The Citizen Perpetual Chrono A.T is, to put it lightly, quite the watch. I found it last year when looking to spend some vouchers at a major department store in the UK. I’d been window shopping for a couple of days, trying to find the right watch to mark a landmark birthday (I won’t say which age but let’s just say ARRGHHH!) and I had spotted a different Citizen. A limited edition Red Arrows model which looked absolutely sick (in a good way). A fussy, complex piece with information for days. But it also had one major flaw. It had a world time function with cities printed around the edge of the dial and one of those was Moscow – right there at 1.30.
As the son of a Ukrainian, that shit was never going to fly with me and so I kept looking until I found this, the Perpetual Chrono A. T, which also has a world time function but with abbreviated cities. And there at 1.30 was ‘RUH’ which doesn’t mean Russia or anything but rather Riyahd. Be choosy about your human rights abusers, that’s what I always say. So with that family dinner minefield dodged, I spend what must have felt like an aeon looking at the watch and trying it on.

Listen, £499 might not be much in the world of watches but it doesn’t come for free and so it had to be right but I made the decision, asked the nice sales guy to remove three links so I could wear it out of there and that was it. The cornerstone of my collection was purchased. And why is it the cornerstone? Well, that’s all down to just how clever this watch is.
The Perpetual Chrono is one of Citizen’s Eco Drive watches. Powered by any light, as long as this watch isn’t kept in your sock draw or secret family basement, it should stay powered up and ready to go. It’ll never need a battery. Imagine that. And when you combine that with the radio-controlled atomic clock synchronisation, you’ve got a watch that stays unerringly accurate the whole time. And as such this sits right in the middle, prime position in the watchbox. The watch that we use to set our other watches whenever we decide to wear them. The ‘Daddy’ so to speak.

There’s something just outrageously cool about that. Sure, the watch snobs may be happier with their automatic movements and, hey, we like the morning ritual of setting a watch as much as the next guy but sometimes you just want to grab and go and the Perpetual Chrono is the watch for that. This comes into play on two particular days of the year. When the clocks go forward in the Spring and back in the Autumn, you don’t need to worry about this watch. It’s all over that before you’ve even woken up. It just works.
Looking at the dial, there’s a lot going on with this watch. Possibly too much for watch minimalists and folks who prefer form over function but the Citizen is all about function. There’s so much going on that really this almost needs to be your only watch as otherwise it’s almost impossible to retain all of its instructions in your head. You’ve got a tri-compax layout to help you figure it all out.

At the 10:30 position is the 24-hour dial (possibly the least useful of all the possible sub-dials a watch can have) while at 1:30 is a complex hybrid of a 60 minute chronograph dial which, when not in chronograph mode, acts a day indicator. Very cool. There’s also an indicator for whether or not automatic summertime adjustment has been activated.
The bottom sub-dial is just a mode selector. It has four functions but, oddly, they are repeated so this is an eight-position dial. Strange but not an issue. By pulling out the non-screw down crown to position one and rotating it, you can select the mode you want. These are ALM (alarm), CHR (chronograph), SET (for manually adjusting the time/date) and TME (for changing your summertime settings, forcing an atomic clock sync or setting up the world timer function).
Our only issue with that set up is that you need to faff with the crown if you want to access the chronograph (which invariably means taking it off). We usually keep the watch in time-setting mode as this allows the seconds hand to move, whereas chronograph mode leaves it stuck at 12 o’clock.

Aside from the three sub-dials, you also get a date window at 4 o’clock and a few bits of extra information including those aforementioned abbreviated city names, the Citizen logo, the Eco Drive branding and WR200, a reference to the 200 meters of water resistance. And if that’s not enough to look at, you even get a tachymeter on the bezel. Yes, the Perpetual Chrono is a bit much. A maximalist watch that’s not afraid to bamboozle you with as much data an analogue watch could possibly hit you with.
Of course, all that information needs the real estate to be printed on and this watch has a 43mm dial which is just about at the limit of what we can get away with wearing but smaller than you’d expect with all that writing on it.

This could have all been a bit of a design disaster, all that competing information crammed into the size of a shrinkflated biscuit, but, to us at least, this watch is a bit of a looker. The dial combines a glossy black chapter ring, complete with vinyl style discreet lines, with a textured dark grey centre. Both finishes reveal different textures on closer inspection depending on how the light hits them. Silver partial circles shine metallically while the numbers and words are all neatly printed in black and white with the occasional red flourish just for a bit of interest. It’s as minimal as a rich bachelor’s flat in the ’80s and just as stark.
Meanwhile, the stainless steel bracelet mixes brushed and polished surfaces to great effect. For a watch so sombre in appearance, it catches the light brilliantly, always finding a way to shine from some nook on that case or from the bracelet. It’s also pretty comfortable to wear with the clasp being easy enough to open with a light squeeze. There’s no microadjust but there are a couple of half links in there to ensure you get a good fit. The only downside is that the links are held together with pins rather than screws. And the first time that I resized it, a pin fell open and I found the watch nestled safely down by the elbow. Of course, that could have gone the other way. I would not have been happy if it’d hit the floor. That said, I’ve had no issues since.

We can’t imagine this watch on anything but this bracelet, so I’m not convinced it’d be easy to swap up the look with a strap. Also, there’s no quick release anyway, so I’m not sure if this is integrated or not. Either way, I don’t fancy scratching up the lugs trying to figure it out.
Overall, this Citizen is going to be a Marmite watch. Some people, like myself, will love it. The fussiness, the functionality, the whole ‘not having to set it when the clocks go back’ thing. It’s just so very cool. Stylistically though, it’s probably not going to turn heads and it’s a little bit on the large side. Of course, Citizen have a ton of different models out there. So people looking for a dash of colour will be better off suited to Citizen’s Tsuyosa range or even the Snowbirds Promaster Navihawk. But if you want the ultimate no-fuss, pick up and go watch that’s going to last you decades. This is a solid pick.
The ‘Ten Watch Box’ Verdict: So, will it hold down a place in our ten watch display case? Well, this watch has a couple of roles in the collection. It was exactly what I wanted the day, it sets the standard for the time I set my automatics to and it’s what I grab when I’m in a hurry to leave the house. It’s also just a great watch. A serious piece that eschews flash for functionality. I can’t see this one ever leaving the collection unless Citizen release something similar in either a smaller size or with a super striking look.
Availability/Options: Getting your hands on this watch is super easy, barely an inconvenience. It’s online, it’s in shops (try John Lewis in the UK). The trick is finding it for less than that £499 RRP. eBay is your best bet because these things do not hold their value on there at all. Expect to pay less than half price if you don’t mind going pre-owned.
Brand: Citizen
Model: Perpetual Chrono A-T
Reference: CB5898-59E
Style: Chronograph
Case Size: 43mm
Movement: Eco-Drive (unnamed)
Material: Stainless Steel
Band Width: 24mm
Band Type: Bracelet (stainless steel with fold over clasp)
Price Paid: £499