Great choice. That's a whole lot of watch for $750!! The Cal 9010 runs at 28.8k bph and you'll find that it will be as close as +2/-2 seconds a day. I bought the black one from Joe last July and still wear it weekly. Just a classy watch with a lot of features packed into the price.

BTW, Joe at AZFT is the absolute best to buy from.

 

I have few other Citizens in my collection, all Eco drives. One is a radio controlled one that I use to synchronize all my watches to, since it is spot on every day.

Matched the Signature classic to it yesterday and for the 1st 24 hours, the Grand Classic is running at an amazing +1 seconds!

Out of the box this is running better then the vast majority of COSC Chronometers.

The only other mechanicals I own that get anywhere near this are my Tag Aquaracer with the Selita SW200 which gets anywhere from +2-+4 a day, a Bulova with another Miyota mechanical that is auto, hand winds, but doesn't hack, it gets around the same accuracy. Both of these watches took almost 6 months to settle into that kind of accuracy.

My other mechanicals, Rolex Submariner (bought in Hong Kong new in 1995 for $1,500) Tag Link Chrono, Tissot PRC200, and an Omega SMP 2500 are all running around +6 to +15 a day. Hell for what costs me to have the Rolex, Tag or the Omega serviced and tuned up, I could just buy a new Citizen,

BTW, I keep all my mechanicals running all the time, either in a watch winder or daily winding or wearing except for the Rolex which I am keeping as an investment.

Joe has a wide assortment of the smaller brand luxury watches, Orient Star, Mido, Tutima, Alpina etc. etc. Plus all of the high end Seikos, yesterday he was sporting a new GPS model.

I would also own a Grand Seiko (and for a short time did) but for the fact that my 7-3/4 inch wrist can't handle it. I bought one online and ended up sending it back

The new 39mm Rolex Explorer I tried on yesterday hardly fit, although their new wrist band has some new kind of gizmo to let you expand or contract the bracelet with the push of a button, that's a nice feature and the quality of the Rolex bracelets, which has always been in question, is now top notch.

The Citizen Grand Classic fit perfectly without an adjustment right out of the box.

Seriously, if Citizen had bought out some older Swiss watch company, say Zodiac for sake of argument (owned a Seawolf back in the day), opened a Miyota plant in Switzerland (which understand they are trying to do) had the 9010 rated as a Chronometer, put the Zodiac name on the dial, with swiss made on the bottom, they could be selling these puppies for $3,000 to $4,000.

Maybe that's what the ultimate game plan is??

 

Seriously, if Citizen had bought out some older Swiss watch company, say Zodiac for sake of argument (owned a Seawolf back in the day), opened a Miyota plant in Switzerland (which understand they are trying to do) had the 9010 rated as a Chronometer, put the Zodiac name on the dial, with swiss made on the bottom, they could be selling these puppies for $3,000 to $4,000.

Maybe that's what the ultimate game plan is??

That sort of is their game plan . They already bought the Swiss movement manufacturer, La Joux-Perret, and are currently looking for a well-known Swiss brand to acquire.

 

Not all watches look better in person - the Signature Grand Classic does.

 

I love the Grand Classic! Last March, while on a Carnival cruise, my cousin bought one for less than $700!
He taunted me by letting me wear it several times per day... It's on my short list...
How's the lume after a few hours?
Philip

 

Lume is pretty good, blue of course, lasts through the night, but not exactly on par with a Ball with the tritium gas tubes in the dial and hands.

 

Wow, this looks great! Congrats OP! Just as I convinced myself that I have enough watches....

 

I love this watch too. I wear mine regularly.

I also agree that it is kind of like a budget AT in terms of the role that it fills, but I think it's different enough that it shouldn't be labeled as a "homage".

Wear yours in health.

 

My black dialed one says hello

Great watch.

 

Second day accuracy results. The white dial one is now running +- 0 seconds a day, dead on, and the black dial on it's first day is running -1 second in it's first 24 hrs.

This pretty much confirms the claims of the high accuracy out of this new movement. Two watches, both having better then COSC Chronometer accuracy out of the box.

Outstanding!

 

Wow! Impressive accuracy showing on your watches.

Mine is running ~+5s/day. Perfectly acceptable, but not quite a good as yours.

 

Third day report, white dial once again +-0 black dial -3.

Absolutely amazing the white one is dead on with my radio controlled quartz two days in a row!

 

Since you were looking at the Explorer, which runs 39mm, how did you feel about the size at 42mm? I have been looking at these, and not having seen one in person I am just wondering how big it wears.

 

I'm surprised how i see almost no Automatic Citizens. All i see are Eco-Drives, but then i see gems like this. 750 bucks is a lot for it, but if it's really +-2 sec7day, then it's very good. Plus i like the dial.

