I have been debating for a long time buying this watch, but am still undecided. I really like the look of the watch, easy to read dial (magnifying concave crystal?), solar-powered, Sapphire crystal, screw-down crown, and Duratect case and bracelet. However, I feel the price includes more than I want and don't want to spend that much. I don't want the radio controlled functionality (only for Japan) and don't like the look of the extra pusher below the crown. I would appreciate your thoughts and if you have any recommendations on something that might fill the need that doesn't have the radio controlled extra feature/extra cost, I am would like to know. Thanks for the help.
I feel your pain, OP. Of all my 'almost' watches the PMD is on the top of my list and has been for a while now. It might me the ultimate modern field watch with much to recommend it. I just can't get past the the few concerns I have about it, mostly the value for money and also it is said to have weak lume. Plus, if you don't bond with it it's value drops to around $350 on the used market but they don't come up too often.
I have a three strikes policy; no radio synch, weak lume, too expensive. I still want one really bad though.
An even cheaper option would be the AW1410-08E, at less than $150 a pop. If mineral glass is a deal breaker, u can even source a sapphire crystal to be installed and it will still be cheaper than the PMD56. Plus the lume is fantastic. Just do a google.
I've owned mine for several years and do wear periodically. Comes in black dial version as well. Very legible at a glance, good lume, and comfortable on wrist being of Duratect titanium. 200m rated and sapphire crystal is a plus. Perpetual calendar means set and forget. I consider it a bargain.
I recently purchase a similar watch the PMD56-2952, I am able to "Atomic Sync" the watch using nothing more than my iphone and JJY IOS app, which is nice because setting up the time and perpetual calendar on this watch requires reading the manual. My post about this is here Review Citizen PMD56-2952 - Page 5
I have to say that I was very impressed with quality of this watch. I think this is the watch I will be wearing in 30 years when I end up in an old folks home, Why because is very easy to read the dial with diminishing eyesight.
From what I understand these watch for available for over 600$ USD a few years ago, and they can found around the 440$ USD point on shoppinginjapan
Thanks for the advice from you all. I decided, against my concerns, to buy the PMD56-2951 and I am very happy with it. The radio time synchronization works well with the JJY Simulator app on my Iphone once I set the location on the Iphone correctly to Tokyo. I really like the design and the dial is very easy to read. I bought mine at Chino Watch Japan (they had it in stock) and I was very pleased with the service. They shipped it same day as payment received and it was packaged very well. It took 5 days to arrive at my home near Seattle. I would definitely buy from Chino Watch again.
Congrats on pulling the trigger! It's a good watch, I brought one from Japan for my father. I don't really agree that it is overpriced, TBH - overpriced compared to what? Duratect Ti, sapphire crystal, RC can be hacked with a phone app, 200m WR, handsome, very legible, not stupidly oversized, typical good Eco-Drive accuracy (3-4 sec/month). I guess it may be "overpriced" compared to an imaginary Platonic ideal of a watch, but I don't see much competition on the actual market. For a lot of people, this is a perfect daily driver.
Glad to hear that you pulled the trigger, looks fantastic. I wish to retract my previous comment about it being "too expensive." It is actually very good value for what it offers.
Well I love my PMD56, and I can understand not wanting to pay that much. Mine was about $440 new on ebay. You can find used ones on buyee.jp for under $300.
For ti/sapphire consider also the dressier, larger BM7170, or the sporty, compact, and slightly quirky (and discontinued?) Citizen Golf models. NOT the current black steel with green highlight, but the older titanium models with black or white faces and red highlights.
Bonus data point: I recently bought an older Promaster Land Tough GMT PMX56 made in 2002, rather dirty, and there's barely a scratch on it. I'm extremely impressed with the Duratect coating.
Side note to other PMD56 owners & JJY app users: I set my phone to GMT before syncing, so that's now the watch's internal time, and I do the time zone math from there instead of from Tokyo. I got JJY sync to work once with my headphones coiled, and have only tried & failed once since then. Any tips? Mine only gains about a second a week, so it's quite easy to manually correct every once in a while.
Sorry to hijack. Does anyone know of another Citizen that may be 41mm with the same style dial as above?
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