REVIEW: CITIZEN NIGHTHAWK

The CITIZEN ECO DRIVE NIGHTHAWK might be old news to a lot of watch people out there. It’s been around for a few years and has gotten a decent amount of attention in its day. But despite that we felt that it had a place on worn&wound, because it’s one of the best mass-market quartz offerings out there in terms of affordability, good design and value. For $237, the Nighthawk delivers in ways that many more expensive watches don’t. It has useful complications and features, distinctive looks, solid build quality, good water resistance and a solar powered movement that lasts 180 days on a full charge and never requires a new battery. Forgetting that it is a cool looking watch for a second, between the GMT hand, the slide rule bezel and the solar movement, you have 3 outstanding features that can actually be useful on a daily basis. As James Enloe pointed out in his guide of GMT watches, being able to track a second time zone has very practical implications. Slide rule bezels can allow you to do division, multiplication, convert various distance units and much more on the fly. And knowing that your watch is never going to suddenly stop as long as it sees a little sunlight here and there is a great feeling.

Case

The Nighthawk has a 41mm stainless steel case with a lightly brushed finished on the body and around the outer bezel. The case is constructed of 3-parts, as is standard, but has a very pronounced outer bezel that houses the internal slide rule. This gives the 12.5mm tall body a slightly greater perceived height. The main portion of the case has a unique form with harsh geometry and strong faceted shapes. It is an interesting form that emphasizes the aviation roots of the watch, and gives it a unique and modern look. At 8 and 3 are two crowns, operating the internal bezel and basic time setting functions, respectfully. Both crowns are straight cylinder shapes with a knurled finish and chunky crown guards protecting them. The knurling provides both excellent grip and a visually pleasing texture. Both crowns also operate very smoothly and are indicative of a good quality build. The crown at 3 also screws down, facilitating the 200m water resistance, and is adorned with a Nighthawk logo. The case back is a standard screw down type made of polished steel. It has a very light etching with basic information and a Citizen Nighthawk logo in the center. The case back could have used a drop more attention, in my opinion.

TROY-BILT MOWERS GUIDE THROUGH

Up for consideration, today is the TROY-BILT MOWERS. This rear-drive riding mower looked kind of like a combination of a scooter and a mower when I first saw it but the real test is not how it looks but how it performs on my yard. Let’s see if it can get the job done, shall we?
The first thing that I want to mention about this riding lawnmower is that it will take about an hour to assemble it and you’re going to need a number of different tools to do it (mainly, 1/2-inch and 9/16th-inch wrenches). I had to uncrate mine, attach the steering wheel, the seat, and the battery and make a few adjustments, add gas and so on. So factor in some time to do the job right.

Once it was assembled and ready to go, I decided to give it a run on my property. It did a pretty good job of cutting my grass on level ground but it couldn’t handle the hills that were not even steep. Now I know that rear-drive riding mowers aren’t good for hills in the first place, but this one did a particularly poor job and I thought it was going to flip on me. So for the rest of this review, I decided to keep it on level ground.

I did notice that the engine had quite a bit of power and it cut my grass well—even some of the tall, wild grasses I had growing on the edge of my property. While it’s 30-inch deck is smaller than other higher priced riding mowers, it’s a lot more than a push mower so it handled the job of cutting my grass fairly well. As long as it stayed on the level ground.

It also has a pretty good turning radius. An 18-inch turning radius to be exact. Sure, it’s not a zero-turn radius mower but I was able to get a lot closer to my oak trees than I have been able to do with some push mowers I’ve owned, so that’s always a plus.

While it did a really good job of cutting grass, it didn’t handle as well as I would have liked it to handle. For one thing, I found the controls were positioned oddly. This might be fine for some people but it felt really strange to me and like I was reaching. I also didn’t like the brake and clutch combination. For me, it was a bit oversensitive and this led to a quite jerky ride for me.

Another thing that I want to mention is that you have to disengage the blades in order to go in reverse. Yes, I know it’s a safety issue and more and more mowers have this feature, but this one wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked and added to my mowing time.

The last thing that I would like to say about this riding mower is that it really isn’t meant for large pieces of property. If you have a large piece of property, then you’d probably want to buy a bigger mower.



PROS

• Great for even, medium-sized yards
• Makes sharp turns rather well
• Powerful

CONS

• Assembly takes some time
• Have to disengage cutting blades to go in reverse
• Handling is not perfect