Citizen CZ second-generation smartwatch
Citizen has announced its second-generation CZ smartwatch at CES 2023, and it uses tech derived from NASA to estimate when you’re going to get tired over the next 24 hours.
You’ll take in this advanced, AI-assisted wellness info in Citizen’s Smart YouQ app, which has what the company calls a “self-care advisor.”
The NASA part steps in when you take an Alert Monitor test, which Citizen says is based on NASA’s Psychomotor Vigilance Task Test for astronauts. That probably doesn’t sound like much fun, but the process is “gamified” to make it seem less like a chore.
This test spits out an alertness score, so it might be a fun way to quantify those moments your brain doesn’t feel entirely switched on.
There’s a more interesting part to the Citizen CZ watch’s software too. After “seven to ten days”, the watch will work out your chronotype.
This is a profile that represents your natural sleep inclinations, related to circadian rhythm. It tells you whether you’re more of a morning person, or an evening one.
Citizen says this profile will be based on “alert scores, chronotype, sleep patterns, activity, and heart rate monitoring,” not just whether you get up late or not.
Power Fixes are the active part of this process — you’ll be given tips on how to deal with those frustrating lulls, including before they happen. Fitbit offers comparable features in Sleep Profiles, added to Fitbit Premium in mid-2022, hiding chronotypes behind cutesy giraffe, bear, dolphin, hedgehog, parrot and tortoise avatars.
Will Citizen’s take be as digestible? That’s going to be a significant part of whether this stuff feels useful.
This software aside, the second-generation Citizen CZ smartwatch tech is familiar. It’s a Wear OS watch with a Snapdragon Wear 4100+ chipset and 8GB storage.
Sensors include a barometric altimeter and blood oxygenation reader, as well as the standard GPS, heart rate reader and motion sensors.
Battery life is rated at a typically uninspiring “24+” hours, and there are 41mm and 44mm versions, although both appear to have a 1.3-inch OLED screen.
These two sizes have completely different design personalities, the larger one being far more built-up, with a look closer to that of a diver’s watch. They are dubbed the Sport (44mm) and Casual (41mm) lines.
Citizen says the second-generation CZ smartwatch will be available from March 2023 in the US. The Casual watches will start at $350 while the larger 44mm Sport models start at $375. This is slightly below the original pricing of the first Citizen CZ watch from 2020, which retailed at $400.
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