Eco-Drive Corso Mens Watch, Stainless Steel, Classic

I haven't worn a watch in years, but an upcoming overseas trip had me needing one. I love the Eco-Drive idea - no battery replacements, no winding, no hassle. Like other reviewers, I wish it had luminous hands and markings, and the sub-dials have tiny, and I mean TINY, indicators; especially day of month. I can read them, but I have to put the watch almost against my eyeball to do so. The included strap is a throw away, but that's true for most watches. I replaced it with a stainless steel band that makes the watch look great. Other reviewers have noted that the hands look black from most angles, and only blue at a few. This is true - but I don't consider that a detriment. IOW, I don't care... Other than the above minor complaints, I really like it - the main dial is easy to read, and it looks good. Being a Citizen, I expect good service from this watch. One thing to note: The day of week and day of month sub-dials do not increment exactly at midnite. Day of month starts moving at around 5 after, and is complete by 12:15. Day of week is much later, seems to start moving around 1:30.

I was looking for a watch with just the basic functions hour hand, second hand, minute hand, and date. It came down to this and the Seiko Men's SSC013 White Dial Watch. I bought both and I am really happy that I did. Below I will tell you why and compare the two watches but first I'll give you my thoughts on this watch. Other reviewers have noted that the watch hands look dark blue or almost black, unlike the bright (almost pastel blue pictured). This is true in certain lighting conditions. The hour, minute, and second hands are anodized blue so the hands will appear different depending on the lighting conditions. As I type this at my desk with sunlight and lights on over my head the hands appear as light blue (like the picture - only less saturation... I think somebody cranked the saturation levels in photoshop or lightroom before submitting the product pics to amazon). If I rotate my wrist to another position then the hands appear a dark blue (somewhere between navy and black). Bottom line: understand that the hands are anodized not painted so their color will be a function of the lighting conditions and the angle you look at the watch. I spend most of my day in business casual or professional attire (suit and tie or slacks and a longsleeve, button-down shirt). This watch fits perfect with a formal look. The black leather band is a nice contrast to the oyster (think muted-silver face). I like that the watch has both a day of the week and date dial. As others have noted it is a bit of a bummer that the user can wind the stem to change the date from the 1st to the 31st quickly but not the day of the week. No big deal - I just sat watching TV winding the stem around and around from 12AM to 12PM on and on until the say of the week dial moved from Sunday to Thursday. I'm sure in a more expensive watch Citizen would incorporated the day of the week dial into the stem but that means more $$$ and one of the greatest things going for this timepiece is the price. I am a pretty big guy (my thumb and middle finger will not touch (about 1/2 inch of space between them) when I wrap them around my left wrist - so my biggest concern when buying a watch is the size of the face and the length of the band. The band is leather so it will stretch (mine is on the second to last hole after a week). In another week I will probably be able to move it to the third to last hole. I think this watch is perfect in size - not too thin but not too think. It is classy without being a "Hey look at me I'm gaudy" type of thing. My bottom line - a wonderful watch that does not need batteries, EXTREMELY affordable from a manufacturer known throughout the world. I am VERY happy with the purchase and laugh when coworkers guess that I cost over $1000.00 - I laugh and say "a little less than that." I do agree that this looks like a $1000.00 + watch. Good luck to you in your purchasing decision - I hope this review has helped. As for the comparison to Seiko Men's SSC013 White Dial Watch (I have a review up for that watch as well). The only thing I think you should consider is that the Seiko can be dressed up or dressed down. This gives the Seiko an edge in flexibility if that is what you need out of a watch. I would feel funny with the Citizen on my wrist if I were wearing jeans, a polo, and sandals or some leather shoes - the citizen screams 'formal' whereas the Seiko can be dressed up or down. THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM for me because I bought the citizen to be a formal watch - just understand that changing the band may be necessary if you want this citizen to look a little more dressed down in a casual type of situation. Another note: the Seiko has a chronograph and an alarm feature so please keep these things in mind because my only basis of comparison is LOOKS... the Seiko has more features so it will have a higher price point. - Cheers

I absolutely love this watch. It fuses classic form with contemporary styling. I am blown away by the white dial...it has a depth that is hard to describe. The black lettering is super-fine and sharp. The Citizen/Eco-Drive logo is spot on. The day & date dials are tiny, but legible. All of the hands are of a stunning blue. The hour, minute, & second hands are mirror-like, while the day & date hands are not. The case is a highly polished (also mirror-like) metal, probably stainless steel. One of the reasons why I chose this watch is because it has a solar cell that charges either a battery or a capacitor. It should not need a battery replacement for a long time. The leather strap is stiff at first, and seems to have dried out during storage. I rubbed a little bit of neatsfoot oil and that made it more pliable and soft. It is sized to fit a 5.75 inch wrist at the small end, but maybe up to size 8 inch at the largest end of array of holes. I have a 6 inch wrist, and the strap looks great and fits even better than expected.

The watch is gorgeous. It runs pretty silently, the watch face details are nice, the window is clear and wonderfully designed the way it curves above the body of the watch. It’s not heavy, but feels quality. Highly recommend.

