Citizen’s CZ Smart Hybrid Watch Combines Timeless Design With Modern Functionality

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Once relegated to science fiction, smartwatches seem as ubiquitous as our smartphones these days. There are a lot of great functions a smartwatch serves, including monitoring our health, keeping up with texts, and providing an emergency calling system (as well as a location) should we have an accident. Smartwatch owners are never without their favorite tunes, either, and they never get lost and can know the score in a jiffy when their favorite team is playing.

For true watch aficionados, however, smartwatches don’t always provide the style that a regular watch can. If you’re a collector or just prefer the appearance and heft of a linked bracelet, the smartwatch style can fall a little flat.

Citizen, one of the leading watchmakers in the world, has developed the answer for those wanting the capabilities of a smartwatch without losing the good looks of a traditional wristwatch.

Citizen CZ Gen 2 Hybrid Smartwatches: What You Need to Know

The Citizen CZ Smart Hybrid, a new generation of smartwatches dubbed “the smarter smartwatch,” has received rave reviews since its inception. The latest line, the Gen-2 Hybrid Smartwatches, is no different and offers several builds that all boast smart functionality in an elegant design.

“This is a beautiful smartwatch with plenty of useful features,” said one reviewer. “The band is attractive and comfortable. The battery lasts all day. The charger has a nice design that doesn’t require the watch to be placed in exactly the right spot; it uses two charging pins and the watch can rotate all the way about the axis of the charger and still get power.”

Battery power can last up to 18 days, but like all batteries, the length of time between needed charges varies by usage.

The varied styles of CZ Smart Hybrid watch mean there’s a model for every taste and occasion, plus all of them boast long runtimes. The Gen-2 Sport Smartwatch ($340, was $425), has a sleek black stainless steel bracelet with a traditional fold-over clasp and push buttons, giving it the look and feel of an elegant sport watch. The mineral crystal face is impact and shatter resistant. For those who prefer a traditional stainless steel build, Citizen has an option for you as well.

Each CZ Smart Hybrid watch has a 44mm case and a 1.1” E-ink display with a backlight and 240 x 240 resolution.

“I love Citizen’s styling, and they’ve done an excellent job here of translating the look and feel of their analog watches over to a smart watch,” said one reviewer. “The all black model is truly stunning. It feels substantial and looks perfectly balanced.”

The Gen-2 Sport Smartwatch is also available with a silicone strap with a traditional buckle clasp and a gold-tone case ($316, was $395), for those who prefer the adjustability of the buckle and security of silicone. However, there’s no sacrifice of beauty, as the gold-tone case stands out against the black face and band. Other styles include a navy silicone band with a silver case ($300, was $375) and a silver case and black silicone band ($300, was $375).

“I love everything about this watch,” said one reviewer. I have a few OS watches and they’re all great, but this one’s a bit more refined and looks a bit more formal or like a ‘traditional mechanical’ watch. Lots of classic-looking watch faces in the app store that are appropriate and make it look good.”

Compatible with both iPhone and Android, the CZ Smart Hybrid is managed through the Citizen Connected app. Here you can customize it to your liking—manage notifications for texts, emails, calendar alerts, and many other features. However, the CZ Smart Hybrid allows users to choose the perfect layout for the watch face, so the wearer has the information they want at the ready, including activity trackers, weather, date, and alternate time zones.

The Citizen Connected app also integrates with Amazon Alexa, and each watch comes with a mic to let you play music, control your smart home system, or ask for news or information through the virtual assistant. The app can deliver the latest in golf news, live sports updates and partners with your Nest thermostat and August® or Yale® smart lock systems through the Riiiver platform, an IoT platform by Citizen. 

According to one reviewer, “Setup is a breeze! Attach the band, toss it on the charger and download the Wear OS app. Pairing is super easy and signing into your Google account syncs everything. I love the Google Fit integration, since I use that to track everything with a bunch of linked apps.”

To enhance the health of the wearer, Citizen has partnered with IBM Watson to create the innovative wellness app, YouQ, which tracks your activity and key health indicators and makes suggestions for activity based on insights gleaned from the health data it collects. The ultimate aim here is to help the wearer improve healthy habits.

YouQ has a number of helpful features, including a custom-built Alert Monitor, a version of NASA’s test to understand astronauts’ cognitive ability. The Alert Scores gathered by CZ Smart YouQ and sleep data are used to create a personalized Power Gauge graph that anticipates times during the day when your alertness might drop off, up to the next 24 hours.

“It’s the most perfect watch. My husband loved it. Truly an investment purchase that we don’t regret.”