 

As of today the white dial is running +2 seconds and the black dial -3 seconds. Actually $750 really isn't that much for this watch, when I first saw it I was in a Jareds store where I have bought a couple of Tag Heuers from. I looked at it and also a Tag Carrera caliber 5 with a white face.

The watches were very similar looking, the fit and finish on the watches was almost identical, although I give a slight edge to the Tag

The 41mm case on the Citizen appeared much better on my wrists then did the 39mm case on the Tag. The WR is 50m on the Tag and 100m on the Citizen. Jared wanted MSRP for the Citizen $995 refusing any discounts While they would give me 20% off on the Tag which would have ended up about $2,300 out the door.

When I looked at the same watch at Arizona Fine Time and it was $750 out the door. It was a real no brainer between the Grand Classic and the Carrera, with the Citizen you get 99% of the watch a Carrera is, for 1/3rd the price. And I'm a Tag guy!

 

Sounds like you were at AZ Fine time the same day I was. I ended up pre-ordering a GS SBGX103.

Will

 

I have been mostly impressed with Citizen's Signature line so far. I am very much looking forward to Citizen having more auto models in that $500-1000 range that is currently occupied by Hamilton, Tissot, Mido, and some Seikos and Orients.

 

What they need to do is come out with some dress/divers (ala Omega SMP, Tag Aquaracer) with 41mm cases with this movement in them. Also if they had made the white model I have, with the indices also the same blue color as the hands, like some of the Aqua Terra models have (Ryder Cup Captains model), this watch would have been a home run with bases loaded.

 

Since you were looking at the Explorer, which runs 39mm, how did you feel about the size at 42mm? I have been looking at these, and not having seen one in person I am just wondering how big it wears.

The Rolex 39mm looked fine on my wrists, as does the Citizen which I believe is 41mm. I also own a Tissot PRC200 three hand day/date (39-1/2mm) that appears slightly smaller in wrist presence then the Grand Classic. The White dial model does appear to have a bigger dial presence due to the color, while the black dial looked slightly smaller, although they are identical in specs.

I have a 7-1/2" to 7-3/4" wrist so take that into consideration.

I will show wrist shots in the future, but my wife took our camera with her on a trip to D.C. and I don't know how the hell to get my photos from my damn smart phone onto the computer.

 

Wore the white dial half the day yesterday and the black dial the other half. When I went to bed last night I placed the white dial crown down to slow it down, and the black dial crown up.

10 hours later I checked them out, and the white dial was back to being dead on +-0, and black dial must be a lemon, it is now at -2 seconds a day

 

Though Automatic Citizens are pretty hard to find. Eco-Drives are on every corner but Automatic, not so much. They don't even list them on their webpage.

 

Actually they do list these watches on their home page, you have to look for them under the "Signature" models, then look for "Grand Classic".

 

Update, after fooling around with watch positions when going to bed at night, I have found that my white dial is placed crown up is running +2 seconds a WEEK, and the black dial if placed face down (to speed it up) is now running -2 seconds every 4 days. These watches are the most accurate mechanicals I have ever owned, and the white dial has now become my wrist time champion. I couldn't be happier with them if they were Rolexes.

 

Really like these, and the regulation is superb for the price and the movement grade used – equivalent to an ETA2824/Sellita SW220.
There's nothing I can think of "Swiss Made" that approaches the price or regulation, straight out of the box.

 

I love the blue hands... but I've given up on automatics...

the closest thing I can find on their site in an eco-drive movement is this:

close but not nearly as classy

 

Ugh, stop bumping this page! I absolutely love this watch. I just fear that I wouldn't wear it often enough since my job is pretty casual. It's a daily struggle with this one though.

 

It's not *that* dressy! ;-)

 

So I finally saved & sold and got one of these bad boys. I cannot size the bracelet to save my life. I've read it's screw links, and I've tried 3 different 1mm screwdrivers to no avail. I'm not sure if I'm being to cautious or just missing something obvious.

Edit: investing in a better set of screwdrivers and going to give it another go before I'm off to the Jewelers

 

So I finally saved & sold and got one of these bad boys. I cannot size the bracelet to save my life. I've read it's screw links, and I've tried 3 different 1mm screwdrivers to no avail. I'm not sure if I'm being to cautious or just missing something obvious.

Edit: investing in a better set of screwdrivers and going to give it another go before I'm off to the Jewelers

The screws are smaller then other brands, you may have to either get a new set of screw divers, or take to a jeweler to have him size it. I would take it to a Jeweler, mine resizes my bracelets for about $10.

 

ACCURACY UPDATE: I had the white dial on a watch winder for over 2 weeks and decided to wear it again last night. When I went to synchronize it with my AT watch, much to my shock it was only +1 second off!

Plus 1 second in 2-1/2 weeks? Many of my Quartz watches aren't that accurate!