The watch is unique in that the day and date are not the typical presentation. You get two circular presentations for each. However, if your eyes are older you may not be able to see the small markings. However the watch face is unique because of those features. Plus the silver face is very handsome. The blue hour and minute hands can look blue or black depending on the light you are in. It’s accurate too. The watch band was labeled as leather and is also a high quality and takes time to break in but comfortable after a while. The price was right for a light powered watch.

I'm wearing this watch right now. It's perfect. I love Citizen watches. This is my fourth. Don't even get me started on Eco Drive. I'm way too lazy to change watch batteries, so solar powered watches are perfect for me. It's a comfortable fit; synthetic leather band, so it isn't stretching. Fairly light; hardly notice it on my wrist. I'm surprised this is called a casual watch; with a different band I could see it, but I wouldn't wear a black leather strap watch with anything less than business casual with black dress shoes. Maybe jeans and a blazer. I'm wearing it with a suit right now and it's perfect. Looks: this is a beautiful watch. The black numbers jump off the white face, and the blue hands are subtle, until they catch the light and you get a shock of metallic blue. Really attractive. Adds some life to a boring dress watch without adding flash. Size: my ideal size for a dress watch. I feel like guys have been getting bigger and bigger watches, and it looks awful. This is big enough to look manly on my wrist, but not huge. Only issue I have is that it's a bit thicker than dress watches I'm used to. Maybe that's a sign that it is a casual watch. Still fits under my cuff though, so no issue. Build: as with all Citizens, I expect to be wearing this watch in ten years. I don't know how they build such sturdy, well made, attractive watches and sell them for what they do. I have watches from other makers in this price range and nothing touches Citizen in terms of quality. Telling time: this is where the watch really shines. It tells me what time it is, what the date is, and what day of the week it is. 5 stars in that department. Doing laundry: I haven't had the watch for very long, but so far I have not seen it do any laundry. If it doesn't start to pitch in around the house soon, we may ask it to start paying rent. Hosting the show Cosmos: this watch is not Neil Degrasse Tyson, so it does not host the show Cosmos on Fox. But if it did, it would probably do a pretty good job.

So I bought this watch last Christmas, so I've had it around 7 months or so. This watch is quite simple to set up, so there's really nothing for me to go too in-depth about, but I'll just offer a few brief thoughts--oh, I should clarify about how I wear it. I'm a college student, so I basically wear this watch seven days a week in either casual/informal situations and in formal situations as well. It fits in perfectly for any occasion. I do wear it pretty roughly (although not for anything athletic) and it's handled everyday use like a breeze, not getting dinged up or anything. The face is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Don't be deceived by how blue the hands are in the picture, they're a bit more dark and reflective in person. I could understand how some might think the blue hands detract from the maturity and classiness of this watch, but it doesn't in any way, and also adds a bit of character to it. I read another review dubbing the face to have the "mother of pearl" look, and that doesn't really make complete sense initially, but once you get this watch in person, you will intuitively just get it. The white has a shiny-ish quality to it, that makes it absolutely stunning to look at in light! I personally don't like black bands, so as soon as I bought it, I thought I'd swap it out, but it definitely grew on me! It complements the dial very well, and the synthetic leather on the band has held up perfectly so far. Also, I absolutely love the eco-drive technology, knowing that I won't have to fiddle with batteries and winding and such. It keeps time extremely well, and haven't had any problems with it or any other aspect of this watch. So, if you want a watch with a timeless (intentional pun) look, the classic white face and black band, the simple elegance of the design and display, do yourself a favor and get this watch.

Looked great on Amazon's website when I bought it. But not as impressed when I actually got it. However you might feel differently about the attributes that I am dinging the watch on. My problem with Citizen is that in spite of their eco-drive technology, they just never seem to get it right. They are so close and then they screw it up. They need to hire some better design folks. In case folks from Citizen are reading this, here's my wish list. And based on my rather frequent visits to watch forums, this is what every hot-blooded watch seeker wants: - Eco-drive, you got it, kudos. - Perpetual calendar. Readable. - Luminous hands or indiglo. The brighter and longer lasting the better (go borrow Seiko/Timex technology) - Get rid of half ass chronographs. No one needs them. Half the folks like proper chronographs on their watches, the other half (without Ferraris) have absolutely no use for it. - Keep your stupid modes off the dial of the watch. We don't want to see a subdial with Alarm and Chronograph and other details on the face of the watch. Figure out where else you can put it. That's your job. Ok now that my venting is done, let's talk about this specific watch: PROS - Eco-Drive. No complaints there. Simply awesome. - The watch has a classic expensive retro look (blue hands, white face...think Cartier) - Love the retro calendar. I am a big fan of day and date features CONS - The face has a strange finish. It is not white like it looks on the photograph. It looks like a plasticky white. I guess it is necessary to let the light in for the eco-drive to work, but it makes the face look like plastic. - The calendar date circle font is too small to read, even when you are not in a rush - I could never get the date and day to work in the same 12-hour cycle. The date and day always changed 12 hours apart. There's some funky specific instructions to set it, and try as I might, I just couldn't get it to work. And I have a few fancy watches. - There is no lume, so the hands don't light up in the dark. At this day and age, this is simply unacceptable. I know Citizen is trying to make it look like a "classic", but find a way already. Borrow Timex's indiglo or something. - It's not a perpetual calendar. Why not? Seriously? Just stop producing watches without perpetual calendar...please.