Citizen Eco-Drive watches

Mine quit working after about six weeks, probably because I haven't worn it enough to keep the watch going.

How do you get one of those things revved back up? I've tried wearing it a few hours, winding it, and moving it in a back and forth motion but can't get it going.

California Cajun said:

Mine quit working after about six weeks, probably because I haven't worn it enough to keep the watch going.

How do you get one of those things revved back up? I've tried wearing it a few hours, winding it, and moving it in a back and forth motion but can't get it going.

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They run on light. Leave it on the windowsill one day while you're at work. Should charge up pretty quick after that. When it's at a full charge, it only needs a couple of hours a day of light to keep it going. Indoor light is usually fine.

Assuming you mean a solar powered one... when they get deeply discharged you may need to leave it in bright light for a few hours and/or go through the reset procedure to get it moving again. You can search online for a .pdf manual if you haven't got yours.

rajagra said:

Assuming you mean a solar powered one...

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All of the Eco-Drives are solar. That's what makes them Eco-Drives.

I like the looks of some of them, but hesitated buying one because I wasn't sure how reliable they are in the long run.

I've had one for years, taken it 90ft underwater for prolonged periods of time and it's never stopped working or run out of juice. I don't wear mine all the time, sometimes it sits on my dresser in a dim bedroom for many days at a time with no issues. Other times it will be left in the study where it can soak up excellent bright indirect light. They are solid watches. Perhaps the OP has a lemon? You may want to contact the supplier or manufacturer. Good luck!

njpaddy said:

I like the looks of some of them, but hesitated buying one because I wasn't sure how reliable they are in the long run.

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I've got an Eco-Drive diver that I've had for close to six years now. It's my every day watch and has survived jobs ranging from warehouse manager, to sous chef. I've swam with it, mountain biked, etc. Still runs as well as the day I got it. I think it was around $300 when I got it, so it wasn't one of the super high end ones either.

thubbard76 said:

All of the Eco-Drives are solar. That's what makes them Eco-Drives.

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I was covering myself because "winding" was spoken of.

rajagra said:

I was covering myself because "winding" was spoken of.

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Nothing wrong with a bit of CYA!

njpaddy said:

I like the looks of some of them, but hesitated buying one because I wasn't sure how reliable they are in the long run.

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I've had mine for nearly 10 years with almost no issues - I've had to have the pins in the strap replaced once. Other than that the thing has been everything I could want a watch to be. I also wear it every day and only take it off when I shower because I don't like the soap scum build up in the clasp. Great watch!

Wow, thanks for the great responses!

I just wanted to chime in that my Citizen Eco-Drive Military ($80) is about four years old now. I wear it every day and it hasn't failed me yet; impressive for that price I think.

Citizen Eco Drive watches can take a serious beating. The watch I own is extremely accurate with keeping time.

Love mine! I have owned it 3 years and replaced the band once (leather). For the money I don't think they can be beat. It is my everyday watch and on weekends or climbing etc I roll over to a casio pathfinder. The combination is bulletproof and extremely affordable.

All the late models are designed so that if the charge drops to a certain point the hands stop functioning but internally it retains the time until the charge is brought up to a certain point and then it resets. From what I understand it will stay in this state for way longer than 6 weeks. If exposure to light doesn't work you may have a bad capacitor.

When fully charged, you should have 6 months of power reserve in the watch. You will know that the power supply is getting low because the second hand won't tick normally once per second (tick .. tick .. tick) but do a double-beat every two seconds (tick-tick ... ... tick tick ... ... tick tick).

The instruction manual for the eco-drive I just got for SWMBO (why oh why would I buy her a present in early February??? ) encourages you to keep the battery fully charged, and advises that there is a doo-hicky inside the watch that prevents the battery from over-charging.

I've had two for around four years, and I love them both. One I left in a dark drawer for 16 weeks while I was away, when I go home it had not missed a single second.

I have had mine for 4 years and love it. Takes a beating and till going strong.

Put it on the dashboard of your car while you're driving, when you get where you're going it should have a nice charge. That's what I do with mine, but if mine gets even the least bit low I put it in the sun. I've heard they can go for six months w/o sunlight and keep going.

I have a good friend who is a watchmaker.

According to him, if the capacitor is fully discharged, is will need to be replaced.

Also, I think he said this was fixed in the latter models.