Citizen Eco-Drive Men’s Titanium Calibre 2100 Watch
August 17th, 2008 - Posted in Green energy, Green living, Green products
One of the most advanced chronograph watches made by Citizen, the Eco-Drive Calibre 2100 men’s titanium watch also offers stylish lines that nicely complement both business and casual couture. The chronograph timing function includes 60-minute, 12-hour, and independent second-hand subdials, as well as a center sweep 1/5-second hand. It also has a reset button that instantly returns all the chronograph registers to zero. The watch case and bracelet band links are made of titanium–which is nearly 50 percent lighter than steel, but 30 percent stronger. It’s also particularly resistant to salt water corrosion, as well as hypo-allergenic–perfect for those with metal allergies.
This large, round watch has a thin, flattened bezel with an exterior tachymeter reading in gray. The patterned dark gray dial face is accented by black subdials, and it offers white luminous Dauphine hands (with seconds hand) and a date function at 4 o’clock. The bracelet band is joined by a push-button clasp. Other features include a screw-back case, screw-down crown, scratch resistant mineral crystal with anti-reflective coating, and water resistance to 200 meters (660 feet).
This watch is powered by Citizen’s unique Eco-Drive, which absorbs sunlight and any artificial light through the crystal and dial to recharge the watch continuously. With regular exposure to light, the Eco-Drive continuously recharges itself for a lifetime of use. This watch’s Eco-Drive provides a 240-day power reserve, and it can be recharged with just 3.5 hours of exposure to light.
How can you tell if the Eco-Drive watch is getting enough light? In normal use, the watch displays the time and the sweep-second hand moves in one second intervals. A very important feature of Eco-Drive is the Low Charge Warning Mode which as a result of low battery voltage, causes the second hand to jump two seconds at a time (while still keeping correct time).
How long will an Eco-Drive watch run after it is fully charged?
If your watch is put away where no light is available to it while in a fully charged state, depending on the model, it will run for from 45 days to 5 years.
How can the Eco-Drive watch be recharged?
Besides sunlight, it can be safely charged by exposing it to a fluorescent desk lamp, with the dial (face) up and within about 8 inches or an incandescent lamp (regular light bulb) no closer than 20 inches. Never use a halogen lamp since the heat generated by it can cause damage to your watch. The most efficient and the quickest is in direct bright sunlight (not windowsill) and never on the dashboard of a car.
About Citizen
One of the world’s largest watch makers, the Citizen Watch Company was founded in 1924 in Japan from its beginnings as the Shokosha Watch Research Institute. The first watch released by the company was named “CITIZEN” and its name was selected so that it would be “close to the hearts of people everywhere.” Today, Citizen is recognized as a worldwide leader in advanced timepiece technology, from the world’s slimmest LCD watch to the first voice recognition watch to the world’s first professional dive watch with an electronic depth sensor. Citizen was also the first to sell watches made with titanium in the world, which is not only light and durable but also non-allergenic (as stainless steel can be to some wearers). Most recently, Citizen has released watches powered by its Eco-Drive, which runs continuously in any kind of natural light or artificial light for a lifetime of use without changing a battery.
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 Ecologically Friendly 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.
Here are some users’ testimonies:
1. This watch would be perfect if they used a sratchproof sapphire crystal rather than an easily scratched mineral crystal. They put sapphires on their Asian Ti models…. Sapphire can only be scratched by sapphire, Ruby, or Diamond. Mineral can be scratched by almost anything. Mineral is a bit better shatterproof, but the tradeoff is not worth it considering most people scratch their crystals rahter than shatter them. The dial is HUGE and I have to wear it carefully. Having a sapphire would be much less stressful. Put it this way, you vould drag a sapphire crystall watch against concrete and it wouldn’t scratch the crystal. Try that with mineral. BTW the sapphire crystal is NOT that expensive and I have seen them on $300 watches.
That aside, the watch is awesome. The Ecodrive is an awesome technology. This and Seiko’s kinetic is the ONLY quartz I would buy. I couldn’t be bothered with battery changes. I usually stick to mechanical watches, with focus on Swiss and German, but Citizen’s Eco Drive has earned a place in my collection.
The detail is unbelievable, from the dial to the case and bracelet. The Titanium is so light and unlike steel it doesn’t make my wrist smell bad when I sweat. My skin must react stinkily with steel where Titanium is more neutral of a metal. So far the braclet hasn’t scratched either. The Titaniukm carbide coating is so tough that its all the more shame that they didn’t go all out with a scratch proof sapphire crystal. With that this watch would be bulletproof.
Maybe when the majority of the American watch buying public learns the difference between mineral and sapphire and wants to pay a few dollars more for it things will change.
Other than that a great watch. Solid, Heavy, ecodrive, quartz accurate yet no battery changes needed. The chrono seconds hand has a smooth sweep for a quartz. The true seconds hand ticks but its small in a subdial. The large seconds hand is the stopwatch hand and that one moves nicely. That is what convinced me to get this watch. BTW one minor issue for some is that apparently the chronograph part of the movement is not shock proof, so if you were timing something and it got jarred badly it could cause the hands to not realign. The watch has a cleaver “reboot” function but the manual states that sometimes this doesn’t work for the chrono misalignment due to shock. That shocked me. Citizen should fix that. The entire movt should be shockproof. So, we have a great looking sport chrono where the chrono isn’t shockproof and the crystal is easily scratchable…. Fix that, Citizen. I’ll pay more for it, just fix it in these 2100’s.
The night time lume glow is great and a nice blue color. This is a great watch for the price asked. Basically Citizen does this by putting their Japanese technology into a Chinese manufactured good. The manufacture is very good. Citizen must oversee the manufacture in China or Hong Kong. (which also is China)
Citizen’s US customer service is top rated bar none. I have dealt with them and their 5 year warranty is the best in the business. Buy a Citizen with CONFIDENCE. The Swiss and even Seiko can take a lesson from Citizen USA.
2. Titanium for super light weight, eco drive for no battery, Breitling styling for short money and incredibly acccurate to boot. An extraordinary watch at an extraordinary price. You can’t miss with this one (and I have several Italian and European watches that reatil for three to four times the retail price of the Calibre.
