This obnoxiously large photo showcases my new watch I got for Christmas. It’s a Citizen AT4010-50E, and it’s made of titanium!
Go ahead, watch the video. I’ll wait.
As I’ve discussed previously, I’m a lazy bum at heart, and don’t like changing watch batteries or setting the time manually. This watch has Citizen’s Eco-Drive solar tech, which solves the battery thing, and it has their “World Perpetual A-T” which is just fancy “atomic time” (again, go read my tirade about why it’s not really “atomic time” per se), allowing you to set the time zone and allow the watch to do the rest.
Here you can see the assortment of dials – this guy is especially desirable for me because while yes, the 24 hour dial (top left) is a bit extraneous, this watch has a date window as well as a dial that indicates the day of the week.
As someone who works odd hours and strange shifts, it can be depressingly necessary to have a watch that tells you what the day of the week is.
Especially working in medicine. We often ask a patient the day of the week as part of our method to gauge how oriented they are, (to person/place/time/event, and it’s generally regarded as unsporting to ask the patient for the time at 3 in the morning) so it’s a touch embarrassing when you don’t actually know yourself.
Ask me how I know.
Mildly embarrassing personal anecdotes aside, this watch hits all the high points I like in features. You may have also noticed that it says “sapphire” on the face. This is in reference to the crystal, the clear “face” of the watch (although technically the face of the watch is actually the bit under the crystal, the part with the numbers and whatnot on it). In this case it’s a lab created clear sapphire that’s been specifically designed for this application.
Technically speaking, sapphire is very similar to ruby; they’re both corundum, which is an oxide of aluminum. Without getting too far in to this, the upshot is on the Mohs scale of hardness, sapphire is very hard (9/10), surpassed only by diamond.
It’s not a linear scale, as you can see, but it’s still quite hard. Corundum is also uniquely tough and lacks cleavage, which means it doesn’t cleave, or separate away from itself along a plane when struck, like diamonds do (incidentally, this is how diamonds are shaped).
I told you all that to tell you this: sapphire crystals are my preference for watch crystals, as opposed to the more common mineral crystal or plastic.
The biggest downside to this watch is probably the titanium, ironically – it’s light, but it scratches like the devil, so if you simply must have a pristine watch, I’d strongly suggest you go buy the stainless version.
Both versions are really great deals on Amazon right now, as I believe these particular models are actually being discontinued, unfortunately. The only difference you’ll note besides the weight is the red time zone hand on the stainless version as compared to the blue hand paired with the titanium model.
I have to say, this watch is really a confluence of features I love – the lightweight titanium construction, the solar, the perpetual A-T, the day of the week hand, and the sapphire crystal. About the only thing it’s missing is a dive bezel, but I understand why it lacks one – it’s not really a dive focused watch, and if they had to build a dive rating in, I’m sure it would cost half again as much.
Overall I’m quite happy with this watch, and it wears equally well with a suit and with a flannel shirt – I anticipate it getting a lot of mileage in the years to come.
-T