Review-- Luminox 3602

Well, I feel that a week and a half is sufficient time to evaluate my birthday present, an all titanium Luminox diver model number 3602.

I've never been a fan of the all metal watches and bands. Usually they are too heavy and clunky, but I was advised that I would be happier with this vs. some of the others I was looking at.
While this watch may be on the large size, it is much lighter than steel counterparts. It may be a little larger than I would reall want, but I think I'm starting to like the ease of reading the larger face. It carries well on the wrist; just enough weight to let you know it's still there. It may not be as light as it's plastic and nylon counterparts, but this is bulletproof.

Speaking of toughness, I've already had the opportunity to bang this watch around...by accident of course. The crystal took an impact that I'm sure would have damaged some lesser watches--crystal first into the edge of a steel table while helping a scrub tech set up an OR room in a hurry. Not even a scratch.
Scratches, if you could even call them that, on the rest of the watch is another story. Through daily abuse, I've managed to make some wear spots on the clasp and a few spots on the band. Nothing obvious to most people who aren't trying to identify blemishes. The great thing is that either the whole thing will eventually wind up with an even look or I can be OC about it and take metal polish to it every month. I'll go for an even 'brushed' look.

Timekeeping--I set it to my atomic wall clock on the first day and 12 days later it seems to be 1.5-2 seconds ahead. This may be user error, so I'll set it again after the clock calibrates and I'll and edit this post in a few weeks.

Yes I'm anal about little things like 1 second off. even though most people's watches and even the clocks at the hospital are within a minute or two, I feel happy knowing that I know EXACTLY what time it is.

Tritium vials--This model comes with green vials directly on the face with no coverings. Green vials on white hands and a green dot on the bezel. The 12 0'clock position has a double vial. I think these work fine and give off plenty of light for their size. One your eyes are dark adapted, there's no problem reading the watch at all.
I may have one gripe--I feel that using another color or two on this model would have been nice. Maybe blue for the hour hand, red for the minute or something for the 12 o'clock...

Waterproof--it says it's good to 200 meters--I most likely am not. I've had it in the sink and the shower, and unless I get a free trip to Hawaii, I'm not going to have a chance to take it diving anytime soon.

Price--The retail for this thing is $500 if bought at most big name places. Like most things in life, if it can be found on the internet, you'd be a fool to pay retail. I bought mine from Howard at BulldogEnterprises.com for just a little over half of the retail price. I could have gotten it a little cheaper, but he is an authorized dealer and if I have any problems, I'm covered.
If I would have gone the cheap route, aka gray market, whatever is broken is fixed at my expense.


Here's an image I stole since I don't have a digital camera. Looks like mine except for the titanium looks a little more gray. Probably a flash or color correction problem in the photo.

Any questions, post them here or PM me and I'll respond as best as I can.

-Jason

Nice review Jason. Unfortuneatly, I didn't care for the feel of my 3602 and sent it back. For years, all I've ever worn is the plastic, nylon, rubber, etc cased watches. Although the 3602 was lighter than my son's metal watch, it felt like a brick compared to my 3/4 Luminox and Casio's. I also didn't care for the size of the watch. Way too big for me. Call it a minor gripe, but I didn't like the fact that the 12 o'clock tritium was the same color as the hour markers. Sure, it had 2-vials to distinquish the 12 o'clock, but red or orange would have been much better.

Good luck with it.

Jason, nice review, I ordered mine from Bulldog Enterprises.

keithr--When you've had a chance to play with it, let us know what you think of yours. I'm liking mine more with each day.

I just wish it had: More colored tritium, a day of the week indicator and just a tiny bit smaller.

I find it hard for most manufactured products to meet all my exacting standards and still be in my price range. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
The list of acceptable manufactures are--Benchmade knives, Surefire flashlights, H&K pistols, VW cars and Harp beer made by Guinnes.

-Jason

I hope to get mine Wednesday, I have big wrists so I'm hoping it's big enough. I compared the Tritium in the Luminox to my Marathon quartz and they were very comparable.
I personally won't mind if it only as one color green tritium as long as it has the two markers at the twelve position. The best thing about being an adult(?) is I get to get the neatest toys.
Jason, I am interested in the accuracy of this watch because it bothers me knowing that a watch is not on the money. I know it sounds kind of compulsive, but that's me.
Any 3602 accuracy updates?

keithhr--Accuracy is not "compulsive". Accuracy still leaves some room for errors, or "tolerances" as some call them. I demand perfection the first time, every time--that's anal retentive /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

So far mine is still right on the money from the time I set it a few days ago. The only adjustment has been the change of date from the 31st to the 1st early this morning. I'm not sure if pulling the crown out would have affected it any, so I'm going to recalibrate it tonight when the Atomic clock sync's up and start over...just to be extra retentive.

*pucker-power* /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

-Jason

Jason keep me posted, I paid for a couple of Seiko watches many years ago betting people on the time with the Seiko's that I had in those days, I once had a friend who wrote the phone company wanting to know if the correct time was at the beginning of the beep the middle or end of the beep. At that time all he had was a Bulova Accutron, not nearly as accurate as better quartz watches.

I've had this watch for 2 years now. I thought it was bullet-proof until recently when it just fell off my wrist for no apparent reason. One of the pins which holds the band together broke in half and it came apart on me. I called the manufacturer and left 2 messages. Two and a half weeks later and I've heard nothing from them. Their customer service sucks. For the money I expect the watch to stay together forever. I will spend the money on a Ti Omega next time. At least I know they stand behind their product.

