Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Since an Omega X-33 would end my marriage, I'm always looking for a good ana-digi under five hundred dollars. The redesigned Promaster SST immediately caught my attention as it was a sturdy, attractive, analog-digital with usable features. No watch is perfect though, and the SST has its share of silly design choices and limitations, which I will detail below.
First, things I like:
- No tiny negative displays here. It has a single large LCD that is high contrast, positive, and recessed significantly so even when the hands are directly above it you can read it fine just by tipping the watch slightly. It's an improvement over what Casio does, and even Citizen's Skyhawk models.
- Red backlight! Unusual and very cool.
- 200m water resistance. I think the X-33 faints at the sight of a shower.
- Case, buttons, and bracelet. Yes, the SST is physically large, but it's actually not overly heavy (or at least it's lighter than my Seiko Monster), and it's super comfortable on the wrist. Beautiful bracelet. Smooth, very well done button clasp with safety latch. The three function buttons blend into the case perfectly, yet are quickly accessed, and provide a nice positive feedback when pressed. Overall amazing build quality I have come to expect from Citizen. Note the improvement of going to a standard 22mm bracelet rather than the integrated type on the old SST model. I might try a nato on it someday. I have a 6.75" wrist, if you're wondering.
- Automatic analog hands. The crown is only used for digital functions, so you set the current time in the digital section, and then the hands fly around to the correct position. Also after being in sleep mode, like when you get it out of the shipping box, they spin around to the correct current time. Great feature, and all the hands line up perfectly with the markers.
- Blue chrono dial hands; love the spot of color. Also, the center chrono dial has two hands, 1/10 sec and 1/100 sec. They whirl around really fast, and it's mesmerizing. However see first complaint below.Things I don't like:
- The tiny chrono dials and the 24-hour dial (at the 2 o'clock position) are worthless. It takes a minute to figure out what they're showing.
- The digital chronograph only goes up to 24 hours. 99 would have been nice, to use as a "mission timer".
- The tachymeter scale is for aesthetics only: the seconds hand cannot be zeroed to use this scale correctly. Fortunately, the tach function in the digital section is superior, although much more fiddly than an analog tach.
- There is no way to see the current digital time in the inaptly named Time & Calendar mode. Do I really need the year displayed continuously? A workaround is to keep the watch in World Time mode, and select your home city code. You lose the day-date display then though.
- The hour markers and hands are bordered with polished metal, and the seconds hand has no lume. I would prefer the markers and hands to be covered completely in white lume paint.
- "SMT" instead of "DST". From what I gather googling, no one in the world uses this code other than Citizen.So it's not a very long list of dislikes, but they do touch on the core functions and appearance of the watch enough to take off one star. Though once I got over the fact that some of the features are just there for looks, I think the new SST is one of the most attractive, functional, yet affordable ana-digi watches out there currently.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Citizen Men's JW0090-53E Promaster SST Eco Drive Watch
Eco Drive technology merges on the fast track with Promaster's Split Second Timing to unleash a race chronograph that boasts 1/1000 second accuracy, recalls up to 20 la[ times and calculates average speed. Driver beware one look at the Promaster SST and your staring into the dashboard of your timekeeping thrill ride.
Get 25% OFF
Click here for more information about Citizen Men's JW0090-53E Promaster SST Eco Drive Watch
0 comments:
Post a Comment