Looking for a classy world timer+ perpetual calendar < $ 500!

[nimz]

Hello there.. Been a member for long time but mostly been lurking without posting..

So this is what got me to post here: Am in my early 30s and recently got a job that involves a lot of international travel. I now have to wear suits and stuff hence looking for a good watch that is formal as well (I currently own a digital G shock that I rarely take off). This will be my first "serious" watch and have spent months trawling the internet and this forum and unable to zero in on one. So my "ideal" watch kinda looks like this:
- Has a world timer.. including for the half hour time zones.
- Has a perpetual calendar..(had an analog quartz and I hated having to keep changing the date)
- Black leather / or rubber strap (I kinda have a thing for black straps only).
- Analog or ana-digi (as long as it can be worn with formal wear).
- Mechanical movement or solar (It can be either.. As long I dont have to change a battery am fine though a mechanical would be preferred).
- Price less than $500 (Lesser the better.).

So having looked all over.. I kind of liked the look of the Red arrows editions from Citizen..

But not sure if this has a perpetual calendar or accounts for all timezones.. It does not have a sapphire crystal and is available only in the UK.. but I can ask a colleague to bring it across or I can pick it up too. The other one was the Skyhawk - some forum members have this one.
This will take care of the date and time zone problem but I am concerned if this will be a bit of an overkill with too many features.. it has got atomic timekeeping but we dont have coverage where I live so I'd rather go for option 1 if that has perpetual calendar / all time zones..
But would like to know from forum members if there are other options that can meet above requirements and cost less than $500. Looking forward to hearing your recommendations..

Thank you,
Nimz

[Andrew McGregor]

You've found one of the best travel watches there is, that being the Skyhawk. Citizen have a few other watches with that series movements too, for example JR4030-03E:


I can't think of a better choice, to be quite honest. Also, since Skyhawks are pilot watches, they're perfectly appropriate to wear with a suit (the yachting timer above, not so much).

Another pilot watch option is BT0010-52E (also world/atomic/perpetual/chrono but this one is all analog display. Also supports half-hour timezones, which are really fiddly on a Skyhawk):

[PH68]

For a more classic look Citizen CB0030
It's radio controlled more-or-less worldwide, so it's always accurate.
Simple easy to read dial too.

It comes in a s/steel or Titanium versions.
There are a few colour variations too.



Still with Citizen there's the Radio Controlled Nighthawk.
Downside is it's it's radio controlled in US or EU (not both).



Some of the Casio's are nice too.
How about the LCW range, such as...
LCW M300


or LCW M100


Again they are solar and multi-band atomic and come in a variety of colour choices.


All the above have normal watch lugs, so changing the bracelet for any leather strap is not a problem.

[nimz]

Thanks Andrew and PH68.

I do like the BT0001 and did look at the CB0030 but both I read somewhere as having world time for only 26 cities.. so that would leave out the half hour time zones? Do correct me if am wrong..

Also I chanced upon this one from Orient CDH00001B

But am not sure if this is a perpetual calendar... is there any quick way to know if a watch has a perpetual caledar or not just by looking at how the date is displayed.. For instance in the Orient.. the date is in a dial format and looks like it WONT be perpetual... but I could be wrong!! Any pointers appreciated.. Thanks again!

[klopus]

I'm in a similar boat as you, even up to preference for leather bands. Take a look at Citizen Calibre 8700 - whole series has perpetual calendar and dual time. Few models within series have leather bands. To me they look very classy. On the downside there's no sapphire but at <$400 it's expected.




Other choice are some models from Seiko Premier like SNP024/25/43 or SPC053. They are kinetics with perpetual calendar (but no dual time), sapphire and leather bands. Seikos are more expensive (but still under $500) but have shorter 2 year warranty.

[Andrew McGregor]

But am not sure if this is a perpetual calendar... is there any quick way to know if a watch has a perpetual caledar or not just by looking at how the date is displayed.. For instance in the Orient.. the date is in a dial format and looks like it WONT be perpetual... but I could be wrong!! Any pointers appreciated.. Thanks again!

Nope, no quick way to know if the calendar is perpetual. A dial format display certainly could be.

However, I just looked up that Orient: it's an automatic, it costs less than $10k, therefore it isn't perpetual. It's seriously insanely expensive to do a perpetual calendar in an automatic watch (whereas in a moderately complicated quartz, it's just a few lines of code). So, automatics need reset fairly frequently anyway due to their relatively poor accuracy, and therefore fixing the date occasionally isn't so much of a big deal in terms of how much fiddling with the watch you need to do. But I can't stand the fiddling.

[nimz]

Thanks Andrew for clarifying. Even I would not like to fiddle with my watch.. I would like to buy it, wear it and forget about it :) Which my G Shock is all about.

Hi Klopus... great to see that we have similar tastes. I do like the Calibre 8700 serie.. my fav. being this:


But then I was not sure about the dual time.. a review on Amazon said that it does not do the half hour time zones..hence did not take it into consideration!! Would you know if it does? Also I guess its a bit of a hassle.. to move the crown and then set it to L-TM and the hands would move around..

The SPC053 looks interesting though.. planning to check it out.

[klopus]

According to E870 movement User Manual (http://www.citizenwatch.com/Technica...E870_ebook.pdf) second zone is set as an offset in hours from the current zone. This excludes half-hour zones. But do you really plan to travel to Teheran, Iran? Also I doubt there's any perpetual calendar watch that allows for 1/2 hour zones. I have an atomic G-Shock with world time and it also supports only 1 hour aligned zones.

Also I agree that waiting for the handles to move around isn't the fastest way to check secondary zone time but that's the nature of the analog timepieces. You need pure digital or analog-digital watch for this like many Casios including the one I have.

I also really like BL8000-3A with the white face. Besides looking good and all that functionality it can be had from reputable Citizen AD (including Amazon) with a 5 year warranty for under $300. What bothered me is that none of Calibre 8000s have sapphire glass and if you read Amazon comments more than one complain about the case getting easily scratched and fast loosing its luster.

As a result I prudently ordered twice as expensive and less functional (no dual time) grey-market Seiko SNP049 with a 2 year questionable non-manufacturer warranty. Wise isn’t it? Anyway it should arrive from Amazon today and I’ll report on it.

[nimz]

Congrats on your SNP049 Klopus. BTW.. I fully understand how the heart wins over prudence and rational thinking :).

Reg. secondary timezone.. I need the half hour offset functionality coz am currently based out of New Delhi, India.. and thats 5.5 hours from London and 9.5 hours from US and everything in between also a 0.5. During layovers I prefer to switch to local time so that I dont miss my flight. That way the G Shock is awesome.

Citizen has some AT analog watches that do 15 minute offset for the secondary time zone... also I have seen some watches.. (I think from Seiko.thought am not able to find it now) that use the alarm dial to display secondary time.. now that would be great if I can get it on the Citizens.. And yes the lack of a Sapphire crystal is kinda bugging me. But now am thinking.. I'd probably go for a nice classic looking Sapphire crystal watch with perpetual calendar and forget about dual time.. I can always wear the G shock while travelling.. and its not like I'd be interested in a secondary time zone while in business meetings...hmm!

[Luskar]

The Citizen CB-0020-50E does some haft-hour time-zone (Delhi & Adelaide). It's not a second time-zone, but you just pull the crown, select the town and the time change automatically. Really cool to see the hand move!