Not to rain on anyone's parade though. Until the mishap I thought the watch was fantastic. Very accurate. Weight is good. Nice styling, etc...

I suspect the pins are not made out of titanium though hence the breakage. If anyone ever bothers to return my call I'll let you know what I find out.

The pin broke in half? I'm guessing metal fatigue and thin stainless steel... finally wore it out.

The pin is usually the weak spot. My friend who first got me on the Luminox kick broke the pin and plastic receptor on a regular "Navy Seal." For it's replacement, he's had a "Stealth" model with a steel band for a few years now and is very happy.

I wanted the durability as well, but not the increase in weight.

I'm wondering if a standard pin would fit since I doubt it's been manufactured exclusively for Luminox.

-Jason

ps. so far it's right on time...

[ QUOTE ]
keithhr said:
I once had a friend who wrote the phone company wanting to know if the correct time was at the beginning of the beep the middle or end of the beep.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, what is it... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

-Jason

Here's a really picky one: how about the long "tail" on the other end of the second hand? So many watches seem to have that. Why? It's too easy to confuse it with the hour hand on a quick glance at the watch. It really irritates me and is a deal-breaker on lots of otherwise appealing watches.

Am I nuts?

Dave

Ya know, I've never considered that one before... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

Now that I look at it, it is awfuly big.

I'm thinking that maybe it is long to act as a balance against the long heavy second hand that has to be so accurate since neither the minute or hour has it.

Anyone know the real answer?

-Jason

the correct time is at the beginning of the beep,and to think all he had at the time was an accutron which was being timed off a tuning fork vibration, as opposed to an oscillating crystal, huge difference.
I've had my 3602 for a few hours, it just got dark, and I must say I like the display more than I thought I would. The watch face isn't very big but the tritium is clearly visible. I like the tritium on the second hand, a nice touch for being able to synchronize that life or death mission of telling the time in the movie theater, or seeing the time while I'm watching television, talk about being a big kid, will I every grow up, I hope not.

OK, Luminox called me back and the pins are in fact steel and subject to breaking. They are shipping me some new ones.

Hey all you 360x guys,

I'm thinking of picking up a 3604 and was wondering if you guys could provide a long term update.

Thanks,

-john

I still wear mine on occasion. I have 5 good watches that I've accumulated over the years and I usually wear one of them when I go out. I stopped wearing the nice ones like the Luminox at work for a number of reasons.


The Luminox is still holding up really well and I haven't had any problems with it. Here are some things about the watch I'm still iffy about:

-They should have made the face bigger or made the case smaller. A few of my other watches have a larger face on nearly the same size body. I think it looks a bit funny--maybe overbuilt?

-I still prefer an off-set crown. I've had the Luminox crown dig into the top of my hand a few times and that is probably the main reason I don't wear it more often. I prefer my Seiko or Citizen automatics that have an offset or reverse crown (Citizen) for comfortable wear--but then I loose the accuracy and the tritium of the Luminox.

-Tactical? Well, it does have the tritium going for it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif It's tactical in the way that a H2 Hummer or any piece of black nylon gear can be called "tactical." Honestly, if I was over in Iraq right now as part of the ground forces, I really don't think this would be my watch of choice--I'd have to go Timex Ironman or Gshock as I know these two have worked in those conditions.

-Tritium...still glowing bright and none of the tubes have come loose. I still wish that the 12/24 mark would have a different color.

John--PM me if you have any specific questions.

I still have mine, though sad to say, right now I'm wearing a Timex Ironman.

It's still a beautiful watch, and I do still wear it. It certainly looks very classy. It's even still pretty comfortable.

And quite amazingly, very accurate. In ~6 months, it's only drifted by about 10 seconds off atomic time.

Not surprisingly, the titanium's gotten scratched up bad, so I had to buff it with a Dremel and wire brush head. Titanium is a very soft metal, and no matter what you do, it will vacuum up scratches.

The tritium's held up just fine. Easy to see at any time.

But ya know, the reason I'm not wearing it right now, is functionality. I like having a calendar on my watch that is always accurate. I like having the day of the week displayed. I like a loud alarm. I like a countdown timer, a stopwatch.

And well, for just casually reading the time, a digital is much faster. True, the Luminox gives you a very pretty overview of the time, but I have to look at an analog clock for a little while to discern the time.

The titanium band is comfortable, except when I sweat or get wet. Then it feels too tight.

It's much heavier than the Timex, but compared to the weight of my arm, it's not a big deal.

Should you buy it? I don't know... that's your call. I'd suggest thinking about the steel version if you do, though. The weight compared to your arm is pretty negligble and steel doesn't pick up scratches crazy fast like titanium.

[ QUOTE ]
Frangible said:
... True, the Luminox gives you a very pretty overview of the time, but I have to look at an analog clock for a little while to discern the time.



[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting. I find an analog watch a LOT faster to read than a digital. I can glance at it, take a "snapshot" in my head, the look back at what I'm supposed to be doing as I process what the time is.

For some reason I have to stare at a digital for a second or so to "get" the time.

I wonder if this is because all I saw as a kid was analog clocks, whereas I'd be more comfortable with digital if I'd seen them younger? (They came out about the time I was in jr. high school.)

Cheers,
Bob

Anyone still wearing this watch? Mine now lives in the drawer but I'm still fond of it after wearing for years. It weighs 3 oz versus the original identical stainless version at 4.2 oz