Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've got a small collection of watches (Citizen, Seiko, Orient, Accutron, & Casio), and I've had another eco-drive since around 2002 which is showing its age. I recently bought an Orient Blue Mako, so I wasn't really looking to buy another watch. But this kept catching my eye and I kept finding nothing buy positive reviews so I gave in to temptation. The watch arrived quickly and my first impressions were very positive. The face is very complex on first glance, but you quickly note the position of the main hour & minute hand and "get" the time very quickly. You can really stare up close at the dial though, there is a ton of detail (more on this in a bit). Overall the "look" of this watch is very appealing. I didn't mention I bought to my wife, and the first night I was wearing it she took a long look and said, "That's a really good looking watch. I really like that" (she normally doesn't pay any attention to my watches. She liked the way it looked so much, she didn't give me too much grief about having bought an Orient the week before! The bracelet is very nice for a watch in this price range, it's all solid stainless links, but where the bracelet joins the watches' lugs it is just a folded link, not a solid link. The folder over clasp works well and is very secure. I have a large wrist and the bracelet is PLENTY long enough for me. I actually had to make it a smidge smaller with the micro-adjustment on the clasp. The bracelet is subtly brushed, and so far seems to be wearing well (I work at a desk & use a computer all day). There are some desk marks, but they're very minor. The Orient I just bought scratches much more easily, so I'm happy with the durability of the bracelet so far. The bezel on this watch is a slide rule. There is a crown at the 8 o'clock position that controls the movement of the bezel. It's extremely smooth and seems to let you move it in very fine increments. You can use the slide rule for division, multiplication, unit conversion, and rate/time/distance calculations. It works and you can do it. It's sort of a neat party trick, but I doubt I'll ever find myself in a situation where I was relying on my watch's slide rule to save the day. This watch is billed as a flight watch so maybe there are still some pilots who do things the old-fashioned way and do their calculations by hand? If you want to know how to use the slide rule check out this video: [...] There is also a GMT face. You can see it on the left side (from 6 to 12) with white & red numbers. There is a separate, double-ended hand with a red-tipped and white-tipped indicator. Out of the box it shows the 24-hour time (white for 00-12 and red for 13 - 24). You can set this to a different hour to have a true GMT indicator. It's a nice feature, and looks interesting, but I don't find I pay much attention to this "sub-dial" really other than what it adds to overall appeal (for me anyway). The performance of my watch has been good. It's quartz, so it will be more accurate than an automatic watch. It does not sync itself to any of the atomic clocks (like the Citizen Skyhawk does) so I expect I'll eventually have to adjust it for accuracy one of these days. The lume on the watch is nice and bright - a blue color which is different from the traditional green lume. I haven't gone out of my way to to expose it to bright light, but it's easy enough to read in the middle of the night when I wake up. The lume overall on my Seiko Black Monster is stronger, longer, but this is no problem to see in a dark room even after 5+ hours. I think the size of the hour & minute hand really help; they're very thick and hold a lot of lume. I am very happy to have this watch in my collection, but my wife gave me the "oh really" look since I just bought another watch about a week before this one! Pros: * Looks fantastic in person * Large enough bracelet for good-sized wrist * Screw-down crowns for time/date & day * 200M WR rating * Solid links on bracelet (for all but end links) * Good lume on numbers & hands - lume last a long time (plus cool, blue color) * Eco-drive should last 10+ years (Citizen says they have examples w/ 20+ years on them now) * Positive comments from the wife & co-workers abound! Cons: * The date is a little small, could be a tad bigger & easier to read. * Folded links at the ends (not solid) * No lume on second hand or GMT hand(s) * Uses mineral crystal, could scratch easier than sapphire * No radio to sync automatically to atomic clock