First of all, excellent service, shipping and product from Seiya. Perfect transaction as always. Have no fear, Seiya is the best.
This is an excellent watch in terms of build quality, fit and finish, size, weight, domed sapphire, perpetual calendar, anti magnetic, shock resistant, Day, Date (you can actually read without glasses - come on Citizen) etc. The spec sheet speaks for itself and I would strongly reccomend to anyone looking for a field watch with the carefree ease of ownership Titanium Eco Drives offer. I do not wear it on the bracelet. I wear it on a silicone strap and the total weight is 59g. For comparison, my G-SHOCK GW-M5610U-1CJF (also from Seiya) weighs 50g. The Citizen is far more comfortable for me with the strap and supremely legible at almost all angles less than 180 degrees.
The major compromise is the JAPAN ONLY signal reception. If you live outside of Japan and are willing to accept that you may have to run this watch as a "regular quartz" and will potentially have to manually set the date and time, then you will be more than pleased. You will have to decide for yourself. I have had mixed results with the JJY emulator phone apps. They worked well prior to the Daylight Saving Time adjustment in the U.S.A on March 12, 2023. Once we moved forward one hour, I have not been able to sync the watch at all. I have set it manually and it is running a fraction of a second fast in one week. Perfectly accurate for my needs. I am more forgiving than some in terms of this inconvenience as I think the watch as a whole is almost perfect for me. My preference would be "no black bezel" but I am getting used to it and it does help to frame the dial.
The other issue I have with the watch is the lume. It is a disappointment in terms of longevity. It charges well with your "phone flashlight" or any other light source, UV flashlight works best of course, but fades really quickly. I would have thought at this price point Citizen would have used either more, or better quality, longer lasting lume. I am getting older and my vision isn't what it used to be so lume is a bigger factor for me personally. I was expecting it to directly compete with my Citizen BN0119-55E "Ray Mears". Sadly, it does not. It is more on par with the Citizen BM8180.
Those two issue aside, I would still highly recommend this watch and give it 4.5 / 5. If you want perfection in all circumstances then perhaps steer clear as I know the downsides may be dealbreakers for some. That said, this watch is definitely a keeper in my collection as the pros far outweigh the cons for me.
