Watches have become a bit of a fascination for me. After reading into the subject more and learning the basics, I learned there's a lot more out in the world other than the digital Timex watch of my childhood. This research lead to a need to further study the subject, and perhaps start another collection of sorts.
My checklist for a watch was pretty simple. I wanted something that was minimalist and rugged, quiet, and most of all small, due to my wrist size. I definitely gravitated to Military/field style watches, with their simplified faces, basic date functionality, and Arabic numerals. Being my first real watch too, I wanted to keep the entry price fair, so I limited myself to under $150. I quickly narrowed it down to two. The automatic Seiko 5 SNK809, and the Citizen EcoDrive BM8180. After looking at how well each one kept time, the Citizen came out the winner.
The BM8180 is a very handsome watch with a black face and silver housing, which can work well with a variety of straps from metal to NATO. Depending on the strap, one could use this as a dress watch as easily as one does casual. The 37mm size fits well on a smaller wrist and the watch can accept any standard 18mm strap. The strap included is leather backed green canvas with brushed steel buckles and holes. Overall the strap fits well and wore in quickly. As for the watch itself, the build is superb. No loose crystal, no play in the crown, overall solid feeling. The watch is water resistant and should be fine for light submersion such as swimming, dishes, showering, etc. I have yet to try this, however I have no doubt it'll be fine. If there are any issues, Citizen does cover the watch for 5 years with their manufacturer's warranty.
One of the big draws for me for the BM8180 wasn't just that the watch met all of my above requirements, but also the fact that it's powered by Citizen's Eco Drive. The watch uses barely visible solar panels behind the watch face to charge the battery of the watch in natural OR artificial light. This means as long as you have a light source, the watch will continue ticking. Once the battery is fully charged, the watch will tick for a good 6 months in complete darkness before it goes dead! I'm not sure about anyone who reads this, but I normally see some form of light within a 6 month period. As for keeping time, the quartz movement has been exceptional, and I don't really notice any loss or gain in time after approximately 2 months of ownership.
The watch face is very minimalist. The hands aren't overly obstructive, except when they travel over the date, which is not a huge issue. The face does have basic lume on anything white, so all of the numbers will stay lit pretty well throughout the night, provided you've had a good day in natural light. The hour and minute hand are also very well illuminated, however the second had can leave a bit to be desired with just the tip containing lume. The second hand is ever so slightly off on my watch, however it's definitely livable. The movement is practically silent as well, unless you have it in your ear in a quiet room.
Overall, this watch does exactly what I wanted it to do - tell the date and time - and it does it well. It's a piece of tech that's been perfectly integrated into my life - I don't need to constantly remind myself that I have a watch on. I don't pull out my phone as frequently for time checks. It's a "fashion accessory" on top of that. It can function well for both my day to day and anything business related that may come up in the future with just a quick change of the strap. Knowing I have something on me that will just function without intervention is almost comforting in a sense. I have a feeling this is my first of many time pieces, but it's a hell of a nice first.
Here's a link to where I bought it - I did have some really steep discounts though, thanks to all of the promos that shop.ca has going on.