We are going to cover the most common mistake people make with their Citizen Eco-Drive watch.
The most common mistake made with Citizen Eco-Drive watches is storing it in a place that doesn’t allow any sunlight to reach it, like in a box or a closet. Now we know that Citizen claims that their Eco-Drive watches will remain running for up to 6 months on a full charge, even in total darkness.
However, this can be a limitation due to a number of factors. And we’ll get into those for you ..
The most common factor that will determine how long your watch will remain charging include things like the model you have, the age of the movement and of course how long your watch has been exposed to the light before hand.
Going off the third and most common factor, Citizen tells us the general charging requirements for Eco-Drive watches are as follows:
If you’re outdoors on a sunny day charging your Eco-Drive for 2 minutes in direct sunlight will allow for 1 day use.
If you charge your Citizen watch in direct sunlight for 11 hours this is equal to a full charge.
If you’re outdoors on a cloudy day 12 minutes of charge is equal to 1 day use and charging your Citizen for 40 hours on a cloudy day equals one full charge.
If you charge your watch at a distance of 8 inches under a 30 watt florescent light for 40 minutes this allows enough charge for 1 day use. And with the same conditions, 130 hours is equal to a full charge.
Watches powered by an Eco-Drive capacitor are designed to convert both natural and artificial light into energy to power the watch. So even leaving your watch on your dresser will keep your watch running smoothly ensuring you will never need a capacitor replacement.
If you have stored your Eco-Drive watch somewhere without light for over 6 months you may have noticed that it stopped working. Now this may be because of two reasons:
The first, Eco-Drive watches are designed to go into a low power state after the charge is used up, meaning the watch will appear to be dead and nothing will be moving on the watch face.
To check if your watch is entering this power saving state and hopefully charge up your watch again your going to want to super charge the capacitor cell in the watch by pulling the crown out to the time setting position and place it under a florescent light for at least 130 hours or if you don’t want to wait for 5 days leave the watch in direct sunlight for 8 to 12 hours. If the capacitor is capable of holding a charge this process should get the watch running again.
If this doesn’t work it’s very possible the capacitor has lost its ability to hold a charge which brings us to the 2nd reason why your watch has stopped working.
The second, if your capacitor has lost its ability to hold a charge you’ll need to get your capacitor replaced with a new capacitor and if you notice your watch slowing down and not keeping accurate time it’s likely you’ll need your movement replaced.
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