These are as good as Grand Seiko Quartz with the star above the 6 'O'clock. The finishing and detail on these are Grand Seiko level, they are +/- 5 seconds/ year, perpetual calendar, and most importantly, solar. For this reason they are even better than GS
GS has better hands, dial finishing, some smaller details. But of course citizen has compelling features that make the Watch easier to live with. And it’s also considerably cheaper.
I am borrowing one right now and I put this and my GS under a 20x microscope and the finishing is dead close. The perpetual calendar is also a major benefit. I know the GS accuracy range is technically wider, but my GS is running +0 for the last 10 months so I take that part with a grain of salt :) I absolutely agree Chronomasters are drastically underrated.
@@das997 I love the SLA043. I'm thinking of putting a navy Tropic on my SLA055. Do non-metal straps need to be cleaned so they don't smell after a while or is that a non-issue? Thanks.
@@JeffreyMcMahon At last count, I have five straps for the SLA, not counting the two that came with it (too long - don't wear). I've not noticed any smell from any of the straps - but I tend to change them out every month or two... BTW - got two Artem sailcloth straps (one black, one blue) and these tend to be the "go to" straps on the dive watches.
I almost bought a Chronomaster a few years ago but found that I would need a 3rd party based in Japan in order to purchase and for any servicing as Citizen does not cover HAQ in the UK. I do not see why the customer has to jump through hoops when giving the seller a larger amount of money.
I agree with one professional reviewer that Citizen lavishes so much labor on each of these watches that they are probably losing money on each one. You can tell Citizen is run by engineers, not marketing people, to our great advantage. Absolute engineering integrity in all their watches at every price level.😊
I can only *praise* this company for consistently keeping and even improving their quality standards over such a long period of time despite not being top seller. The design of this watch certainly belongs to the achievement category. Two negatives: I have an older Citizen that has the glass just slightly recessed below the bezel line - this helps enormously keeping the glass scratch free as the eventual impacts are most of the times taken by the bezel metal. Amazing idea, sadly not used in many watches. Second complaint would be the visibility of the hands. Silver hands on dark dials just lack visibility in dimmer light.
I think what hurts the resale. Would be that the general Perception of a citizen. That's a couple hundred dollar watch. For those that know it's phenomenal. But I don't think most people would know. Where as grand seiko for example. Separates itself a bit from its cheaper counterpart. With the name. It wouldn't bother me any. I think people put way too much value in brand name anyway. Cough cough rolex.
I had one of the smaller 37.5mm versions and it was great. Solar HAQ perpetual calendar with independently adjustable hour hand is the pinnacle of set it and forget it. The titanium was incredibly light (mine weighed 75g on the bracelet) and the finishing was top notch
Citizen high end watches are so underrated. They are better than GS. Most importantly, cheaper than GS. If this is GS, it’d cost double but with no solar technology.
I have the AQ4091-56L Model and I agree with you 100% Rob. It is an amazing watch and absolutely beautiful in any type of lighting. I am very tempted to get the AQ4020-54Z with the red dial and the AQ4020-54X with the green dial.
The style, the tech it offers, the GS level of finishing, the only reason this watch doesn’t carry a $4000 price tag is just because Citizen is not associated with high end watches. Unfortunately for us in Europe, it seems this very reference AQ4030-51L is no longer available at ADs. 😔
My Citizen JP2000 is running just 4 sec fast since it was synced to atomic time 6 months ago, so I expect it will be just 8 sec fast for the year. Pretty good for a tool watch model that has been around for decades. I’d be interested in seeing a 6 month comparison test of a dozen or so quartz watches to see how accurate they really are. This chrono master could be better than 5 sec/yr accuracy.
Such elegant simplicity. Look at some Citizen watches and the cluttered dial will have you shaking your head. I bought a U.S.-market Citizen Satellite Wave Freedom that has way, way more nonsense on the dial than is necessary for a watch that gets its time from GPS satellites (can’t be as simple as this watch, of course… but almost!). I think that Citizen might think that Americans have really bad taste…
My Casio Oceanus S5000 Manta runs 0 s per year 😂😂😂 Always exact time. Perfect to wear, easy to use, perpetual calendar as well, titanium case and strap, lightweight and about 50% the price of such a „The Citizen“. But if I should take a watch for the lonely island, The Citizen would be on the first place.
Very well executed, almost to the level of being a Grand Seiko homage (it is not, obviously). There are so many iconic and awesome watches, at this price point. With all the 2200 bucks in my pocket, probably I'd pick something else. I guess in the quartz league I would rather choose an Oceanus, like the S100, which is considerably cheaper, but still mega awesome. But still, kudos for Citizen!
You can pick up a Casio Oceanus S100 for a quarter of the price with the same quality of finish, solar, radio time correction, titanium case and bracelet, and sapphire glass. The Citizen has slightly cleaner lines to the case but is it worth paying four times as much?
This was my thought, too. Why pay 4X as much and get something less accurate? The Oceanus is +/- 0 seconds a year. This Citizen is very nice, no doubt. But it isn’t 4 times better than the Casio Oceanus.
You can get a quartz chronometer from certina for $500. If the movement isn’t anything special like a springdrive then I personally wouldn’t pay that much for it. But i doubt this is the same movement they use in their cheaper watches
both minutes and seconds hand are too short, I can't unseen that, Might be a problem of torque, or just bad design, translating the same hands from 37 to 40mm cases
I’ve owned 5 Grand Seiko models (Shunbun, Taisetsu, White Birch, Lake Suwa 019) and the quartz Sea of Clouds. I think The Citizen is easily better than the GS quartz watches and sits about on par with the mid-range GS models like the Shunbun. The Evo 9 models are in another league entirely though.
I love seeing Citizen smashing home run after home run. My grandfather would ONLY buy Citizen Eco Drive, and he got me to believing in them. I wore a Promaster diver on a combat rotation and I still wear it several times a week. I inherited his dual tone dress watch that he’s worn for 12 years daily and it’s still just ticking along. I love their new automatic offerings, but for an insane amount of cutting edge bulletproof technology at a very affordable price, Eco Drive is just my favorite thing ever.
@@retired_in_portugalThe Citizen has lume and a solar movement (Eco-drive). That's why the 0100 Calibre version will be my grail watch, for when I sell my Citizen Skyhawk AT.
