Watch review: Citizen BL5470-57L Eco-Drive perpetual chrono

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Hey ho, it’s time for another watch review. You can move right along if that ain’t your cuppa. I won’t hold it against you.

Today I’m reviewing the Citizen BL5470-57L Eco-Drive perpetual chronograph, which was my everyday watch for a couple years before I bought and mostly switched to my Citizen Brycen (which shares a functionally identical movement, so I’ll be drawing comparisons throughout this review). I chose and purchased this baby with the intention of making it my (sub-$500) grail, my forever-watch, at least until hedonic adaptation caught up with me. To be fair, I’ve been quite happy with it, even if it doesn’t get much wrist time anymore, for reasons I’ll get into later.

And so, let’s dive into everything that’s good, beautiful, nitpicky, bad and shameful about this little beaut.

Watch review: Citizen BL5250-02L “Brycen”

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I’ve decided to start reviewing my watch collection, just because I can (and also because I’ve been binging Nick Shabazz review videos and I wanted to give it a go, and this is my blog you can’t stop me). Feel free to ignore this and other reviews if it isn’t your thing.

Below is a review of my newest watch, Citizen’s BL5250-02L “Brycen”, using my time-untested system of The Good (for things that please me), The Beautiful (for places where the watchmaker went beyond the call of duty), The Nitpicks (for details that bug me but probably not anyone else), The Bad (for kinks that should’ve been ironed out) and The Shameful (for flaws that really have no reason to be there).

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— Specs —

List price: US $425
Display: Analog (hour, minute & second hands), 12-hour Arabic & index markers, 3 subdials (10-o’clock 24-hour dial, 2-o’clock function dial/chronograph 1/20 seconds, 6-o’clock mode dial), 4-o’clock date, tachymeter chapter ring
Crystal: Mineral
Dial color: Bluish black
Luminescence: Hour hand, minute hand, second hand (tail), mode subdial hand, hour markers, 12-o’clock bezel pearl
Case material: Titanium, silver, polished/brushed
Case size: 43 mm wide, 13 mm thick
Bezel material: Titanium, silver, polished
Bezel function: Unidirectional
Water resistance: 200 m
Calendar: Date (perpetual calendar)
Other features: Chronograph (1/20 sec., up to 60 mins.), daily alarm, dual time zone, low power warning
Movement: Quartz (light-powered)
Power reserve: 9 months
Accuracy: ~ +0.08 secs./day (specs: +/- 15 secs./month)
Band: Brown genuine crocodile leather, white stitching
Clasp: Pin buckle
Band/lug width: 22 mm
Year: 2006
Weight: 2.56 oz.

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In which I talk about my watches

And now for something completely different. Feel free to ignore this if time-keeping wrist ornaments aren’t your thing.

For most my life I never saw much interest in collecting things. That said, I always liked wristwatches; I’d ask for them as a kid, and two of my favorite birthday presents were watches, both of which I still have (seen below). The funny thing is I’m the diametric opposite of a jewelry guy; I have no desire to adorn my neck, fingers, earlobes and other body parts with shiny baubles – it makes fighting assassins much harder when they can choke you with your own pendant, you know. But lately my interest in watches has turned into something of a mild fascination; something about a nice timepiece on the wrist just clicks for me, not to mention how they’re fairly marvels of engineering.

So I’ve decided I’d start myself a little watch collection, beginning with the four I presently have (not counting a $10 hunk of plastic I keep shoved in my drawer somewhere), arranged by length of ownership (older to the left, newer to the right):

Stand in awe before my mad photography skills.
Also, you would not believe the amount of lamp-wrangling jujutsu I had to pull off for this mediocre lighting.
[full size (2048×1353)]

From left to right: