How to Set the Day, Date & Time on a Citizen Watch

Here's a quick and easy guide to setting the day, date and time on a Citizen watch. In this video, we use a Citizen NH8391-51X.

Before you start, it's best to avoid changing the calendar setting between the hours of 9:00PM and 4:30AM, as this can damage the movement of the watch.

For a simple Citizen watch, changing the time is as easy as pulling the crown out (found on the side of the watch case) and then turning the crown to adjust the hands. For a watch with a calendar, it's slightly different:

To start adjusting your Citizen watch, you will need to pull the crown out to its first position. The crown can be pulled out to two positions and you will feel a click for each, but the first step requires the first position (one pull) only.

From there, you can turn the crown to adjust the day and date functions. To properly set AM/PM time, you will need to set the day and date to one value before the present. So, if it's Friday, set it to Thursday, and if it's the 28th, change it to the 27th.

Now, you can pull the crown out again as the seconds hand hits the 12 o'clock marker, this makes it easier to line your time up with an accurate clock later.

In the second crown position, you can move the hour and minute hands by turning the crown. Move the hands forward until your day and date change to your current date. Now, you are in AM time.

From there, you can either rotate your hour hand past 12 o'clock again to set your time in PM, or set it to a time in AM in the current rotation. When you've set the correct time, you can line your clock up with an accurate clock, and push the crown in as the minute changes.

[teeKeri]

This is actually one of the better, if not the best video on the subject i have seen. ♥

[JC-pmct]

My sister warned me to not change the date when I got it, because it was correct.
I didn't listen, and 3 years of trying I finally gave up and looked for instruction. This worked!
Thank you!!!❤

[E-D-E]

Only took me 4 months to find this video and correct my day and date 😂😂 thanks for putting this up 😊

[djuzla]

Thank you, had no idea that you need to set up the AM or PM on the watch

[PKDutta]

Its not working for me. First of all I cant pull the crown to its second position to stop the seconds hand ticking. But I followed everything you said, I don’t see any changes. My day and date remain same at 12:00 AM. I usually weae Seiko watch- that does its job perfectly. Don’t know what to do with Citizen! Need help. Can you upload another video covering the same matter, explaining more details? Will be grateful to you.

[CmdoCake]

I have a wicca (another brand of citizen) and couldn't find how to change the day of week and I'm glad I stumbled on your video. All others instructions used the first position to adjust both day and date but wasn't working for me so i ended up doing it your way. XD

[MusicOnlyFans]

Thanks for this video! Much appreciated.

[Massz]

My seconds hand does not stop moving when pulling into the second position? Anyone having this issue?

[lriewro]

I try to pull the adjuster but it does not pull out

[propersuiting]

Smarter to start by pulling out to time setting and spinning hands until the day changes to know if you’re in AM or PM prior to touching the day/date…

[Jesussaves_]

How does the watch know the amount of days in a month? This is a leap year (2024)- will my watch know this month has 29 days for February and change to the 1st of March????

[djbethell]

My Citizen keeps changing from English to Spanish language days and takes a full 180 minutes to change each time. Very annoying. I'm sending it back.

[Bakhan]

A bit bigger date window would have been better..

[nickomo]

Why should we avoid changing the date in those hours ?