Smartwatches are the perfect combination of an activity monitor, notification centre, speakerphone, and more all in one. These new Citizen smartwatches with voice control and heart rate monitoring are a great way to get a lot out of a tiny little device. Let’s talk design, functionality, and Citizen’s new YouQ platform that helps you optimize your day for peak performance.
What is Citizen CZ YouQ?
Citizen is a watch brand that most people will recognize. With over 100 years of history, the brand has been designing classic timepieces for longer than I or anyone reading this has been alive. They’ve even pioneered some major watch technologies, like the first solar watch.
But the CZ line is new. It’s a line of smartwatches that comes with a whole spiel: Citizen calls it “CZ Smart with IBM Watson®” and it features an element that the brand has named YouQ. Unlike other smartwatches, which are typically designed to help you access your body’s raw data throughout the day, YouQ is a gamified approach to wearable technology. It combines your aggregate alertness scores and sleep data to create your personal Power Gauge. The Power Gauge graph shows you when your body is anticipated to peak and drop in alertness, giving you a window of time when you’re likely to be at your most effective and alert. Along with the gauge, YouQ will give you an Hourly Power Score plus Power Fixes to help you target your tired or unfocused periods.
So, instead of just being a push notification centre or step tracker, these CZ smartwatches are an AI-powered way to optimize your performance throughout the day. You can use all of these smartwatches with or without YouQ, but I thought it would be an interesting place to start off this review. As far as I know, it’s pretty unique. Every smart monitoring device has the data it needs to give you this type of info, but most brands either aren’t re-processing it or are presenting it in a different way.
I think this is a pretty cool technology. However, because it’ll present such different results for every individual, I’m going to focus this review more on the day-to-day capabilities of this range of Citizen smartwatches. If you buy one of these smartwatches to use YouQ, keep in mind that it takes about two weeks for the watch to form these graphs and suggestions—so purchase early if there’s a specific event or project that you’re trying to get into peak mental state for!
What’s in the box of a Citizen CZ Smartwatch?
In the box of each of these smartwatches, you’ll find a watch packed tightly on a foam base. It comes with a magnetic charging cable, a quick start guide, and product literature. What I really appreciate about these boxes is that they’re totally reusable: The foam is packed in really securely, but nothing is glued. So, you can reuse these well-made boxes really easily.
(Hey, a good box is a good box!)
Note that while all of these magnetic charging cables look the same, some have two prongs while others have one. If you purchase his & hers watches, make sure to remember that your charging cables may not be interchangeable. They’ll each magnetize to every watch, but won’t necessarily charge other models.
Citizen smartwatch compatibility
These smartwatches turn on by holding their large centre dial for three seconds. They ship charged, or generally ship charged, so I recommend charging them when they arrive but you may be able to get away with setting them up right out of the box. Citizen designed these watches to be both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatible and they work with iPhone and Android.
Citizen CZ Smartwatches are built on Google’s Wear OS 3. Some models (Smart Sport and Casual Touchscreen models but not Hybrid designs) contain a speaker and microphone so you can take calls right from your smartwatch. They’re voice compatible with built-in Amazon Alexa.
Sport vs Casual touchscreen watch features
There are three subcategories within the Citizen CZ watch line. Sport models offer silicone, leather, or stainless steel traps while Casual models come with a mesh bracelet-style watch band, stainless steel links, or silicone straps. Both of these options have a full touchscreen face and all three of these smartwatch designs use the same three-dial design. From the Sport and Casual watches, you can expect to find customizable watch faces, resizable watch bands, and a bevy of downloadable apps. Both of these watch types can track your heart rate, pulse oxygen levels, and sleep quality, and can push notifications and alarms to your wrist.
The Citizen CZ Smart Sport watches in this review are the PQ2 Sport 45mm in Black Bracelet (black on black bezel with a metal bracelet) and Black Strap (black bezel on silver lugs with a silicone strap). They charge in 40 minutes and run for 24 hours per charge. The PQ2 is not water-resistant, features an OLED screen, and is finished with Gorilla glass. It contains a gyroscope, an altimeter, a barometer, and an accelerometer.
The Citizen CZ Casual Touchscreen watches in this review are the PQ2 Casual 41mm in Silver-Tone Bracelet and Rose Gold-Tone Mesh. They’re built on the same software and hardware as the Sport watches, so they have the same capabilities and charge time.
Hybrid Citizen smartwatch features
Citizen Hybrid Smartwatches look and function a little differently from the brand’s Sport and Casual lines. While the other watches reviewed here are built on Citizen’s PQ2 watch, these hybrid watches are built on the Smart Hybrid Extreme.
If you sacrifice the OLED screen of a full touchscreen watch, you can gain a lot: In this case, an extra 17 days of battery life. These hybrid smartwatches have a MIP Display instead of an OLED watch face (still finished in Gorilla Glass). That means the display reloads slightly more slowly and does so in a finely pixelated fashion, and it looks seamless and matte—when they’re not in motion, these displays look like they’ve been printed, not projected.
Citizen’s Hybrid line of smartwatches can still push notifications to your wrist, scroll through messages, play music, control your smart home, monitor your blood oxygen levels, and more. They just go about their tasks slightly differently.
The Citizen CZ Smart Hybrid Extreme Smartwatches here are the 44pm GPS model in Silver and Black.
