first published week of: 05/13/2013
Two years ago Citizen released the Eco-Drive Satellite Wave - a limited edition watch that received signals from GPS satellites in order to have accurate time and calendar information anywhere in the world. We first debuted the Citizen Satellite Wave here during Baselworld 2011. Later we offered a hands-on look at the production version of the limited edition Satellite Wave timepiece. Now for 2013, Citizen will release its first non-limited collection of Satellite watches called the Eco-Drive Satellite Wave-Air.
What is "Air" about it? We don't really know, but the GPS satellite signals certainly move through the air. In a nutshell, the new Satellite Wave-Air has a more mainstream look, better technology, and a much friendlier price. Citizen explained to us how the Calibre H909 quartz movement was improved in the Wave-Air watch. Of course it contains Citizen's light-powered (to charge the battery) Eco-Drive technology. The improvements center around the watch's interaction with the GPS satellite signals. As it is, the watch must be manually set to receive the signals. This is due to battery power constraints. Citizen's tests have found that automatic syncing is too burdensome on the battery on average. That isn't a bit deal however, as to sync with the time no matter where you are on the planet, all you need to do is push one of the pushers. No fancy menu diving is required (thankfully!). continued…