Advantages charges constantly when its in the light
Disadvantages i work at night and usually dont see the light
My 'friend' decided i needed a special present this year for christmas and bought me the Citizen Ecodrive Charm bracelet watch. It's one which has been advertised quite alot in womens magazines, and it is very pretty and a bit different.
The bracelet is a basic silver coloured bracelet, attatched are five small handbag charms, one is plain silver colour, the other four have stones in different design 'handbags', the colours are pink, blue, yellow and clear. The watch itself is a slightly larger handbag shapewith clear 'diamonds' around the face and a blue pearly looking face. Its pretty and sparkles nicely which keeps him as amused as it does me, but then again hes amused by some very simple things - british money for one.
The second of these watches that I own is also the silver coloured version but this time has shell shaped charms on it. The watch face on this is circular and has a white pearlescent background, it is just as pretty as the other!
The idea of the ecodrive is that the watches dont need batteries because they are solar powered, and that during normal use the watch with charge itself up as your using it so should not stop, but as I work in a club and dont tend to be up and about during daylight hours at the moment this is a claim I'll be testing to its limits. Citizen claim they should last around 10 years before the solar battery needs replacing. In the 18 months since I got the first of my ecodrive watches it hasn't once slowed or stopped despite spending fairly long periods put away in its box, I guess the claims that it remains charged for a long time is accurate.
My only real problem is the watch doesn't have a water resistance rating on it that I can find, the instruction leaflet says there should be a letter on the watch which corresponds to a table printed but I cant find it, which is bugging me slightly as I'm a bar person and if I wear it to work I dont want to waterlog it when I'm washing my hands and arms (anyone else end up with sticky wrists and forearms when working behind a bar?), also I am heavily involved with a diving school and I run the risk of a dunking even when I am not dressed for it.I intend to wear the watch on special occasions rather than as an everyday item of jewellery, as my old watches are all still working just fine but I suspect as they die off this will be worn more and more often.
The watch has an rrp of about £169 although I'm sure there will be sales on over the festive period which will make it cheaper. The second watch also cost around £169 which for a watch seems expensive but then it won't cost you anything in batteries and is a beautiful and well made piece, none of the charms on either of mine have lost gems, they have picked up scratchs like any other jewellery but no more than any other jewellery.
My first EcoDrive - Handbags
Attention, this is the first review from this author
Instead of giving a negative rating, consider:

Help this member by giving your advice

Report fraud (for example plagiarism) or other issue with the review to the Ciao support team
Add your comment
dan_pentagram 16/05/2007 03:06
sifair 13/05/2007 18:32
Really good review
zainabm 30/08/2006 23:57
jemima.peter 11/03/2006 18:11
Soho_Black 02/01/2006 21:02