Review by L. A. Kane for Flight Chronograph Watch – Citizen Men’s JR3060-59F Eco-Drive Titanium Skyhawk Chronograph Watch
Rating:
First the good news: this is a superbly designed watch. The advanced features (e.g., chronograph, world time zone settings, alarms) are easy to use and understand. Due to the Eco-drive system, the battery lasts practically forever and it keeps accurate time. The titanium version is much lighter than the stainless and it really is waterproof. If you are a pilot the slide bezel works great for calculating fuel consumption, speed, etc. The safety clasp fastens securely and is easy to use.

Now the bad news: it’s shockingly fragile. Granted I’m fairly hard on watches, so the fact that the crystal got all scratched up was sort of a given. That happens to me all the time. What I didn’t expect, however, is that the titanium case and band was abraded just as easily. Unlike a stainless band, it’s very obvious when the titanium one is scratched; the damage clearly shows up as bright silver lines on the matte titanium finish.

If I had this to do all over again I’d get the stainless version and live with the extra weight. In fact, when this one dies (or I just get tired of looking at all the surface blemishes) I will buy the stainless one. It’s a little cheaper too.

Review by D. L. Snell for Flight Chronograph Watch – Citizen Men’s JR3060-59F Eco-Drive Titanium Skyhawk Chronograph Watch
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First off, I have the stainless steel, not titanium. My reasons is the stainless steel, though heavier, hides the scratches to the band a lot better. As with most Citizen watches, this watch is of high quality construction and keeps time accrurately. I work in construction and fly recreationally so this watch not only comes in handy, but it takes a beating as well. I have heard some complain the crystal scratches, but to date, I have no scratches (1 year of ownership and constant wear). The timezone features comes in handy expecially for business travelers who don’t like resetting their watch all the time. You can hit two buttons and switch to the new time zone while still showing your hometown in the digital display. Shows date & time, has a chronograph, three alarms and a timer. There are two great additions available for pilots – the right small dial shows UTC (aka universal time), this is very handy when you don’t have time to figure out how many hours to deduct (or add) to get to UTC when traveling East/West. The outer dial also allows you to do your time & fuel calculations though I must say, it is hard to read, and what business do you have flying without your proper tools.

This watch goes well with business attire as well as jeans and a t-shirt. Clasp stays locked and I don’t have too many arm hairs pulled like with other models. Have successfully tested in water, but not to any depth. One complaint, you have to manually tell the watch when daylight savings time is. Harder to remember for those who live in Arizona, Hawaii and Indy that do not observe daylight savings time.

Review by Y. YINGKAI for Flight Chronograph Watch – Citizen Men’s JR3060-59F Eco-Drive Titanium Skyhawk Chronograph Watch
Rating:
Pros

Super design, feature packed with easy use, durable Titanium and last forever eco-drive battery

Cons

Reflective crystal, low night visibility, hard to pull out crown

The Bottom Line

This is a masterfully crafted classy design with features beyond most people’s requirement. Definitely worth the price.

Full Review

As a user of this watch JR3060-59F, I like to share some of my experience with it. I have to say that I love this watch and enjoy to look at it any time. In stead of going through its features, I will focus on my feel about it. The feature list or instruction is available on the manual or web.

DESIGN

I believe the overall design of this watch is outstanding. Its contour shape suits for casual and business occasions. Its casing migrates to the integrated links in an elegant way, so it is a very good balance of fashion and classic. Its Titanium gray color is unique, though kind of bland, yet emits an understated prestige and it matches the high-tech image too. The whole color tone is well organized, Gray in link and casing and LCD, black in bezel numbers and dial face, white in hour & minute hands and marks on face. The yellow second hand becomes a beautiful highlight without disturbing the whole color tone. The chrome circles on the sub-dials correspond to the crown and buttons on the right. I think its overall design is comparable to those vintage watches that are much more expensive.

FUNCTIONS

This watch packs all the possible daily use functions with easy access. The 24 hour local time will become very useful in timeless environment like Casino. Its switch between local and other parts of the world is very easy and attractive. Though it has over 20 cities, you can choose to set off some cities that are not needed frequently.

The timer function is limited due to the design of crown. The watch has to be removed from wrist to pull out the crown for timer setting or any other settings. This is a major design negligence. Some horizontal groove on the crown can easily solve this issue.

The bezel is useful even for non-pilots. It can do multiplication or division easily for 2-digits numbers. The resistant feel of the bezel is very professional, not too loose and not too tight either. It is the bezel grip design need to be improved.

WOW FACTORS

Imagine when you get off the plane in another continent with your colleague and you switch your Skyhawk’s main dials to the local time by press the two buttons at the same time, your colleague will very likely amazed at seeing your Skyhawk sweeps the hour hand to local time in a few seconds. By the time you told him that your light-powered Skyhawk can run at complete darkness for 4 years, he will surely rethink why he has to wave his arm on purpose every single day to wind up his “automatic” jewelery. Then you can tell him that your Skyhawk never gains or losses more than 4 seconds a month, he will be willing to trade his 8000USD Breitling with yours:)

THINGS CAN BE IMPROVED

1. Non-reflective coasting on crystal and dial is desirable.

2. The marks visibility can be improved using IllumiBright or Tritium. Night-light would become unnecessary at all if the marks are more visible. Who needs to set the watch or using chronograph at complete darkness?

3. Some horizontal grooves on the crown will enable pulling out crown without moving the watch off the wrist. This is something Citizen should correct right away, even by offering some replacement to the current crown design.

4. User manual asks to avoid using buttons or crowns in water. This greatly limits the usability even it is rated Water Resistance 100M. If water-proof buttons are used and can be used under water, it will help those swimmers to measure lap times.

5. The grip of the rotation bezel can be improved by using a more conventional bezel design. The four shallow sinks on the current design does offer enough grip for rotation operation.

TO BE VERIFIED

Not sure about the light power charge in winter when long sleeves or even coat covers up the watch all day long. Do we have to put the watch under a lamp every night to charge it for normal use? If that is the case, it will not be ecological anymore.

SUMMARY

The whole watch is a great design and it is an enjoyable experience to look at and use. Its long list features offer great help and easy access makes life easier. Even with a long list of wished improvements, I still love it a lot.