Riding two time waves...

I have mentioned previously (and posted pictures of) two radio controlled watches:

• Oceanus OCWM700TDA (look here)
• Citizen Skyhawk AT Titanium - JY0010-50E (look here - below this post)

I had Oceanus for last 9 months, and Skyhawk for one month. Lets start by listing the similarities:

• both are solar powered,
• both synchronize atomic reference clocks via radio waves,
  
• both are totally encased in titanium.

We can say that both meet my key requirements for ideal watch. But they have some differences:

• Oceanus looks better: it has sapphire crystal glass, is thinner, looks more 'classic'.
• Skyhawk has small liquid crystal displays, which makes many functions so much easier (time zone change, alarm setting, etc.)
• Oceanus can synchronize with one more atomic clock - the one in UK; Skyhawk works with US, German, and Japanese clocks.
  
• Stop watch on Oceanus is useless: the minutes are counted by the small hand that also shows days of week, some modes, and tides. The dial has markings for all those functions, but no minute marks; the result is that 2min 15sec readout is practically indistinguishable from 3min 15sec.
• Oceanus has unique feature of showing tides, but Skyhawk has second alarm and timer.
• Skyhawk has backlight for the LCDs!
• Skyhawk has slide rule (I admit it is techy/geeky feature, but can be very useful for quick conversions and calculations).

The major problem I have with Oceanus is obvious error in the programming of the internal electronics: second counter is cleared and timekeeping stops whenever you enter time setting mode and change anything - home time zone for instance. It means that you have to synchronize via radio after this kind of operation. Apparently Casio realized it, since there is special insert in the manual recommending world time mode for home time zone setting...
Another potential problem is that you cannot set year and month in time setting mode: you have to synchronize with atomic clock.
I have also learned the hard way with Oceanus that advanced functions do require digital display (LCD). With hands-only display the functions like alarm setting take ages to complete:

1. Switch to the alarm mode and wait for ages until hands move to current alarm position.
2. Adjust alarm time (takes time again, especially if the new time is far from the old).
3. Return to time keeping mode - again waiting for ages...

Those problems are even worse due to hour hand being tied to minute hand - they cannot move independently during those setting operation. Since we are here: one more stupid, un-ergonomic decision. While you switch to the world time mode, minute and hour hands first do the walking to the second time zone, and when they are done indicator hand moves to the zone/city marker.
The order should be reverse, so the user can initiate switching to different time zone before hands start their lengthy motion.
Skyhawk has its little problems, too. Minute hand obscures main LCD in positions between 16 and 24, making it virtually useless during that period. I heard that some watches can park hands in neutral position on request...
My conclusion is:

• for travel and work, I'm going to use Skyhawk,
• for more official situations (when the look counts) I'm going to use Oceanus.

Have a good time!