My experience with these Citizen smartwatches
Overall, I was really happy with these Citizen smartwatches. They’re well-built, stylish, and offer a ton of features with excellent app integration. On my smaller frame, I prefer the 41mm Casual design, but all three of these styles can be worn as unisex/genderless products.
My favourite feature in these watches wasn’t the new YouQ (though I admit that it’s very cool) but was, instead, the integration of pulse rate and pulse ox monitoring. Citizen advises you not to use their smartwatches as medical devices, but based on simultaneous readings from this watch and my actual pulse rate and blood pressure monitors, they’re spot on. For smaller wrists, I found I got a better reading with the watch face on the inside of my arm, but if you want to be constantly monitoring I’d recommend just wearing your watch slightly higher so it never loses contact during wrist motion.
These smartwatches are a great way to optimize your focus throughout the workday, track your daily activity levels, and stay on top of any irregularities in your body. Shop this line of Citizen smartwatches online at Best Buy today.
This will make getting healthier and more active easier! I like seeing data at my fingertips (quite literally in this case!) so I think this watch would really help me with my New Year’s resolution.
I would love to win this for my husband because being able to just glance at his watch instead of pulling out his phone while he’s working would be awesome.
Would use the fitness tracker
The nice large touch screen. Just easier to navigate with the finger.
The power gauge would make my life infinitely easier and more fun I think!
These watches would make it easier for me to track my heart rate and calories burn during workouts.
Having one of these watches would help me to manage and monitor my health and fitness status continuously.
Voice control for sure.
Greatto keep to track of my heart rate & Calorie count while exercising
Having one of these watches might make my life easier by making it simpler to track my calories.
these watches would make it so much easier for me to check my daily step count and heart points, so that I know that I’m keeping on track.
I think that having one of these watches will make life a little easier because it has so many helpful applications like tracking calories and steps, location etc
The full touchscreen face would e ideal for my failing eyesight!
My life would be made easier with fitness tracking to track progress towards my fitness goals.
The Smart Notification’s is the feature i value the most. As a mum of 3 I’m driving from one appointment to the next on weekends. a handsfree pseudo-assistant is a game changer.
I think the YouQ feature could help me figure out my days better – know when I should be taking a break from work and when I should be ready to tackle more difficult/complex tasks.
Will help me achieve peak mental state!
I think this would help me increase my work out intensity, aiming for a higher heart rate while biking or walking.
It would make it easier for me to count my steps and get up from my desk more often to stretch.
can make my life easier when I can get notifications even when my phone is not easily accessible
Having one of these watches would make it so much easier for me to check my daily step count and heart points, so that I know that I’m keeping on track.
I would love to be able to monitor my heart rate when I’m working out.
The health monitoring features would help me relax a little bit more
Easier to track calorie burn to improve my healt
Heart rate monitor would be helpful to keep within the best exercise zone.
YouQ feature will give me an Hourly Power Score plus Power Fixes to help me target my tired or unfocused periods
Having access to my notifications when I can’t have my phone out would be really handy!
The watch would make my workout prep a lot easier as I’d have a more accurate picture of my progress and goals.
Definitely easier to track my health / heart rate.
These watches would keep me heart healthy .
First off these watches look very sleek and modern. Great to be able to track your daily activity levels, and stay on top of any irregularities in your body as Rae pointed out.
This would help me know when my heart rate is optimal when I’m doing cardio. So I can be in the best shape ever!
One of these watches would make it easier for me to track my daily calorie consumption and burn so that it would be easier for me to stay on track with my weight goals.
Tracking my steps easily would be a really good feature for me and would help me monitoring my daily health.
Heart rate monitor would give me an indication to slow down and relax.
I think that having one of these watches might make my life a little easier than my current smartwatch because they have voice control
They will simplify the process of monitoring calorie burn, contributing to the enhancement of my overall health.
Having one of these watches might make my life easier by making it simpler to track my calories.
My doctor has told me to get out and walk more, so being able to track my steps and monitor my heart rate is just what the doctor ordered.
I like the idea of it tracking my most effective times. That could make hard projects easier, if I know when is the optimal time to start them.
A Citizen CZ hybrid smartwatch can make my life easier by combining classic timekeeping with modern technology, offering features that enhance your daily activities, keep me connected, and contribute to your overall well-being. It’s important to explore the specific features of your model to fully understand how it can best fit into my lifestyle.
I’d love the new hybrid one: https://www.citizenwatch.com/ca/en/product/JX2005-55E.html?cgid=cz-smart-hybrid
This watch would me to track my daily exercise/movement easier.
One of these watches would make my life a little easier because everything is on my wrist instead of on my phone in my pocket.
having this watch would offer so many benefits to my life. Not having to haul out my phone for messages while I am on the road. Being aware of my heart rate and knowing when I need to check my BP would be remarkable and a timesaver
Having instant access to a a barometer would be a huge benefit when working outside..
Great for My husband to track his heart rate & Calorie count on hid Daily Walks
They will make it easier to track calorie burn to improve my health
The Citizen CZ Smartwatch health monitoring functions would be beneficial in assisting me to achieve my health goals. A great way to stay on track with diet and exercise.
The health monitoring functions would make me less reliant on various multiple devices that I use now, so that would make life a little easier.
These watches would make it easier for me to track my heart rate and calories burn during stationary bike workouts.
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