I saw that it was shipped in the flight mode; I was interested to see if this would be the case. Once I opened it, I exposed it to direct sunlight for about five minutes to see if it would sync by itself. It did not. I later did a full sync on the top of a parking garage with a complete 360 degree view of the sky on a sunny day. The sync completed correctly in about 25 seconds wich was a few seconds longer than it took my Citizen Appleseed to sync under the same conditions albeit without a location fix. Here are some quick shots.
Nothing too special about the packaging. There is a CD included with the watch:
A couple of shots of the front. As expected, the solar dial is unfortunately very reflective.
Messages: 598 Location: The Watch Universe
Registered: February 2004
SEXY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mon, 01 October 2012 11:51
So when it arrived it was in Tokyo time ( I assumed you got it from Japan ) so when you did the sync, time, location and date all changed properly?? did you get a chance to video the process :-)?
Yes, the pics were taken before I attempted to sync the watch. You'll note that it was in the flight mode, so it never had a chance to sync while travelling. As soon as I finished the pics, I took it off of flight mode and let it sit for a little over 5 minutes to see if it would do anything. Then my impatience took over and I did a full sync.
Didn't video anything, but it pretty much looked like any Casio or other analog RC watch that changes when you reset timezones. The hands and the date moved to the appropriate positions.
As expected, it's a large watch. I purposely didn't buy it on a bracelet because I thought that would be too much metal. It's also heavier than I expected being a titanium watch. Don't get me wrong, it's not heavy, just more than I thought it'd be.
On the silicon strap, it actually almost feels a little top heavy. I may fool around with different strap configurations. Yes, the dial is awfully shiny and will flash your eyes pretty good when you are outside. Often with solar dials, the printing on them is not as fine and detailed as on a regular dial. Here, Seiko has done a much better than average job.
I guess I'm not a big fan of the white ring around the crown and I wish the case were toned down a bit with more brushing.
I find the Appleseed to be a much more (visually) interesting watch, but of course I can understand why many would not prefer Citizen's version of a GPS watch. Comparing the Citizen and the Seiko, I think Citizen had fun with the massive dimensions whereas Seiko just made a pretty standard looking watch with supersized features.
...Alex, you are correct, it's SS not Ti. Now I know why I was surprised by the weight. I'd originally planned to buy the 007 version which is Ti, but then decided I wanted a strap instead so picked the 011 and had forgotten that it was steel instead of Ti. So now instead of saying it's heavy for being Ti, I'll say it's light for being steel. :-)
Thanks for pointing it out. It would've taken me a day or two on my own!
On my candid thoughts...I guess I'm not the kind of guy who, every time he gets a new watch, goes on and on about how it's the greatest thing in the world and everyone should buy one blah blah blah...that gets pretty transparent over time.
Thanks for posting your 1st impression with facts.
Would you mind let us know how does the automatic time sync works once you figure it out? In the manual it only said when exposed to strong sun light but no detail on how it determines light is strong enough. Manual also mentioned if no sun light is detected it'll use a wear pattern to start sync, not sure what this means.
Here's a closeup of the dial. Seiko did try to put some subtle brushing in the cell which does make the dial look less solar like if you are not in a bright area.
This shot illustrates the depth of the dial markers.
I was hoping I could get the Automatic Sync to work when I placed the watch under totally open sky with direct sunlight for about 5-7 minutes after I unlocked the airplane mode, but the watch did not Sync on its own. I just don't know how long it would have taken had I been more patient. My Citizen Appleseed has an auto sync feature too and while I notice it has happened after the fact, I've never seen it occur.
The manual is a little vague about how this works. Maybe over time, we can figure it out.
Messages: 90 Location: Hong Kong
Registered: August 2011
Any comparison and comment on both of Seiko Astron and Citizen Appleseed ?
Mon, 01 October 2012 19:33
Dear Petew,
Congratulation ! It is a great watch. Can you kindly give comparison and comment to both of Seiko Astron and Citizen Appleseed ? What are the case diammeters of both ? Any picture for the Applessed ?
The Citizen is definitely a larger watch than the Astron.
Citizen Diameter - 48.5 vs. 47 for the Seiko
Citizen Thickness - 20.4 vs. 16.5 for the Seiko
On the wrist, the difference doesn't seem like much. Much of the Citizen's thickness can be attributed to the huge domed xtal on the watch.
It's hard to compare them because they are so different. The Appleseed is like a concept watch put into production. Citizen went all out on the design on this one coming up with something truly different. The packaging, the case, the reflective paint used on the dial and hands, the unique crystal, the see through portion of the bezel, all of these Citizen attributes are like nothing you've ever seen. If you put the Astron and the Citizen side by side in a case of watches in a mall, I suspect that people would see the Citizen and think..."there's something special about that watch" while they'd look at the Astron as just another large fashion watch.
So while the Citizen clearly is more flashy on the outside, the Seiko is more technologically advanced on the inside. The Citizen will only attempt an auto sync once every 3 days vs. every day with the Seiko and as we all know, the Seiko will also identify the wearer's location. Obviously Citizen's approach is much more conservative from a power usage point of view. Seiko's approach requires significantly more power, so much so that in fact they've had to do a lot of work on minimizing and managing the power required to make the watch perform.
The Seiko manual is littered with references to keeping this watch charged which makes me nervous about playing with it and the long term durability of the rechargeable battery.
So in summary, I do prefer the Citizen, but at the same time, I also recognize that the design is certainly "out there" and not for everyone.
I can't help but notice your "less than enthusiastic" tone about the Seiko.
I have handled the Appleseed and it is a beautiful watch but big and flashy, not for me. I prefer the more conservative approach of the Astron not to mention what appears to be more technologically refined features. I am considering either SAST009 (Steel case, blue markers, silicon strap) or the SAST003 with Bright Titanium case and bracelet.
How do you like the silicon strap? My concern is the comfort and I can see why the watch head/case may feel top heavy. After all the steel/strap models are around 146g, 10g heavier than the titanium versions with bracelet.
..it's supposed to be some sort of new high durability silicon. Sometimes silicon straps attract lots of fuzz and dust though over time. That never has bugged me, but I know it drives others crazy. Maybe "top heavy" isn't a completely accurate term for this one. It has such a high center of gravity that you can definitely feel that you have something big on your wrist. At the end of the day though, comfort is a very subjective term and what works for one person may or not work for another.
Incidentally a little bit of trivia that Seiko doesn't advertise. Did you know that technically, this is not Seikos first GPS watch? They quietly released a different one over a month ago in the Japanese market priced quite a bit lower than the Astron.
Bonus points to anyone who can tell me what that watch was. :-)
I think the bracelet affords better balance for the case on the wrist. I'd still like to try the SAST009 first before considering the added premium of the 003.
I think I saw the watch you made reference too. It is branded as an Epson, the "World's lightest GPS running monitor":
I think it is more of a direct answer to Suunto and Garmin both of which offer GPS ABC type watches. Interesting entry nevertheless and I am sure it is substantially cheaper than the Astron!
