Review about Men's Citizen Eco-Drive™ Riva Chronograph Watch (Model: AT0510-59E)

Recently, for my birthday, my wife bought me a Citizen watch AT0510-59E from Zales. It is an impressively solid-looking watch, with a all-stainless-steel exterior, and 3 small clock-faces embedded in the main watch-face, with the main watch-face surrounded by small diamonds. This is an Eco-Drive watch, meaning that the entire clock-face is a solar panel which recharges a battery. When fully charged, the battery can power the clock for 6 months without recharging. The battery has a lifetime of many years, and cannot be overcharged. When the battery runs low, the second hand starts moving in 2 second increments rather than 1 second. While the Eco-Drive concept sounds very interesting, the watch was delivered uncharged, and charging it fully takes up to 2 days of bright sun (25 hrs of sunlight), or almost 1 week of ambient indoor lighting. It took one entire afternoon of light just to get the second hand to move in 1 second increments.

In addition to keeping time, the watch is also a chronograph (i.e. a stopwatch). While the minute and hour hand of the main watch face are what you expect, the second hand of the main watch face does not tick. It took me a while to figure out that Citizen has placed the minute hand of the chronograph on one of the 3 small clock-faces, and the second hand of the chronograph is on the main watch-face, while the second hand of the watch is on another small clock-face. I presume that Citizen has chosen this bizarre arrangement because it felt that the second hand is really important only when the chronograph function is activated (which I guess makes sense; normally I almost never look at the second hand). The remaining small clock-face is the 24-hour time.

Because my wife ordered the watch online, it was delivered with an over-sized strap. It seems that when you buy the watch in-store, the strap will be adjusted to your wrist, but for online purchases, one has to bring the watch to a local jeweler who will remove a few links from the steel strap to adjust it to one's size (probably at a nominal cost of $10 or so). This adjustment process requires specialized tools to punch out tiny pins holding the steel links in the strap together, and it is best to get professionals to do this. Therefore, be warned that if you buy this watch online, do not expect to be able to use it immediately. Between the battery charging and the strap adjustment, it'll probably be around a week before you can use it.

Usually this watch is priced more than $300 even when it is on sale. Now you can get this citizen diamond Eco-Drive™ Riva chronograph watch for only $220 plus tax with free fedex express saver shipping from Zales.com . If you go to Zales.com through Ebates, an online shopping cash back program, you can save another 5%.