My first problem with this watch: Citizen makes some gorgeous and innovative timepieces - see for instance the Caliber 2100. Unfortunately, the company has its models arrayed in such a way so as to emphasize that you need to spend more to get more. The face design, color palette, and band of this "base model" Skyhawk are all meant to remind the buyer that he (no women buying this thing I am guessing) is sitting in the cheap seats. The far more costlier atomic time models are MUCH nicer, and the slightly pricier "Blue Angels" models are also more attractive. (Problem there is that you are basically wearing a slightly more adult version of a Batman watch, an inherent problem with all "branded" timepieces. And do you really think the Blue Angels team wears this watch? I am sure the slide rule comes in handy as they are calculating fuel consumption while doing barrel rolls at 3 Gs...)

Anyway, besides the tin can silver color palette, and intensely busy bezel with oodles of small numbers on it, there are two relatively more serious crimes against aesthetics here. First, the band. Of the six watches I own, this was the second most expensive one, and the band looked the worst of all. There is no design to it, it felt light and cheap, and had no lustre. Next issue: the miserable lume! After hours of daylight exposure, the miserable afterthought application of lume on the face and hands looked pitiful and faded quickly in the dark. Again. of all my analog watches, this more costly model was at the bottom of the barrel in this relatively important test (for all you pilots out there who will be using this for dangerous midnight flights across the continent..._

So besides being dull, bland, and badly illuminated, we come to my Second Problem... This is not really an analog watch. Every significant function from time adjustment to chronograph use is DIGITAL and is displayed on some wee tiny screens. The sub-dials display UTC (Zulu) time and a second alternate time zone (in a 24 hr face with a single hand) and other than these rather useless functions (as one of the little digital windows is slaved to the alt time subdial so you always have duplicate info between the screen and the dial) the subdials are not used at all. I think I would have liked this watch better if at least the stopwatch was assigned to a subdial like an actual analog watch) but instead all the timekeeping functions are in a digital window the size of half of a pinky nail.

I should add the watch is fairly complex to use, and the directions are about 80 pages long. That said, you can probably figure it out easily enough, as many of the procedures in the instructions are rather arcane and useless (i.e. to delete cities from the standard list of available time zones ("I hate Auckland! Begone!") or to change the three letter abbreviation for these cities ("I think "AUK" is much better than "AKL"...). I would suggest though that you avoid buying this if reading manuals and following rather detailed instructions is not your favorite way to interact with your timepiece.

So upshot - if you like analog watches, or are buying this as a gift for someone who does, rethink. This watch has a analog veneer grafted onto a digital heart. Now this would not in itself be a problem if Casio did not exist... but of course they do. If you hunt carefully through the many Casio Waveceptors and G Shocks, you can find analog - digital hybrids that offer every feature that this Skyhawk does (including solar charging) at roughly one half to two thirds its price. Now if you are thinking all the Casios that are similar are tacky plastic watches with "G SHOCK RULEZ!!!" emblazoned on them in glaring red, (the normal Casio problem!) I can assure you that the brand has evolved to the point where they have relatively subtle designs and even metal bands available. All of these offer the same (or better) functionality of this Skyhawk (some of the Casios even offer atomic timekeeping) and some are more attractive, even by adult standards.

The usual reason to buy a Citizen over a Casio is that the purchaser wants to look more sophisticated. That reason falls flat here, as the blandness and mediocre design  of this Citizen model will not look notably superior to a Casio of comparable feature set and lower price. If you really love this design for some reason, spend more and get a Blue Angels or atomic time model so the watch will at least look worth the price on your wrist. To buy this model would only mean paying an added premium for non-existent superiority in design and quality over a less expensive product from a competitor. And Citizen ain't Rolex - no need to pay any premium at all for this name!