Sun dials: Four great solar-powered watches

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Solar-powered watches have been available since the 1980s, but the technology has undergone massive development since then.

An alternative to quartz, these timepieces gather energy from the sun or any other light source, convert it into electricity and store it in rechargeable lithium ion batteries. Top-of-the-range watches can store enough energy to last for two years after a mere week's exposure to sunlight.

What began as a novelty, largely available in cheap children's watches, is these days becoming more popular with genuine watch enthusiasts.

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So if you want to go solar, which watches burn brightest? Here are four of the best:

Tissot T-Touch Solar Expert NBA Special Edition

The T-Touch Solar Expert is a feature-packed high-end Swiss wristwatch offering 25 different functions including time in two zones, a perpetual calendar, two alarms, an altimeter, absolute and relative air pressure, backlighting, chronograph, thermometer and a compass. As the name suggests, it has a touch-sensitive face that allows the user to activate various functions by tapping areas around the bezel.

The T-Touch "has long been a great trekking watch," says Tech Crunch, but it is now trying to broaden its appeal with a tie-up with the US basketball league.

The NBA Special Edition retails for £795 and is "well worth the investment," Tech Crunch says.

Casio Edifice EQB-500

The Casio Edifice acts almost as a smartwatch, despite coming wrapped in analogue cladding. The timepiece looks like a traditional and rather handsome men's wristwatch, but offers a number of tech features. It syncs with your smartphone via Bluetooth to offer email alerts, world time for 300 cities, automatic time adjustment and even a phone finder that can trigger an alarm if you misplace your mobile.

The most important thing about the Casio Edifice, however, "is that it's a good looking watch," says Pocket-Lint. "This is where many of the existing smartwatches go wrong: although there's talk of premium luxury design, many fail to fulfil those aspirations."

The Casio Edifice EQB-500, on the other hand "hits that design mark well" the site says, with a "weighty feel that imparts a sense of quality."

Retails for £300.

Seiko Prospex Radio Sync Solar World Time Chronograph

Seiko's Prospex line is best known to most UK watch enthusiasts for its impressive dive watches. When the company launched the Prospex Radio Sync Solar World Time Chronograph at Baselworld 2016, it became clear Seiko also had a serious solar-powered pilot's watch on its hands.

The radio-wave movement receives signals from atomic clocks around the world and can synchronise the time automatically up to three times a day. It is incredibly accurate, losing a mere one second every 100,000 years, says Seiko.

"As long-time fans and users of Seiko's Prospex models, it's exciting to see them develop new platforms and expand on their core strengths," says A Blog to Watch.

Citizen Eco-Drive One

The Eco-Drive One is most remarkable for its incredibly slim silhouette. The wafer-thin watch is 0.11ins (2.98mm) thick and its mechanism a mere 0.04ins (1mm) in depth.

This is not the thinnest quartz watch ever made, Hodinkee says: "That record is held by the Concord Delirium" the thinnest version of which "was basically unwearable, at .98 mm".

The solar cells are powerful enough to run the watch "for many years without human intervention".

The limited edition (800 pieces globally) retails for £6,130, but there are cheaper models available for around £2,004.