Citizen Eco Drives

I have had one for 20+ years. This one here, never had an issue with it, especially the problem you're having. Good luck

I've had this one for nearly 30 years and it has never missed a beat and never been serviced. (Of course it has always had access to light from its place by a window)

Take Youtube with a grain ( actually a mountain) of salt.

I had a similar issue with my Nighthawk, and then after days in the daylight i finallu got the second hand doing 2s jumps. I dug into some articles and pulled the crown out to stop/hack it, left it in the daylight again and after a few hours it was working absolutely fine. Apologies if you've already tried this, but that's how I got mine working properly again.

Found my wife’s old eco drive in a drawer. It has probably been there 10 years. It took about 4 days on the window sill for it to charge back up but it has been running great since then.

My watch heard I was talking shit so when I put it back in the sun again it turned on 😂 Looking forward to wearing it tomorrow !

I have 3 eco drive watches. One of them, from 2005, was in a dark drawer for over 5 years. So it stopped working and I had to replace the capacitor (special battery). After that it is going strong for over a year and a half. My 6 year old is working fine. But my new one stopped after a year and a half in dark corner of the room. It was getting some light, but not enough. So, it stopped and it took almost 2 days in the sun to come back to life. Now, I put all three of them on the window sill for a couple of days every month and they all work fine.

I've had an AT8189-61E that was in a box in a closet since December. I took it out last week to give it some sun. No problems at all.

Pull the crown out and let it charge. I have heard that helps with EcoDrive charging quicker

My father’s ecodrive is a paperweight in my drawer. It lasted a few years and failed. Changing the power cell did nothing; the module itself went bad. Not a fan. 🤑

I had a small toddler take my Seiko solar watch out of my watch box and hide it in my house. I honestly didn't even know it was missing for a couple of years (tells you the watch collection might be a tad too large, lol!). I can't remember how long it took to recharge, but I got it back running within a day. But my Seiko has a power reserve indicator on it so I can always see how much charge it needs. I find that the Seiko takes a while to recharge to full. Typically a day or two in direct sunlight.

My Citizen Eco Drive has no power reserve indicator. I've had it for almost two years and I've never had a problem. But I keep it close to a window and wear it pretty frequently, especially when it's really sunny outside. So, I don't have a point of comparison between the two watches, unfortunately.

Leave it on a window sill and check back in a week.

I have an eco drive that I also neglected to get it in the light on the regular and it runs but no amount of light will bring it fully back - loses time no matter what, I have it in a window sill where it gets regular sunlight. I think mine is KAPUT!

I did the same. Locked it away for too long. I let it sit beneath flouresant lights for like a few hours and it's been fine ever since.

Depends on the age. In my experience 15 to 20 year old Eco Drives don't react well to being drained fully then recharged.

That being said, one of mine was in a box in my garage for 2 years before I found it. Charged it in direct sunlight for 2 days and it has been working ever since.

If the direct light for 2 days doesn't Charge it, it could be the capacitor. About a $100 fix (from Citizen).

I had a Seiko solar diver battery go bad after a full discharge once. I replaced the (rechargeable) battery, and it's fine now. If you can find the movement number, you can probably find a replacement battery online (probably eBay), though I think Citizens are less user-friendly than Seikos. At worst, a watch repair shop should be able to fix it.

Never had the issue with an Eco-Drive. I do have a Seiko Solar that evidently had the battery die as it will not hold a charge. I need to send it in for sevice.

If it’s just not responding to light exposure after days, replace the capacitor. I had the issue with a a Seiko kinetic, replaced the capacitor now it charges as per new.

I had to replace the capacitor in my Eco drive, but I got it 5 years ago and figured it was time.

Same with me. I’ve had one over twenty years and it still charges and runs good. No issues.

I have a very old Eco-drive and had to get the capacitor changed. After this it took about a week of daily on and off charging to get it back to reasonable charge. I wonder if they respond to a different wave length so they can be charged by bulbs......

After you charge the EcoDrive with light, set the hands and it should start running.

My older Ecodrive from the 90s got drained fully shortly after buying it. I recently sent it to Citizens official watch repair team and they sent it back saying there was nothing wrong with it and to charge it in Sunlight. The watch will only keep (good) time without sun exposure for about 2 days. I'm disappointed in Citizen, but I suppose I could always spend 20 more dollars to do it again in hopes of better results.

How did you get it changed? I had some bad luck with Citizen official service team.

How did you get it replaced?

I took it to my friendly neighborhood watchmaker. He knew exactly what he needed to do. It wasn’t cheap but it should be good for another 5-6 years.

Me too

How did you replace the capacitor?

It is very similar to replacing a battery on a quartz watch. You look up the series of the movement on the back of your watch and google for appropriate capacitor/battery. You can order that on Amazon. The difference between the capacitor and a regular battery is a little brass plate on the capacitor. Remember the position of the capacitor when you take it out and make sure you place the new one in the same position. Also, there may be a clamp on top of the capacitor that you may need to unscrew or move out of the way to extract an old one. Make sure you do not break it or loose it.

On YouTube just google "eco-drive battery replacement" and you will see several videos that show how it is done. It is pretty easy. The longest part was waiting for the new battery to arrive and the toughest part was unscrewing the case back.

After you replace the battery, make sure you charge it in the sun for at least a week. I put it on a window sill that gets lots of sun during the day.

I took it to my local Citizen repair centre. They were great.

Just something to complete your comment: never touch the capacitor whith your hand, sweat and fingerprints make electric conducting paths and lower the performance of a capacitor. Use only plastic tweezers to touch the capacitor never a metal one, so you never short circuit the capacitor.

Better safe than sorry!