Not a rep, not a branded gen...but please allow me to share here...

[Pix]

Hi,

well, I'm not used to review gen watches here, especially not "common" brands. I usually post 1 or 2 shots in the popular Wristcheck topics, but this time I wished to share a bit more. I already apologize to those who think that this place is meant for reps only... Anyway, let's go

So why would I like to talk about this particular watch, rather than any other Seiko or Citizen thing ? The reason can be summarized in one letter : T, that stands for Tritium

Most of us know that before Superluminova (or whatever branded lume it is), Tritium paint was used to make watches glow in the night. That was more or less abandonned in the 60's, as the drawback of tritium is that... it is radioactive

The Swiss have brought this back to life in a more secure technology : they use Tritium in a gazeous shape, which is put in glass vials under high pressure. As far as I could understand, there's also phosphorus inside, to induce a reaction, that lasts something like 25 years ! These vials resist hard solvents, scratches, oil etc... For anxious people, let's highlite the fact that the level of radioactivity is very low. Believe it or not (well, I have no choice), it's not supposed to be dangerous.

So I wanted to have a watch with Tritium (you know, these watches marked T Swiss MADE T instead of L Swiss Made L), first to add in my collection, but also and before all to see how it stands against lume. Swiss brands like Luminox typically provide watches equipped with these Tritium vials. They often have a Military design, which I particularly like. A bit expensive however for me. So, as usual, I searched for a solution on ebay... And found several non swiss brands providing what I was looking for, at affordable prices. Still they use Swiss parts, which I suspect to be the vials themselves and/or maybe a the quartz movement (Ronda or whatever).

And here is my choice : an UZI watch (name of circumstance for a military timekeeper). But it's not israeli... it comes from Thailand So here we go with my first thailandese watch.

Let's see what we have here... (you know this sentence very well, don't you..? )

A military SS watch, black PVD coated. Sounds good for stealth !

A 90 clicks unidirectionnal rotating bezel. The feeling is excellent. Not too loose, not to hard. The way it should be on all reps.

200meters water resistance : just enough for the swimming pool, right ?!

Notice the radioactive sign.

Assembled in Thailand, thailandese movement ??? Some parts are Swiss, but which ones ..? Well, is it so important in our case ?

Aren't we used to Asian movements, asian parts and genuine ETA made in China ?

Screw-down crown.

I now understand better the reference to UZI

And here the reason for my quest : TRITIUM vials ! Impressive, no ? In reality, you won't almost notice them. They look a bit thicker than lume markers, but nothing spectacular. Nice piece of work however : imagine there's gas inside ! BTW, you can notice the tick of the Quartz movement

So, how does it glow ? I read somewhere that Tritium glowes something like ten times more than standard lume. I was ready to grab my sunglasses but...

well, no need. What a disappointment first. Charged lume glows much more in fact, especially when it's Seiko lume or that kind of very powerful luminova.

But generally that fades quite quickly, to our greatest regret : some lume will last for the night, but will be hardly visible.

And there we realize the true advantage of Tritium : it's indeed much brighter than the poor light provided by lume after some minutes, difficult to say how many times, but definitely much better. This, of course, without having to charge it in the light. Whenever you need it, it's here, and for the coming 25 years !!

The pearl and the seconds hand have classic luminova (very bright). The rest, including the main hands, are equipped with Tritium vials.

Last, but not least : here's my *cough* NUCLEAR WRIST !!

Would I recommend the thing ? Definitely yes ! The finishing is close to excellent. The bracelet is very smooth and flexible (as you can see it on the pics), feels a bit light. But ok, I must say I cannot be objective after having worn my Breitling SFSO !

The only drawback, at least for people who have a large wrist : it's advertized to be 45 mm (wow!), but in fact it's 45 with the crown, which means about 40... If that's a perfect size for me, it will surely prevent many to do the step. Besides, 40 is pretty small for a military watch.

Oh, and the prices : well they start from 80 dollars for the cheapest (plastic) ones, to something like 200 for the SS models. The Swiss brands are more in the 400-500. But who knows, ebay is a real treasure chest for watches.

[gran]

T Swiss MADE T

G. (wacky version of the first element in the period table)

[Pix]

Found this on the Luminox store

I suppose it applies to all Tritium (H3) vials.

What Are trazers?

The technical term for a traser light is a Gaseous Tritium Light Source (GTLS) These low level light sources have unique properties, they are unaffected by water, oil and most corrosive materials and require no external power source or exposure to light in order to work. They remain fail-safe and maintenance free and have a useful life in excess of 10-20 years.

Each traser light is a laser sealed borosilicate glass vial which has been coated internally with phosphor. In one single process the traser is sealed by a CO2 laser and injected with gaseous Tritium. The low energy electrons emitted by the Tritium, excite the phosphor and this creates a cold energy which produces a low level light without filaments or heat dissipation and no risk of fire or explosion.

Quality control

trasers go through a labour intensive manufacturing process with quality control being a dominant consideration. They are 100% inspected for dimensions, brightness, temperature, thermal shock and Tritium leakage. Random sample testing is performed continually for discolouration, brightness decay, reduced pressure and vibration effects.

Colors

The colour of light emitted by the traser is determined by the phosphor used in production. Choices are very limited and can only be specified for the spectral range from 350nm ( ultra-violet ) to 1200nm ( near infrared). The most effective colours for human eye perception are generally green and yellow as these are the preferred colours due to the eyes maximum sensitivity to them. A large green traser light of 5mm in diameter and 20mm in length, can be perceived by the unaided dark adapted human eye at a distance of some 50 metres in total darkness. The relative brightness of other colours compared to green are as follows :

Green 100 % - Yellow 80% - White 60% - Orange 50% - Red 25% - Blue 20%

Brightness

The brightness performance is dependant upon the filling pressure, shape and size of the traser. The maximum pressure inside a traser is 2500 millibar. Various configurations with a green light will provide the following range :

100 microlambert for the smallest light of 0.65mm diameter

750 microlambert for a large light of 5mm diameter

Up to 2500 microlambert can be achieved in special lights by coating part of the surface with a reflective white paint.

[b16a2]

Wow, that's a chunky looking watch!

[Bark3rd]

I bought the Luminox watch pictured below today ($150 at TJ Maxx), but wow that UZI may very well be cooler! For some reason I'm having a mini-obsession with these military-Tritium watches. You wonder if it's wise to collect them, they actually have a lifespan unlike any other watch. They'll be dead in 25 yr or less (the lume anyway). I still want a few! I'd like an UZI like yours with a rubber strap.

[Pix]

Hi,

Good choice. I've been hesitating between Luminox & Uzi, and found actually the UZI to be a bit cheaper. I think it does depend on the opportunities.

Sure, Tritium has some sex-appeal

Having worn bigger and bigger watches, there's now one thing I regret on the Uzi : it's "only" 40 mm