CitizenMen's Eco-Drive Weekender Garrison Field Watch in Stainless Steel with Olive Nylon Strap, Black Dial (Model: BM8180-03E)

Citizens has produced an excellent homage to the military field watch. With their solar battery technology and excellent time keeping this time piece is reliable and functional. My negative comment is the band. The band that came with this watch was to small. I replaced it with another field watch band that I purchased from Amazon for $18 US dollars.

The media could not be loaded. Wow! This is a nice looking watch.. Just the right size for my smallish wrist.It's the same size as my dress watch, but much easier to read.The band is great, but my wrist size seems to be, right between the hole adjustments. Too tight or too sloppy.Only took me a few minutes to install one of my favorite 18mm SS bands.It's got a fine adjustment fit that feels real good on my wrist.I own a few other 18mm bands that I might try later on.I was a tad disappointed the second hand didn't line up perfectly with the marks,but after watching it go around twice, I got over it.The Lum is great. I was able to read the time (in total darkness) without my glasses. This is was not possible with any of my other watches.Even with my farsightedness, I can see the secondhand (in normal lighting conditions),well enough to take my pulse. With my glasses on, this watch looks like a work of art.I will be checking the time against nist.gov and will edit in the timekeeping results later. Hope I got a good one!Edit 2/11/2012I found the RTC in the PC (after sync) is not 100% accurate, (varies a couple secs)so I've been using the clock in a GPS unit as my master reference.The GPS and the Fios cable box run exactly 3 seconds apart. (I'm sure the GPS is more correct).I've been watching the cable box roll over on the minute, right when my second hand moves past 12 o'clock mark.I'm not sure if this is normal for this type of watch, but after a couple of days,I figured there would be at least a second or two of error.So far, I'm not seeing any error at all. I'll post again, when I see the error.(There must be some error)!Edit 2/13/2012The 3 second gap was stable, so I synced the watch to a GPS.Will try to upload a short video of how close I got it.This watch has still not shown any noticeable time error.Edit 2/27/2012It's been two weeks since I posted the video. The Citizen is 1 to 1.5 seconds slow now.Right now it looks like it's going to slow, by 3 or 4 seconds a month.I'll re-synchronize to the GPS during the Daylight Savings change on Sunday, March 11 (Spring Forward).If the rate of error changes after that, I'll post again.Edit 3/25/2013The watch is so accurate, I've stopped trying to follow the error.When the calender change occurs, I just have to tweak it a few seconds.It still looks great and I've only got one small scratch on the crystal.I have not worn my Casio Databank watch since getting this Eco-Drive.Update 8/16/2017I wear this watch everyday, all day. The only time I take it off is when I'm sleeping or in the shower.. The crystal is still looking good. Not much wear at all. I really like not having to worry about the battery.. That's why I got my wife a 'similar' smaller version of this watch..The calendar is small, she doesn't use it. So it only needs to be adjusted twice a year for DST..Cheers,Rich

Excellent watch.Complaints about the small mm (face) size? Depends on what you are planning on using it for. This watch is great for wearing with a ski, rain, or winter jacket, where you will pulling back a cuff regularly. It also does not have Chronograph posts that can break or get caught on a velcro cuffed jacket sleeve.It is Solar charged, keeps good time, and has a sturdy band. Leave it in the Sun on a window sill for a couple days and it keeps it charged.

I spent quite a while looking at military style watches under $200. I was looking for a watch that had a simple but stylish look and didn't look cheap. So far I am satisfied with this watch and in this review I will address some of the common themes in the other reviews.Size: This is not a large watch. I am not a person who believes a watch has to be large for it to look good. This watch is just about as small as I would go. In fact, the first few days I was filled with buyers remorse because my previous watch was much larger and I wasn't used to the drop in size. I felt like I had bought a women's watch. After asking many friends, and after a few days of it being on my wrist, it occurred to me that I was overreacting. I like the size very much actually, because when I'm dressed formally its size is classier looking than those expensive over-sized multi-function gizmos that an eight year old with cash would pick out. However, for my wrist size and my height, I would not go smaller than this. Make sure to consider your body and wrist size when buying a watch. There are guides for this online.The Canvas Strap: That being said, there are many complaints about the size, look, and feel of the watchband. Since its a smaller watch, its a smaller band and at first I did think it looked tiny. It's canvas on the outside and leather on the inner side and it is well made. The eyelets give it a good look, but the complaints are true and I can imagine that for some wrists the eyelets would cause the band to be too loose or too tight. Aside from that its a quality band and most importantly the watchband can be easily replaced with one that suits you more. I have a variety of watchbands and I recommend that people shop for one that they think looks best. I use the canvas strap usually, but I have a Maratac Zulu Bond 18mm strap for dress occasions (looks great with this watch! Don't settle for the cheaper versions they sell on Amazon). The great thing about military-style watches is their character.Eco-Drive: I find that the watch keeps spot on time. Whenever I get a watch I double check its accuracy every day for the first two weeks and then once a month. The watch hasn't been acting irregularly and I would say I'm outside as much as any average person. I fully charged it when I received it. After that, I left it face down on a desk for a weekend and it still kept time. One review was upset that the second (as in seconds in a minute) jumped two second markers instead of one. This is not an error in manufacturing! According to the manual, the second hand jumps this way when the battery is low on charge. I cannot verify as this has not happened to me. I very much like that I will never have to replace the battery.Second Hand: The second hand does not line up exactly with the second lines. This is one reason I gave it four stars. It isn't too obvious. I think the red color of the hand is a good look for the watch.Luminous numbers and hands: Seems to be evenly applied and bright enough for my liking.Calendar: I like the calendar. This is my second reason for giving the watch four stars however. PLEASE NOTE! that if you try to set the calendar between 9PM and 4AM this will probably permanently break the date feature on the watch! This did not happen to me because I read the description on this page and several reviews included it. The date works fine for me and it won't be hard to remember that. I just feel like no one should be able to break a good watch that easily and that makes it a flawed design. I would have preferred no fay of the week showing to being able to break my watch. Follow the instructions exactly!Metal-Stamp: Another reason for a forth star. Rather than the product info being stamped on the watch back, there is a sticker. Is this preferred? No not really...however see my last point.Price: This is a good watch for 80 bucks. I haven't had it for too long but a friend of mine has the same model and its lasted him many years. I would recommend this one over the Citizen AT0200-05E Eco-Drive Chronograph because the Chronograph on that watch is not very good, it lacks the beautifully simple look of this watch, and you pay much more for it. The actual watch looks better than the Amazon photo in my opinion.