Watches have been around since the mid 1500s bringing a portable means to keep track of time. These early timepieces had to be wound twice a day, and then in the late 1600s the spiral balance spring created watches that ran all day and brought about the accuracy of a watch to be in fractions of minutes. Truly time had finally been integrated into people's existence.

Through the years watch technology has advanced. In the 1920s the first quartz clock was developed creating accurate time measurements and soon after the technology was adapted to watches. Developments followed one after the other from 1950s -- batteries innovated watches and electronic watches with LCD displays were developed.

In the past 20 years new technologies and materials have created advanced capabilities like Tissot's touch-screen watches (the T-Touch), Citizen's solar-powered Eco-Drive watches and Seiko's Titanium watches. It is truly an exciting time - no doubt moving toward a Dick Tracy watch. Wait - aren't they here already?

What impresses me most is Citizen's solar-powered Eco-Drive watches. Citizen has pioneered technology with the Eco-Drive watches that take their power from natural energy sources. The traditional watch battery has become obsolete with this technology and has a solar cell located under the dial to power the watch. Any light source charges the cell.

Citizen grew from a Japanese watch maker taking the Citizen name in 1924 and has been in the timepiece marketplace for over 75 years. The company is a global brand producing leading watches with advanced technology including a slim LCD watch, voice recognition watch and produced the world's first dive watch. Citizen is unique in that it designs dress models as well as sports models - watches as suited for a job interview as for a mountaineering climb.