Oh man, this one is rare, but you’ve got to love it. I think this is a perfect combination of style and technology that is bested in few places. Further, this particular Citizen Campanola is extremely rare. Probably only a handful are in the US. One of these is available right now on eBay. There are only 2000 of them in the entire world.

You’ll notice that this Campanola barely resembles the other highly-styled ones that Citizen offers. While this model (the CTS57-0701) is not as avant-garde, is certainly retains the high level of build quality in a more classic, almost military look. Citizen chose to endow this model with a highly polished and thick steel case, brightly luminated hands and number markers, and a level of detail and finish almost never seen in Japanese watches.

The star of the CTS57-0701 is the movement that is the super accurate quartz caliber A660H. This movement is taken from the Citizen Chronomaster (not sold in the US). One feature the movement has is a perpetual calendar with an individual date setting button. You can’t see the buttons as it is recessed into the case, but it is in the 1 o’clock position and is used to adjust the date without messing with the time (as this movement also has a hack seconds function that stops the seconds when pulling out the crown for precise setting).

More importantly, the A660H (aka A660) movement represents one of the most accurate movement types in the world. To within 5 seconds a year! That means if you sync this watch with an atomic clock, at the end of of a year, it will only be a maximum of 5 seconds off. That is pretty amazing. A typical quartz movement is accurate to within about 10-15 seconds a month, and a mechanical movement.. well it really just depends, but can be to withing 5-15 seconds a day. Having said that, you should really be able to appreciate the accuracy of the A660H. Other than the Citizen Chronomaster, Breitling uses similar movements in their “Super Quartz” watches.

So, although this particular Citizen Campanola packs a lot in a demure looking case, it is still very attractive and uses the finest quality materials. The strap is crocodile leather with a superb locking clasp, and the craftsmanship is top-notch. The case is antimagnetic (as all good military themed watches should be, and a 38mm in size with 20mm wide lugs. This is a good size for such a styled watch.

I encourage you to check it out on eBay, the price at under $1,500 is less than what a lesser Citizen Chronomaster would cost in Japan. Check out this list of most Citizen Campanola watches here (in Japanese).

See Citizen Campanola watches on eBay here.

See Citizen Campanola watches on Amazon here. [phpbay]campanola | citizen campanola | citizen chronomaster, num, “14324”, “”[/phpbay]