You know who we’ve not reviewed here in quite some time? Citizen, that’s who. Today, we’ll have a look at a rather intriguing model in their collection, the Perpetual Chrono A-T.
By it’s name alone, you can tell some of the functionality in play – a chronograph and a perpetual calendar. A closer look at the dial will reveal the other technology tricks up its sleeves – solar powered, and atomic clock syncing. Let’s have a quick run-down of the dial:
- At 10 o’clock, you’ve got a 24 hour indicator
- At 2 o’clock, the subdial can indicate: chrono minutes
sub-seconds, charge level, or day of the week - At 6 o’clock, this will set the radio you sync with, as well as indicate if you’re in timekeeping, chrono, or alarm modes
I will admit, many of the atomic syncing watches, especially those with analog dials, can be complex to operate (I’ve got one in my collection I have to carry a cheat sheet for). With this Citizen, though, it’s very simple to get the hang of, and the subdials clearly indicate what you’re doing.
And for the solar powered side of the watch, this is just a great function to have in a quartz timepiece. The Citizen can charge under a variety of lighting sources; once fully charged, it will remain so for up to 370 days. Of course, sunlight will work best to get things topped off.
At 42mm, this isn’t an overly large watch by current standards, and it wears well. Though the crown is not a screw-down variety, you will still have 200m water resistance; you also pick up a sapphire crystal in the bargain.
At an MSRP of $575 (product page), or less on Amazon, this is a compelling purchase. With the solar charging and atomic clock syncing, this is about as trouble-free of a watch you could hope for; this particular model will work well in a variety of settings with it’s size and styling.
