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Citizen BM8180-03E Men’s Eco-Drive Watch – Review

11.12.2020 By Mike Green Leave a Comment

Table of Contents

  • Product Description Citizen BM8180-03E
  • Setting The Time
  • Dial Citizen BM8180-03E
  • Movement
  • Luminescence
  • Case Citizen BM8180-03E
  • Band Citizen BM8180-03E
  • Packaging
  • Conclusions

I love the great outdoors and was looking for something a bit less bulky than my G-Shock. I like simples and this watch Citizen BM8180-03E ticks all the boxes – no maintenance, no batteries, rugged and reliable and so far VERY accurate.

Tip for you and anyone else – to soften the strap up warm the strap gently then smear a bit of little dubbin in on the leather inner side. Gently rub a small amount of the dubbin into the strap and just leave overnight, wipe off any excess. It will soften the strap and make breaking it in a little easier.

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Citizen BM8180-03E review - Men's Eco-Drive Watch
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Product Description Citizen BM8180-03E

On paper, this is almost the perfect EDC watch. It’s made by a respected watchmaker, it’s solar-powered, and it’s waterproof with a strap type band. Citizen touts the Eco-Drive line as never needing a battery. In reality, it uses a battery internally to store the charge from the solar cell, so it will need a battery someday, just not for a really long time.

Citizen BM8180-03E - Men's Eco-Drive Watch Citizen BM8180-03E - Men's Eco-Drive Watch
  • LIGHT-POWERED ECO-DRIVE: Converts any light, whether natural or artificial, into energy.
  • WATER RESISTANT TO 100M
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Setting The Time

To set the time, pull the crown out one click to set the day or date, and two clicks to set the time. With the crown pulled out one click, turn it clockwise to set the day of the week and counter-clockwise to set the numeric date.

citizen-bm8180-03e set time

Dial Citizen BM8180-03E

The dial features nice, high-contrast white markings on a black background. It’s my favorite part about the watch since I’m getting older and it’s harder to read a watch without my reading glasses. The dial also has tick marks for the seconds. I’m not a big fan of the tick marks but it doesn’t bother me that much since the hour numbers stand out so well. There’s a window at 3 O’Clock which shows the day and date.

citizen-bm8180-03e dial

Movement

This model uses the typical Citizen BM8180-03E high-quality Japanese Quartz movement. The only twist is that it uses a solar cell with a small internal battery instead of having a disposable battery that needs to be replaced often.

Because the hour markers are inset, the hands are abnormally short, which looks fine at first glance but takes some getting used day to day. In my opinion, some of the benefits of having high-contrast markers are lost by making the hands shorter.

The second hand is red, with a bit of luminescent material at the tip so you can see it in the dark. Some users have reported that the second-hand does not line up with the tick marks when it ticks, but mine seems lined up perfectly.

The date window shows the day of the week (Sunday in red) and the date. It also features alternating days of the week in Spanish, which is a pain because you have to turn past the ones you don’t want. I wish they just made separate English and Spanish versions as it’s an inconvenience for users of both languages.

Luminescence

citizen-bm8180-03e Luminescence

This watch uses a good quality luminescence material, which makes it easy to read in the dark. It’s fairly liberal with the material on the hour and minute hands, and has a little taste at the tip of the second hand, too.

The shorter hands don’t make it ideal to read in the dark, but they compensated by putting significantly more material on the minute hand. What I’ve found is that it’s not quite as intuitive as some other watches to read at first glance in the dark.

 

Case Citizen BM8180-03E

This is a sub $100-150 watch with a high-quality movement, so they had to cut corners somewhere. The stainless steel case is decent but still a budget. The crown also feels a little cheap. We will see how it stands up over time. Overall the case appears to be perfectly adequate.

citizen-bm8180-03e

Band Citizen BM8180-03E

Just about the only reason, most reviewers have taken off a star is because of the canvas band. They are right, the band is awful. It’s too stiff, it retains water, and the rivets are not only hideous but uncomfortable as well.

However, the band isn’t a deal-breaker. I knew its shortcomings before I bought the watch and factored that into my purchase. I am still deciding on a new band, but it will probably be nylon or possibly leather.

Even if you factor in the cost of a new band, this watch is still a good deal. This cut corner can be replaced.

citizen-bm8180-03e

Packaging

The packaging is fairly standard for a Citizen watch.

Citizen BM8180-03E watch packaging

Citizen BM8180-03E watch packaging

Conclusions

I like this watch and I’m happy with my purchase. But it’s not as easy to read without my glasses as I thought it would be. But overall, the excellent Eco-Drive movement makes up for the few annoyances I have. It’s a sharp-looking watch with clean lines. It is currently sharing EDC duties with the Seiko Automatic 5 which I bought at the same time.

citizen-bm8180-03e

I’ve got the watch wet a few times, and so far none of the reported problems with the band smelling. Maybe because I set it out to dry before I wear it again. That’s OK, the canvas band is getting replaced soon.

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Citizen BM8180-03E review - Men's Eco-Drive Watch
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Filed Under: Watch Reviews Tagged With: Citizen BM8180, Citizen Eco-Drive, Men's Eco-Drive Watch

Mike Green

About Mike Green

I'm a blogger and traveler. This is my blog about outdoor staff and places to visit.
Author backpackingreview.com

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Mike GreenI'm a blogger and traveler. This is my blog about outdoor staff and places to visit.
Author backpackingreview.com

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