Hands-on: Citizen’s 2nd-gen CZ Smart is Wear OS at its best [Gallery]

Compared to phones and tablets, Android on watches — until very recently — has offered a pretty universal experience. Wear OS 3 changed that, especially Samsung, but we’re now seeing a more interesting level of customization with the 2nd-gen CZ Smart from Citizen.

The 2nd-gen Citizen CZ Smart is available in 41mm and 44mm with a 1.28-inch AMOLED. That bigger version features a five-minute-increment bezel that does not rotate, and goes best with an analog watch face. 

The Wear OS 3 experience is pretty unchanged with the biggest difference being how Quick Settings, which is accessed by swiping down from the watch face, is blue. Otherwise, you swipe up for notifications and left/right of Tiles, with Citizen’s fitness apps offering several. 

The 41mm CZ Smart is quite compact, but appears slightly bigger than the similarly sized Pixel Watch. There are three buttons on the right edge, in addition to the rotating crown, though the pushes feel quite small from a surface area perspective.

Citizen estimates battery life at “24+ hours” with a full charge in 40 minutes. A look at the underside reveals how it matches those of watches manufactured by the Fossil Group. 

For the most part, Wear OS 3 requires manufacturers to offer their own companion app and health solution. Google Fit is more or less supported across all watches, but Fitbit is exclusive to the Pixel Watch, while there’s Samsung Health and Fossil’s in-app offerings. 

Citizen is implementing its own health suite that’s pitched as a “self-care advisor.” This CZ Smart YouQ experience is meant to specifically monitor fatigue and alertness, and offer “customized insights and personalized strategies.” 

There’s an “Alert Monitor” test that involves tapping moving dots on a screen to gauge your mental acuity, and this is combined with sleep data to determine your chronotype, or when you’re likely to sleep (early bird or night owl). Citizen offers more granular categories, while that information, along with other stats, is used to offer suggestions called “Power Fixes” that can improve alertness, habits, and reduce fatigue.

Citizen touts NASA research as driving this experience with IBM Watson machine learning to power everything. It remains to be seen how good this is in use — stay tuned, but the idea of an OEM customizing Wear OS in this deep a way feels notable. Citizen goes further than Samsung’s UI tweaks, but rather strikes deeply and offers something new to the core health and activity tracking that makes wearables increasingly vital.

Wear OS being used to power the basic watch experience on Citizen’s CZ Smart is equal parts obvious and still notable. It’s expected in that there’s no other open operating system like it, but the notability comes from a recognition that Google’s offering is well suited for this plug-and-play customization. The streaming services and third-party apps are already on the platform via the Play Store, while it’s the best way to access first-party Google services, especially when Gmail and Calendar arrive. Meanwhile, the fundamental UX/navigation is good, and does not need reinvention.

How Citizen is building on top of Wear OS could be a sign to other major wearable players to do the same, and that underlying uniformity is good for consumers.

The 2nd-gen Citizen CZ Smart is available for pre-order today from $350 for the 41mm Casual (cases: rose gold, silver, gold, black) and $375 for the 44mm Sport (case/bezel: silver/silver, black/black, silver/black, silver/blue, gold/black). There are various variants, and it will be available on March 1.