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Last week, a friend of mine and fellow collector (with a turn for Japanese technology) introduced me to the Citizen Satellite Wave CC3020. He was looking for a new watch that needs to satisfy some of his requests: solar charge, GPS or Wave receptor for time correction, big enough for his wrist but small enough to be worn comfortably with a business shirt.
We ruled out fast the Swiss brands (like the Tissot T-Touch) for reasons hard to explain in two rows and then he showed me this Eco-Drive.
This watch is beautiful: a 44mm diameter brushed steel case with a high polished bezel. The case design reminds of the 70’s watches when Gerald Genta made history (just look at the case and if you don’t see a resemblance you can call me crazy), with a perfect integration of the silver-toned stainless steel strap with deployment clasp with push buttons and brushed and polished elements. The function pushers are also highly polished and together with the nice crown (I tend to believe that the crown construction will make it more sensitive to dirt deposition) integrate perfectly with the overall look. The case is covered on the top with anti-reflective Sapphire crystal and has a water resistance of 10bars.
The dial is sunburst blue with polished multi-edge applied indexes with a date window a 3 o’clock and a day and multifunction indication a 7:30 o’clock. The hour and minute hands are Luminova coated. To completely understand the dial and how the watch works you need to read the manual.
The movement inside is the Eco-Drive F150 with a lot of functions: Satellite GPS Timekeeping Technology with Worldwide Reception, time adjustment available in 27 Cities (40 time zones), perpetual calendar, 3 hands, power reserve indicator and day/date. From all these functions the most I am interested in is how is F150 movement dealing with the leap second.
Please have a look at the Hands On by Patrick Kansa from ABlogToWatch with a lot of pictures and information: Citizen Satellite Wave World Time GPS CC3020-57L Watch Hands-On.
I would like to thank Citizen for the image and information. The watch costs in the Citizen US Online Shop 1150 USD or 795 GBP in the UK Shop and it is available in the Official Retailers Network. In Europe it can be found at several dealers with prices around 650 GBP or 750 Euro. There are also obscure sellers with prices as low as 550 USD but I would not recommend them (issues with warranty and not only that).