As such, this watch has MANY useful functions: stopwatch (split/stop), countdown timer (1-99 minutes), many time zones (analog aligns with any time zone you want at the press of button), 3 Alarms (in any time zone), calendar (with day of week, month, and year - never need to correct for leap year, month, or daylight savings), and slide rule calculator on the outer dial, of which I have more to say in the next bullet.
- I was born after the slide rule generation, so this is my first exposure to the concept. It is intriguing! This particular configuration (or two proportional dials) allows for multiplication and division to 2 significant figures (e.g. 120/43, or 0.18*1.4). This is plenty sufficient for calculating sale price, tax, tip, unit price in stores, car/air fuel economy, etc. And it sure beats wearing around what I call a "geek watch" - a calculator watch. I used to love the functionality of a calculator watch, but people were just embarrassed to be seen with me in them! :-) This watch is for geeks with style!
- Watchband is bracelet that does not open fully so it's easier to take on an off, and won't fall off onto the street if accidentally unlatched.
- Titanium is wonderfully lightweight in comparison to the steel!
- I slightly prefer the yellow and blue pattern on the slide rule, as opposed to the gray of the Skyhawk.
- I like the hour notches on the Blue Angel, as opposed to the large while numbers on the regular Skyhawk, which is somewhat awkward due to the non standard numerical sequence: 1,3,6,9,&11 as opposed to the more standard 12,3,6,9.


Con:
- Watchband replacement: The first link is part of the main watch (circle), therefore, only very specifically sized watchbands will fit if it needs to be replaced. If the line is discontinued, this may pose a problem.
- The hands and hour dots are not coated with a phosphor film, so the watch does not glow in the dark. I understand not having a light for the digital display (uses too much power?), but the watch should at least glow in the dark.
- To access a lot of the watch functions, the crown must be turned (and pulled out) a lot. I imagine that this part will be one of the first to fail after many uses (just my guess).
- Crystal curves out (convex) so it is more likely to make contact with other surfaces and thus be more easily scratched.
- Scratches show up more easily on blue dial (blue angel) rather than silver dial (skyhawk).
- Two of the 3 internal dials serve very little function, and seem to be more for form over function. Most people will not need a UTC dial or a 24 hour dial - when the digital display could show both of these times more accurately. It would have been better to have one of the dials be power level, and/or perhaps light level(?)
- The second link of the watchband does not lay flat, therefore the watch cannot be stored flat, but must always sit on its side.

A note on Titanium and scratching.
- Other users have commented that the scratches show up more on the finish on the titanium, rather than the steel. Here the Blue Angel is different from the Skyhwak. The titanium Skyhawk has the gray finish, wheras the Blue Angel titanium band looks quite similar to the steel (somewhat less shiny). If you do not abuse the watch, I think that the weight savings is worth it. I'll reserve final judgment on this after a year or so of normal wear.

90 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Opportunities Wasted, June 22, 2005

By 

Gumbeaux13 (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Citizen Men's Eco-Drive Blue Angels Skyhawk Watch #JR3090-58L (Watch)

My review closely follows "toughcrowd" who wrote an excellent and detailed review.

(...)

Remember that the bezel is bi-directional in keeping with the concept of the watch. There's no ratchet/spring device to keep it from moving around which for me was aggravating.

The background UTC and 24 hour subdials are ok with me but should have been designed better to allow for larger time markers. Given the choice I'd rather have larger markers than the two subdials which are not a necessity.

The digital clock/date window is too small and has black LCD figures on a gray background. It needs to be larger and the background color more contrasting with the digits for better visibility. It's hard to read the digital time or date even in daylight. The digital clock and date are useless at night due to no background light.

The time markers and hands do have illuminous coatings. But the hands and markers are so small that they are too dim at night. My experience was that the coatings only held light for a short time-certainly not overnight.

The lack of half-hour time adjustment is unfortunate but will only affect those in Newfoundland, Suriname, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, and Central Australia. Suriname, Iran and Sri Lanka are not on my travel list so this is almost inconsequential.

The alarm volume is way too low and not adjustable.

If you have a skinny wrist and have to take a few links out the watch may become uncomfortable as it did for me.


This indeed is a nice looking watch with many functions but you have to consider its limitations as well. The numerous features and functions of the Eco-Drive are still quite impressive. Except for the Arabic numeral bit, this timepiece is loaded with amenities. It's difficult to find a quality solar-powered watch with so many functions.
I cannot find anyone or any study that shows titanium is more prone to surface damage than stainless steel. In fact it is twice as strong, a third lighter, and is extremely corrosion resistant compared to stainless. Unless you like the polished look of stainless, which is less expensive, go with titanium. I've also researched analog/digital watches solar watches and Citizen is the way to go. The 5-year warranty and the Amazon price are outstanding as well-the retail price is $575.00.

Having said all of that, I ended up returning the watch. The clincher was the uncomfortable feel when I took the links out to fit my relatively skinny wrist. I give the 51L a marginal recommendation but look forward to continued evolution in design from Citizen and others in the solar/chronograph category. The Skyhawk should rely less on the Blue Angels motif and more on functionality.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars World Time/Date Features Standout, March 19, 2006

By 

dennis wentraub (schenectady, new york USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Citizen Men's Eco-Drive Blue Angels Skyhawk Watch #JR3090-58L (Watch)

This watch is a pit bull. Not the prettiest of 'faces' perhaps, but it's tough and densely weighted with features. It shows attitude. A continual solar charge stokes a battery that will run for years. Need to know the time or date in 30 separately named locations - Dubai or Denver, Moscow or Mexico City? No problem. Just push and scroll with the button above the crown. The cities appear on a digital display in the lower left between the 7 and 8 hour positions and the time for each on a corresponding panel display on the lower right. If Karachi or Bejing is your second city of choice it will always be there to see. Switching the two time displays - the smaller, digital time to the larger, primary, analog display - is effortless, accomplished with the push of two buttons simultaneously. If your location of choice is not designated you can customize that one location (For example, I was easily able to program "SXM" and the time for St. Martin F.W.I.).

The digital window display between the 4 and 5 hour time positions is also where you will find the chronograph (viz. stop watch) and weekday, month, and date information. An alarm and count down timer add to the watch's main usable features. Navigational and "general calculation" functions are accessible through a rotating bezel and internal reference, "register ring". These are what I call its Mac Gyver features. Basically it is a tachometer and the manual provides serviceable explanations with examples.

You can get the band in different materials. I prefer the shinier, heavier, water defiant stainless steel over the leather or even the lighter, scratch resistant, gray titanium bracelet. The weight and glint of steel adds 'bark' to this beast!