Citizen Mickey Mouse Eco-Drive Watch

…and I got this watch for ‘free’! I don’t think it’s even worth the tax bill it will cost me. Read on to find out why.This is one of the higher priced watches in the Citizen Disney collection at time of writing the review. Nearly $100 more than most of the others which have more features such as tachometer, chronograph and second hands. So what is it about this particular style that warrants the higher price? If it were a numbered limited edition, then I could understand, but it isn’t. This watch has less features than an old ‘el cheapo’ brand I had back in the 1980’s.Citizen boasts about its Eco-drive system and how sunlight powers a special cell that can power the watch for over 200 days. Closer reading of the instruction manual states that the watch needs about 9 hours of sunlight to charge the cell and long sleeved clothing will block the ability of the watch being able to recharge. Well, my old el cheapo from the 1980’s used kinetic motion to wind up the watch. Same idea, without the need for any form of electronics and no need to sit the watch out in the sun for most of the day. I feel that was a better system than this.The marketing photos make it look like the watch face glows really brightly. But it needs prolonged exposure to sunlight for that to be the case. Good luck reading the time at night! The light sensitive luminous material used on the watch face isn’t overly bright. The good news is it’s not radioactive like the old photosensitive material used (probably in my old el cheapo), the fact that none of this material was used on the watch hands, baffles me. You can’t see the hands in the dark at all, rendering the Watch useless after dark. In fact, you can’t really see the hands in the daytime either for that matter, they just blend into the background.This watch does have a date window. You will need to use the magnifier on your phone to be able to read it. Or you could just read the date and time on your phone and save yourself the hassle.There is no instruction manual in the box, just a leaflet telling you to download an app to register your watch and view the instructions. Yep, they made a pointless app for you to download, and likely only ever use once. The instructions are minimal and simply cover the obvious functions on how to use a watch like this. I mean really, it’s common knowledge you adjust the date and time by pulling the crown out one or two stops and then turn the crown to adjust the date or time. They want you to download an app to explain that to you. What the instructions don’t tell you, is how to remove links from the bracelet. They also don’t supply you with the small tool to do this. A watch of this price should come with that tool.Side note… My case and leaflet that were inside the box looked like someone had sneezed on it… gross!