Product Features
- light powered Eco-Drive Caliber B877 Japanese-quartz movement; charges in natural sunlight or indoor light
- Max power reserve: 180 days; low charge warning: 3 days; Quick start ability; charge time from stop state to max charge: Incandescent Light - 53 hrs Outdoors Cloudy (10000 Lux) - 17 hrs Outdoors Sunny (100000 Lux) - 6 hrs
- Durable hardened non-reflective mineral crystal; performs flight calculations with Pilot's slide rule inner bezel ring operated by crown at 8 o'clock
- Large luminous hands and hour and minute markers for easy readability; dual-time function; date feature at three o'clock
- Water-resistant to 660 feet (200 M)
Sweet watch I've been wearing mine for 4 months.
I'm an Environmental Engineering Student and I also currently own an Omega Speedmaster ($2100 graduation gift long ago) and a Titanium Pro-Trek Casio Triple Sensor Watch (Compass Altimeter & Temperature $295.00) that I used for my previous job as an outdoors wilderness instructor.
Both those watches are extreme (the Casio being too rugged big and bulky the Omega being very freaking expensive) for everyday use and wanted something that suited my keen personality short budget and modern taste.
I never liked anything in terms of jewelry or watches from department stores or malls but when I walked into MACY's during Christmas shopping last december at the local mall I saw these Eco-Drive watches for the first time.
It has always been my opinion that Citizen makes very old fashioned timepieces yet the Nighthawk Eco-Drive is very different and far more classy than any other Citizen watch on the shelf. Some of the other newer Eco-Drive watches also look edgy and fresher. But the nighthawk captures a boldness with it's appearancethat is very timeless. Needless to say I tried it on and was sold.
The features are amazing apart from all the other "timekeeping-based and solar powered-based features you can read about everywhere else on the internet the Nighthawk also has a multi-functional Slide Rule. This is not really praised or mentioned anywhere else so I will tell you what it is what it does and why it makes owning this watch very cool!
With the slide rule you can calculate your car's fuel consumption average speed/velocity and the time you will arrive at your destination you can also multiply and divide numbers calculate ratio's into percentages integers and decimals covert liters to gallons pounds to kilograms as well as other metric conversions. The slide rule also performs a few more complicated calculations that involve airplanes and nautical vessels that are beyond my understanding.
At any rate these calculations can be done by simply rotating the NightHawk's bezel and matching specific arrows at certain points along the dial. (If you don't believe me you can download the Nighhawk's PDF manual and read up on it for yourself.)
In fact it is easier than using a calculator and clears up the big mystery of what people used before computers and electronic calculators were invented; they used the "Slide Rule".
Being a grad student I've read about the slide rules in a variety of classes but I never thought that I would own one on my next watch. I also would have never guessed that the slide rule is so efficient and easier to use than the graphics calculators we use in school.
The only negatives cocerning the Slide Rule feature on the NightHawk are the numbers on the slide rule dial are small and angled inwards so that they are tricky to read without tilting the watch around to get a good view of the numbers. Also the slide rule only approximates and produces whole numbers for some of the more advanced calculations.
Overall I found that the useful geek-features outdoorsman durability everyday comfort and eco-friendliness to be well synthesized in the classy steel body of the Nighthawk Eco-Drive.
