Tick but no Tock

I'm searching for a new watch. I've had a few very reliable watches, but they all have one problem---having to change the battery. Call me lazy, but watches use button batteries, and every time they die, you have to bring it to a department store like Macy's to get it changed. Even though it doesn't happen often, whenever it does happen, it's very annoying.

Thus, I want a watch that doesn't require me to open it up from time to time to change the battery. There are a few options on the market:

• kinetic -- where the watch is powered by movement--movement of your wrist as you move about throughout the day.
• light -- powered by natural sunlight or artificial indoor light.
• automatic -- "self-winding". The mechanism is similar to the mechanism of a kinetic watch.

Excited about the prospect of buying a new watch, I jumped onto the soonest BART to Macy's. However, after spending a good hour there and having the sales rep show me their collection of watches, I was very disappointed.

It turns out, the automatic watches are very high-end (>$1000), way out of my price range. There are a lot of kinetic watches, but most are only available for men. So, basically, my only option left is the light-powered watches, which Citizen's Eco-Drive line is known for. Sadly, I didn't really like any of the Eco-Drives.

On the other hand, there are a ton of regular, quartz/Japanese/Swiss movement watches, some of which are very high quality. But again we encounter the problem of battery replacement. In looking at these, I was particularly biased towards one of Juicy Couture's watches (the one that had a pink alligator leather strap--it was very unique). In general, I also have a soft spot for watches with a tan/brown leather strap.

Like many things in life, it seems like I can't have the best of both worlds--style and functionality. I really feel limited in the number of choices I have--like a man in an evening wear store. The sales rep suggested I try online stores. Hopefully, I'll have better luck there...