Citizen Drive - AW1151-04E Review

Robcollects

1 year ago

Good daily beater or gateway watch?

This is a review of another older quartz Citizen EcoDrive - the Drive model with blue case highlights and a ‘rubber’ (polyurethane) strap. I picked this up at the beginning of a beach/fishing vacation years ago when I had only brought a leather strap watch I wore on the plane. It’s a good, resilient watch that I think looks good and wears well for its ~$200 price. Citizen watches in this range have stainless steel cases that look to be plated. The case the finish is very shiny, but has worn well, with very little scratching and no wear-through of the finish. The blue accents tone down the shine a bit. The strap is very comfortable (more on that later) and is flush with the case. The spring bars are easily accessible from below, but I’ve kept this one on it’s OG strap, a rarity for my Citizen group. Mineral crystal, of course, but this one has not picked up scratches.

This has been a great daily beater sports watch. 100m WR, so I just wash it off or shower if dirty or exposed to salt water. It’s also light weight at 80g, but the steel case makes it feel substantial. The dial has an attractive wave pattern, the markers are well done raised batons and there’s reasonable lume on the hands and the odd hour markers. The second hand even has an interesting skeletonized arrow tip.

Now for the gateway part. I liked this watch enough that it lead me to consider the Omega Seamaster AT on the Omega rubber deployant strap. I’m sure I would have passed this over for a regular bracelet otherwise. I also got the AT with the steel/gold case. As you can see in the pictures, while wildly different in price and finish, they are style cousins, at least. It lead me down a good path; I love my Omega.

So next time you really like an entry level watch, be careful, there may be something bigger out there waiting for you!

Anyone else follow a purchase trail like this?