Citizen Sailhawk Men’s Stars And Stripes Official Watch $500 “The Citizen Eco-Drive Sailhawk with yacht racing time function is the official watch of the America’s Cup Stars and Stripes team. This new version combines high-tech titanium with stainless steel and features an anti-reflective crystal for high performance on land and at sea.” I love the Eco-drive series of watches from Citizen, I have 4 of them now (Skyhawk, Calibre 2100 and the titanium perpetual BL5250) and love each and every one. My next one will be the newly released atomic skyhawk finally with backlight, but this Sailhawk has a few special features that make it stand out. It’s a unique watch in that you get the bling factor of a Breitling but with the eco drive solar power of a citizen at an awesome price. A watch of this quality at this price is hard to beat. The watch is a Stainless steel / Titanium combination. The bracelet center links and outer bezel are titanium, the case and outer links on the bracelet are stainless. The watch is also available with a leather strap. I’m going to have to create a video of this watch to really show the operation. Citizen makes awesome eco drive timepieces with zero jewels, yet that have incredible accuracy and efficiency. If you open the case you are greeted by several stepper motors, coils, etc… including a rechargeable lithium battery (that never really needs replacing, but you could easily if you wanted, perhaps in 20 years). Citizen mentions the battery should retain 80% of its life after 15 years of use or so. Since the watch has a 4 year battery when it’s in total darkness, perhaps if you never wear it you may replace the battery in 30+ years ? lets just say the watch will last a while in the power department, even in total darkness 🙂 Above the Skyhawk and Sailhawk. The Skyhawk is also great watch and similar in operation to the Sailhawk. I’ve been wearing the Skyhawk since it was released back in 2000, however one of the featured dials is a UTC dial that is pretty much useless to non-pilots that wear the watch. The Sailhawk makes good use of all of it’s dials for non-pilots 🙂 The left dial is a 24 hour dial like the skyhawk’s. The right dial is a minute dial showing remaining time or elapsed time for the chrono / race timer. If you look above you will notice that the LCD seconds readout of the right hand digital window has also been enlarged by eliminating the battery power bars indicators and moving the daylight savings indicator and other LCD elements to the left window. This makes the seconds easier to read at any distance. The focus with the Sailhawk are the timers and chrono. A countdown timer is a feature that I use daily for all kinds of things: cooking, working out, rendering, etc. The Sailhawk has 2 timers, one of them is a full featured race timer. What I like about the race timer and chrono is how the analog hands operate (compared to say the skyhawk which is all digital operation). When you are in race timer mode on the Sailhawk, the minute hand sweeps backwards (counterclockwise) during operation. When you are in chrono mode the had sweeps forward (like most other analog chrono watches). The right analog dial on the face shows elapsed minutes or remaining minutes. The race timer is full featured with instant re-start, programmable times, and beeping progress indicators, etc. If you want a timer to run in the background you can use the second timer that is operated similar to the skyhawk’s timer (all digital operation). The watch also features a button on the lower left that acts as a hand evacuate function. If the hands are in the way of the digital windows, press and hold the button for a second and the hands sweep away. Press it again and the hands return to show the proper time. The titanium outer bezel rotates smoothly. The watch also features 2 alarms, world time, calendar etc… see features below. All in all for the price it’s hard to beat the Citizen eco-drives. You get a lot of watch for the money. The Sailhawk can be found for $300 online. There is also a red / blue version of this watch with the exact same movement. * 4-Year Power Reserve * Charges in Sunlight or Indoors * Yacht Racing Timer * Time and Calendar in 22 Time Zones (30 Cities) * Two World Time Alarms * 1/100 Second Chronograph Measures up to 24 Hours * 99-Minute Countdown Timer * One-Touch Interchangeable Analog/Digital Times * Retractable Hands for Display Visibility * Rotating 360 Degree Bezel * Mineral glass crystal is scratch resistant and anti-reflective * Screw Back Case * Solid Stainless Steel case and bracelet with titanium bezel and inner links * Bracelet has a folding safety clasp with push-button * Time Reset Advisory * 2 Stage Power Saver Function * 100 Meter Water-Resistant MORE PHOTOS…