The Citizen

AQ1000-58B

cal. A010

Factory Spec. 5 SPY

Thermocompensated: Thermistor

User Adjustable: No

At 5 SPY, this is supposed to be amongst the highest-spec'd watches in the world, right now (along with similar high-end Citizen calibres). The photos don't really show it, but sat next to my SBGV009, I just can't love the looks of this watch. The markers are too thick and set too far towards the centre of dial. The flat sapphire glass sits flush with the bezel, resulting in the dial looking very deep-set, small and crowded. The crowding problem isn't helped by the power reserve indicator, either. Anyway, it is what it is. In terms of engineering, I can't fault it, and the 'duratec' coating really does keep the scratches off the steel. Shame it looks so awkward next the the GS.

I have put this watch down (along with the Exceed E510 and Exceed 0330) as having a thermistor and count adjustment, but I am beginning to doubt that theory. Citizen and Seiko are both rather more reluctant than ETA to share the details of how their watches achieve their SPY values. It had commonly been assumed that Citizen used digital count adjustment (and this may still turn out to be the case), but an investigation with a Witschi QT-6000 by a WUS forum member suggests that the 0330 and E510 (and, by extension, possibly all high-end Citizen movements) actually vary the frequency of the oscillator.

This watch has returned from a rather lengthy service trip to Japan. It was sent back under warranty because its rate passed 5 SPY within its first year. A new baseline off-set from UST has been established and timing has recommenced. I also note that the second hand has been realigned and is now once again hitting each marker, spot on (the second hand had been knocked out of alignment during a bumpy cycle to work, one day, and the local (Hong Kong) service centre had declined to accept the watch for fixing, saying that the misalignment was within spec.).

Some details for this watch may be missing as it has not completed comprehensive testing.