Citizen Watches is known for its proprietary Eco-Drive movement. This movement powers many Citizen’s watches and can be charged with only lights. However, is there a special way to do that? How to charge Citizen Eco-Drive watch?
You charge Citizen Eco-Drive watches by exposing them to light – natural or artificial. Direct sunlight charges the watch the fastest, while indirect, weak artificial light charges the slowest. Once charged full, the watch can run for up to seven months in total darkness.
In this article, we look at how you can charge a Citizen Eco-Drive watch. We also look at some common questions about the movement itself.
What Are Eco-Drive Watches?
Eco-Drive watches are revolutionary timepieces manufactured by Citizen watches powered by light. This technology uses a combination of solar and rechargeable cells to power the watch.
These watches are powered by artificial and natural light and never need to be replaced or recharged. Instead, they store energy from whatever light source is available to keep accurate time all day.
Eco-Drive watches are extremely efficient at converting light into energy. The solar cells on the watch’s face absorb direct sunlight and ambient light.
In contrast, integrated battery cells store the energy for later use. Even dim lighting, such as a 30w fluorescent bulb, can be enough to charge the watch.
The Eco-Drive technology is used in many of Citizen’s watches. In fact, you can find the movement in watches as affordable at $100.
How To Charge A Citizen Eco-Drive Watch?
Charging a Citizen Eco-Drive watch is easy. You do not need to wind your watch, nor do you need a watch winder.
First, you’ll want to make sure that the power reserve of your watch is depleted – if it isn’t, you won’t be able to charge it. Simply pull out the crown and check the display to check the power reserve.
Once the power reserve has been depleted, you can begin charging your watch by exposing it to light.
The best light sources for charging a Citizen Eco-Drive watch are direct sunlight or bright artificial light from fluorescent bulbs. However, all light sources can charge an Eco-Drive movement, whether natural or artificial.
Try to avoid using regular incandescent bulbs as they usually don’t provide enough energy to charge the watch. If possible, use a 30w fluorescent bulb for optimal charging.
Depending on the light conditions, your watch should take approximately 6 to 8 hours to fully charge. You can also check the charging progress by pulling out the crown and looking at the power reserve indicator.
Once your watch is fully charged, you can enjoy accurate timekeeping for about 7 weeks before you need to recharge again.
What Type Of Light Can Charge Eco-Drive Watches?
The type of light that can be used to charge Citizen Eco-Drive watches depends on the available sources.
This technology is designed to store energy from natural and artificial light sources, so the best way to keep your watch charged up is by exposing it to both.
When it comes to lights, both natural and artificial lights can charge the movement. This is the one feature that separates Eco-Drive movement from solar watches.
Sunlight
Direct sunlight offers an almost limitless energy supply, so this should be your first choice when charging your Eco-Drive watch.
This may be a natural choice if you work outdoors. If your work indoors but has good exposure to sunlight, your watch should also charge very well.
Some Citizen users believe that natural sunlight helps to charge their eco-drive watches faster. This is confirmed by Citizen. Natural, bright sunlight will be able to charge the watches the fastest, compared to artificial lights.
Artificial Light
Even if you spend most of your time indoors, there’s no need to worry about charging your Citizen Eco-Drive watch. Artificial lights, such as fluorescent bulbs, can also charge the watch.
In fact, even dim lights like a 30w fluorescent bulb can be enough to power the watch. Of course, the watch will take more time to charge fully with artificial light than with natural sunlight, but it is still an option.
However, you should avoid using regular incandescent bulbs as they don’t provide enough energy to charge your Citizen Eco-Drive watches. If possible, use a 30w fluorescent bulb for optimal charging results.
How Long Does It Take To Fully Charge Eco-Drive Watches?
Charging a Citizen Eco-Drive watch does not take long. Depending on the light conditions, your watch should take approximately 6 to 8 hours to fully charge.
Citizens measure charging times by illuminance or lux count. The higher the lux count of your light source, the faster it charges the watch to full.
For example, if your watch is exposed to outdoor sun on a sunny day, that is around 100,000 lux of light.
Citizen shows that at that level of light, 2 minutes of exposure should power your watch for a day. Expose your watch to that light for 11 hours, and you will fully charge the watch from zero.
The light is less intense on a cloudy day, at 10,000 lux. At this rate, you will need 12 minutes of charging to power the watch for a day. To fully charge the watch from scratch, you will need 40 hours of exposure.
If you use a 30W fluorescent light held about 8 inches away, that’s about 3,000 lux of light. That will take 40 minutes of charging for one-day use or 130 hours to fully charge the watch.
You can also check the charging progress by pulling out the crown and looking at the power reserve indicator. Once your watch is fully charged, you can enjoy accurate timekeeping for about 7 months before you need to recharge again.
So if you want to ensure that you always have an accurate timepiece handy, just give your Citizen Eco-Drive watch a few hours of exposure to either natural or artificial light. It will be ready to go in no time.
How Long Can A Fully Charged Eco-Drive Watch Run?
A fully charged Citizen Eco-Drive watch can run for up to seven months before needing to be recharged again. This is thanks to the rechargeable cells used in the watches, which store light energy and turn it into power.
This means Eco-Drive movement is way better than your regular automatic movement, which may have about several days of power reserve. It may not rival a quartz movement, but Eco-Drive is rechargeable. The regular quartz movement is not.
These cells inside the Eco-Drive movement can absorb natural and artificial light sources, so even if you don’t get much exposure to sunlight on certain days, you don’t have to worry about keeping your watch running accurately.