Citizen U200

The new Citizen U200

I was already looking for a long time. I needed a new watch. This is not easy because I have so many requirements.

The new watch should run without battery. This limits the available models to those of Seiko and Citizen. Seiko has a new form of charging a capacitor with a mechanical device and Citicen is using a small solar cell for that.

All that implies the need for fluorescent hands because a lamp would draw too much energy from the small capacitor. I wanted hands instead of a pure digital display anyway. I have had  a TAG Teuer watch with mechanical hands and with a fully digital face, this one was very easy to read but so complicated to use. The menu structure was driving me crazy all the time so that I did not use it at all.

The new watch should also have an alarm device, stop watch, and timer mode and these should also be easy to use.

I also wanted a radio time signal receiver because I am travelling often. This would limit the models to those of Citizen, their flagship model covers four time zones (I believe Europe, Japan, US, and China). The flagship models are very expensive, around EUR 600.00.

The new watch should have a metal wrist band. Size does not play a role, I have large arms and a small watch looks ridiculous on my arm.

I asked around for a titanium housing which is lightweight but I was told that it scratches easily.

Originally, I wanted the Citizen flagship model with the radio clock update but I finally decided that they are too expensive. All my old quartz watches are broken in the meantime, they simply stop to work after a time. If this happens to a EUR 600.00 watch, I would really be upset if the service tells me “sorry, we cannot repair it any more”.

I finally ended up with a Citizen U200 for EUR 150.00 after 40% discount, bought in Singapore at Marine Parade in one of the the basement shops.

The new watch is so easy to use. It does not have a radio time signal receiver but it has many time zones built in. Upon arrival, one would look up the local time in the internal database and adjust the mechanical hands to it. So easy.

But there is one problem left. How to adjust the times of the cities in the data base? They are not automatically switched between summer and winter time. One must first know that in most countries, on the last Sunday in March and on the first Sunday in October, the time is switched between summer time and winter time. Once this is known, the rest is a piece of cake. Just switch the time in the watch, using the three press buttons.

The right use of the three buttons is a little bit complicated so that I put this little manual on the Internet. I now have it present wherever I travel. That’s why I do not need a radio time signal receiver.

The upper left and right are used for browsing through the world cities database. The following cities are available (similar abbreviations are stated on the watch display):
UTC, LONdon, PARis, ROMe, CAIro, MOscoW, TeHeRan, DXB = Dubai, KaracHI, DELhi, DAC = Dhaka, BangKoK, SINgapore, HongKonG, BJS = Beijing, TokYO, ADeLaide, SYDney, AucKLand, HoNoLulu, ANChorage, LAX = Los Angeles, DENver, MEXico City, CHIcago, New York City, YMQ = Montreal, Santiago de ChiLe, BUEnos Aire, RIO de Janeiro

The lower right button is used for adjusting the mechanical hands.

The lower left button is used for selecting the additional functions or modes which are two alarms, a stop watch, a timer and the date. The circular display in the lower left half of the face shows directly which value is displayed in the LCD display. No complicated menu, nothing.

For adjusting any digital time and time for the cities in the database, one would press and hold the upper left button until the display blinks. The present value can then be adjusted with the upper right button. The upper left button switches to the next value. The lower left button interrupts the adjustment procedure and the watch goes back to normal operation.