As I mentioned in another thread, I bought a Citizen watch recently. It was sold to me (by a reputable store) as an Eco-Drive watch. The box they gave me that the watch (supposedly) came in is marked as such. Yet the manual claims that it should be marked as Eco-Drive on either the face or the caseback. It is marked as Quartz on the face and nothing about it on the caseback.
What’s the likelihood that there was some kind of mistake, and the watch I bought is a conventional battery operated one?
My Eco-drive says so on the face, right under the Citizen logo.
ETA: Oh, and it has the distinctive Eco-drive logo (the globe) embossed on the back.
Does it have a battery number on the back - like CR142?
Virtually all new watches sold by citizen are ecodrive and labeled as such. Can you post the numbers off the back and a description of the watch?
Does the manual match the watch - what caliber is the manual for? Sometimes they are somewhat general.
I don’t know what a battery number would look like. The info on the back, from top clockwise:
Citizen Watch Co. (obvious)
WR 10 BAR (the water resistance)
G-N 4-S (dunno; is that it?)
Movt. Japan -> 5 (has to do with its movement, I assume)
6 digit number (I think a serial #)
4 digit number, followed by a dash, then a six character number starting with a letter (is THAT it?)
St. Steel (obvious)
That’s it. No globe. No markings that mark it as an Eco-Drive watch that I can see.
I have no idea if the manual matches the watch. It’s really general and talks about both conventional and Eco-Drive watches.
The dashed number on the back is 2510-S9230[either 6 or 8]. It has HST afterwards; I missed that at first.
Oh, and a description: metal links for a band, blue face, dots and bars/triangle on the face, second hand, the 10-20-30 etc. around the edge. Just a day, no day of the week or month. It was less than $150 retail, and discounted to 50% off by the store, so I have no idea how old it is.
Does it look anything like this one?
Can you describe the front?
Color of dial?
Seconds hand?
Chrono?
number of pushers?
Date?
Some of those I mentioned above. And no, no real resemblance to the picture in the link.
I have no idea what a pusher is.
There are no dials or anything on the face besides the day of the month.
Scratch first one…
Like this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Citizen-Quartz-Blue-Dial-Watch-Glowing-Hands-Hours-/360478708326
Sorry I had posted while you were - check out next pic - I think I’m getting closer.
Yep, that’s it.
So I guess the store did make a mistake. I wonder how that happened. Now I gotta figure out what to do with the watch; a major reason I bought it was because I didn’t need to worry about the battery.
If this is the watch, it’s not Eco-drive.
Goddammit, I’m getting more pissed off the more I think about it. Since I had/have no idea how much Eco-Drive adds to the cost of the watch, I didn’t know whether the price was right. I would’ve gone blithely along until the battery went dead.
Someone fucked up, or someone lied to me. Now I may be back to square one, and need to figure out how much more I’m willing to spend to never change a battery.
Gah.
They lost the box for that watch long ago. I can’t find out how old it is, but some people reselling it on eBay are selling it as vintage. I wouldn’t go back that far, but it wouldn’t shock me if they have had that watch for 5-10 years. Citizen doesn’t even provide instructions for that caliber any longer on their website - 2510 is the caliber. 2510-s92308 is the model.
I’d return it - and hopefully get a discount on a real ecodrive. Probably not a bad watch, but IMO - Id guess is it isn’t even on its original battery.
Ask to see a manager. It was almost certainly a mistake (not intentional). Don’t be angry, but explain you were promised an Eco drive watch and would like one. It should say ecodrive on the face. Also the caliber of the watch - usually 4 digits should match the caliber of the manual.
Here’s the technical data for your watch…
http://www.awci.com/wp-content/uploads/watch-tech-guides/CITIZEN-TECH-GUIDES/2510-Technical-Information.pdf
I plan to do generally that, but I’ll almost certainly have to pay more. THAT also kind of pisses me off, because I feel like I was “fooled,” even if it wasn’t deliberate.
I wouldn’t feel that bad. Watch boxes are usually pretty basic/general. It isn’t someone on the first time would necessarily pick up on. It isn’t like you thought you were buying a $5k Rolex and got a fake. You bought NOS - the sales people probably didn’t even realize they had. They convinced you it was Eco drive, because all new (with a couple exceptions) citizen watches are Eco-drive.
Trust me - I’ve seen people make watch mistakes. On a scale of 1-10 I’d give yours a 3.
So how much should I expect to pay, then? Is the additional cost worth the hassle of not having to worry about the battery?
Well they are generally better made as well. For a diving watch like you have - with metal band - my guess is $300 retail - hopefully you can get that down some - see if you can get close to 50% off. The diving watches now are better than before - so it might be even more than that.
Look through amazons citizen ecodrives and see if you find one you like.
How does one get “close to 50% off,” just to ask? 
(Though even that would be almost double what I paid for this one… I guess that’s just a bullet I have to bite, maybe.)