There is one piece of technology that we pretty much all take for granted and that is our watches. Yep, most of us wear one, and I’m no different. As a matter of fact you might expect my watch (being a gadget junky) to be all techy and loaded with features. However, my watches are usually quite simple. They tell time and maybe they show the date. I don’t even own a digital watch. I do have a watch that has a USB connection to a built-in thumb drive, but I don’t like it as a watch, so I never wear it.
The one thing that drives me insane is having to constantly replace my watch batteries. There is a watch band store near where I live and it seems like I’m always in there getting a new watch battery. After my last one went dead in what seemed like a relatively short amount of time, I was fed up! As a matter of fact the watch store (which makes a good business selling watch batteries) had a huge banner add for Citizen ECO Drive watches. These watches NEVER need batteries. They are powered by light! According to Citizen they can even go for 6 months in the dark on a full charge. This Solar technology can charge from any light source. The engery cell is designed to last a lifetime.
So I ordered the Citizen Eco Drive Men’s Stiletto Two Tone Watch back at the beginning of July and it’s one of the best watches I’ve ever owned. It’s pretty freeing to just set it and forget it. Plus I like the style. Citizen has a complete line of Eco Drive watches for both men and women.
I do have one tip for those who have battery driven watches. You can prolong the battery life of watches that you don’t wear all the time by simply pulling the stem out (like you would to set it) and usually this will effectively turn the watch off until you push the stem back in. Granted you’ll have to reset the time when you’re ready to use it, but at least it won’t be draining the battery while it’s sitting in a drawer.
Great blog – I really like the variety of things you post on.
I have a Citizen Eco Drive too – and love it. Instead of being powered by the sun, though, it is powered by motion. So, just by the act of wearing it the battery never dies. Very cool stuff.
There are also those watches that get charged by the kinetic movement of your arm, and those never require batteries either. I’ve had one for years and I’ve never had to worry about it getting slow or batteries dying.
Great post. I like the way you change things up; anything Adobe to direct tv and even your watch! I love it! As for watches though, I don’t wear watches. When I do they don’t make it to the new battery phase. They either brake or I lose them. Keep up the good work!
Do you think I could get this technology retrofitted into my car? I’m tired of filling it up with gas!
Terry I have owned my eco-drive for over 6 years! I love the style and think it is great that I am not filling the local landfill with expired batteries.
One note, if for some reason you do notice the time is off–place the watch in a window for 24-48 hours. This will completely replenish the stored power. Two reasons I have found for inconsistent time, of course the only reason is a direct result of long periods of no light exposure, not wearing the watch and it is stored in a jewelry box, or once I noticed during winter it slowed and i figured it was the long sleeved sweaters blocking the watch from light exposure.
These watches are awesome. I even got several friends hooked. Happy time keeping!
I’ve had my Eco-drive for 3 years, wear it everyday and it hasn’t lost time yet. I love the technology.
Okay, I went and ordered one right after reading the article (my watch broke a couple of weeks ago). Don’t let me down Terry! 🙂
I bought one of these watches in 1999 and it’s still ticking away!
I have one, too. Love it.