What watch do you wear?

MolokaiRider said:
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Im a little concerned about my Citizen Skyhawk Eco-Drive.

It is not working, and has been fine and in lots of sun. I've only had it a few months.
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give it a couple of days of good light and if it aint ticking, then warranty time........

I've found ecodrives do best with light everyday. I keep mine in a glass topped case near a skylight where they get good light everyday. they should run months in the dark on a full charge, but keeping them with light daily seems to make the battery last longer, before it fails.
 
jbmonkey said:
give it a couple of days of good light and if it aint ticking, then warranty time........

I've found ecodrives do best with light everyday. I keep mine in a glass topped case near a skylight where they get good light everyday. they should run months in the dark on a full charge, but keeping them with light daily seems to make the battery last longer, before it fails.
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Thanks, and I do hope it doesn't need warrantied.

I wear all my EcoDrives about the same (about two days every two weeks), and always in good sun.

The reserve on them says up to six months, so that's what surprised me a bit.

I have them all in glass top cases, but keep them stored in a dim spot up high on a shelf (little kids in house). 😅

I will keep you all posted on how long the next exposure and recharge lasts.

I do love solar watches!
 
Trying bronze for a change.
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MolokaiRider said:
Thanks, and I do hope it doesn't need warrantied.

I wear all my EcoDrives about the same (about two days every two weeks), and always in good sun.

The reserve on them says up to six months, so that's what surprised me a bit.

I have them all in glass top cases, but keep them stored in a dim spot up high on a shelf (little kids in house). 😅

I will keep you all posted on how long the next exposure and recharge lasts.

I do love solar watches!
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I've had the most trouble with Seiko solar watches. When the second hand starts jumping two seconds, I've put them in direct morning sunlight for 20 minutes — that's all they can take — and then out of direct sunlight on my porch for the rest of the day. They never recharge like that. That's why I tried a solar fast charger: it's an LED lamp you put your watch on upside down, and it works. The one I bought on Amazon for $20 is now $30, but they have another one for $15 and I would start with that. Overnight should do it.
 
Piso Mojado said:
I've had the most trouble with Seiko solar watches. When the second hand starts jumping two seconds, I've put them in direct morning sunlight for 20 minutes — that's all they can take — and then out of direct sunlight on my porch for the rest of the day. They never recharge like that. That's why I tried a solar fast charger: it's an LED lamp you put your watch on upside down, and it works. The one I bought on Amazon for $20 is now $30, but they have another one for $15 and I would start with that. Overnight should do it.
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Good advice, thank you.

I've been wearing this particular Eco-Drive for two days now. It's been sunny, and I would estimate direct exposure at about 4 hours, indirect exposure for 20 hours.

The battery level is still only at half charge. I believe by following your advice, as well as pulling out the crown to stop movement the battery, in theory, should charge fully.

I sure hope so, as I don't want to send it in.
 
Piso Mojado said:
That's why I tried a solar fast charger: it's an LED lamp you put your watch on upside down, and it works.
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I wonder if an LED flashlight would do it. If you have an LED flashlight with fairly low power mode it could run overnight aimed at the watch dial.
I have one Citizen ecodrive left, I've owned 3 others in the past. My current one I keep on my desk but the only light it gets is a little bit from a ceiling light fixture. Sometimes I put it on the window sill and leave it for a couple of days.
 
In the last 2 decades I've only had one Citizen capacitor go bad and need replacement, and it was about $100 parts and labor at my local watchmaker as the watch was over 5 years past the end of the 5 yr warranty. They're supposed to last 10-20 years easily, some even longer. I have one that is closing on 20 years now.
 
Piso Mojado said:
I've had the most trouble with Seiko solar watches. When the second hand starts jumping two seconds, I've put them in direct morning sunlight for 20 minutes — that's all they can take — and then out of direc.t sunlight on my porch for the rest of the day. They never recharge like that. That's why I tried a solar fast charger: it's an LED lamp you put your watch on upside down, and it works. The one I bought on Amazon for $20 is now $30, but they have another one for $15 and I would start with that. Overnight should do it.
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I need one of those here in the rain forest. It's three weeks of gloom followed by ten minutes of cloud, then an eclipse and before you know it the sun has gone down because it's 3:30.
 
I have a Casio Solar that I don't use because I moved on to something else. I keep that Casio at the base of a table lamp in my home office, with the face pointing up. Been like that for a couple of years, and is working fine. The lamp is on about 5 hours a day.
 
In regards to sending the watch in to Citizen.

Got this one few months ago and found setting it is akin to figuring out a TV remote!
🤣
Went to 2 watch shops and neither would touch it.
Called Citizen and they said to send it in after I waved the white flag.
Took about a month and it was a very painless experience.
They were great to deal with!

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MolokaiRider said:
Good advice, thank you.

I've been wearing this particular Eco-Drive for two days now. It's been sunny, and I would estimate direct exposure at about 4 hours, indirect exposure for 20 hours.

The battery level is still only at half charge. I believe by following your advice, as well as pulling out the crown to stop movement the battery, in theory, should charge fully.

I sure hope so, as I don't want to send it in.
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it takes week plus to weeks of full sun to fully charge an ecodrive battery that is dead. I know as I have a model with a charge indicator on it that showed up completely dead and not running. took days of full sun exposure to get it running and week plus to get to a full charge. it took so long I almost gave up on it and assumed it had a bad battery....
 
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