Scored New Watch at SHOT Show...

MR Bulk

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Don't know much about Luminox except they have those tritium markers and hands, never really liked the rubber straps and black plastic cases most of them seemed to be made with, but at the Luminox booth I saw this absolutely devastating (and rather beautiful, in a sinister sort of way) titanium watch called the F-117 Model 910 w/carbon fiber face pattern.

Retail was $600, cheapest I found it on ebay was for something like $384 Buy-It-Now, and the manager lady let me have one for $275. Such a deal, and I love it!

Went to the movies with relatives and kept reminding them to ask me what time it was...heh heh.
 
them are cool watches.its cool how they glow.is it pretty bright?
 
Yeah in complete dark I could probably READ with it close up! BTW it might be Model 902, not sure if there's a "910"...
 
I just got mine yesterday from Revolvergeek. It's cool, not quite as bright as my Marathon Navigator but it's much more protected than the Navigator. .
 
How are these in places where it's not so dark or where only part of the area may be well lit?
As a poor example could you walk from sunlight into a dark closet and read the second hand right away? I'm assuming the sweep second hand has a tritium vial on it.
 
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As a poor example could you walk from sunlight into a dark closet and read the second hand right away?

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Haven't tried sunlight but that works with room lighting. Bright sunlight is painful to me, I would think your eyes would have to adjust a little.
 
them are cool watches cause they glow with out light.i looked at there web page very impresive watches
 
Sun light has no affect on tritium devices....a very slight excitation...
 
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CountyComm said:
Sun light has no affect on tritium devices....a very slight excitation...

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I'm aware of that and probably wan't clear enough. It's me e that's affected.

I want to be able to reach into a car lit by spotlights and take a pulse. My other arm might well be in only reflected light from the interior. Can I see the sweep second hand in such a condition?
 
Sounds like a medic question to me /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'd say that you stand as good a chance as you would with any other watch, if not slightly better. The Luminox, from my best understanding, has the tritium tubes surrounded a little bit more, for that extra-cool mall ninja "tactical" feeling. Depending on how bright the ambient lighting was before, you might have trouble seeing a second hand on any watch for a second or two, especially if you'd happen to look into one of the spotlights. Kinda imagine looking into a LuxIII emitter, turning it on, then trying to read your watch. It would probably take a couple of seconds to adjust to be able to see the hands on the watch period, but once you got there you'd be able to see the second hand pretty well, I think. .
 
My wife is an ER/NICU nurse and she loves her Luminox. I just picked up a 1552 to replace her 7204. She wanted a smaller watch, so there you go. She regularly goes in to very dark rooms and does charting and she doesn't need a second hand to light up the watch.

The thing to do is get the dark background watch face and the lighter colored hands/seconds. Then if there is any light at all they will stand out anyway.

They do hold a daylight charge for about 30 seconds. Daylight or UV excites the glowing stuff and it is even brighter for a very short time. So in a situation light going from really bright to dark it is brighter then it will be after having been in the dark for 30 min or so. But I am not sure it will offset the loss from your eyes.

I think the tritium charges the phosphor and that is what you can see, and then if the phosphor gets hit with UV it makes it glow for a while. Similar to shining a bright light at a TV at night and you can see the lines afterwards.
 
For quick reading after coming in out of daylight, you want to go with a Luminova/SuperLuminova compound. Tritium paint is steady but dim. The Traser tubes in Luminoxes are much brighter, but you still have to let your eyes adjust.
Mixtures of Luminova-like paint and tritium paint were popular, but are becoming rarer as watch manufacturers are trying to eliminate radioactive elements in their designs. They never worked all that well, in my opinion, either.

With any of my Luminova watches, after exposing them to sunlight I can roll into a darkened garage and immediately read all the hands and dial markers. They are so bright it's scary, but that only lasts for three or four minutes.
I think I read Luminox has added SuperLuminova paint to some of their watches so you get a "best of both worlds": fast reading after coming in from bright light and the unmatched long-term brightness of the Traser tubes.
Seiko, for one, uses SuperLuminova, as does Breitling. Most aftermarket "hop up" shops like IWW will re-do a dial with Luminova. Bill Yao's after market dials also use it.
Cheers,
Bob
 
Bizarre decision but most of the Luminox do not have tritium on the sweep second hand.
 
Yeah I have one on mine as well. And it may be my imagination but the watch is much lighter than an all-steel one would be. Probably contains lots of Ti throughout the watch. Also the face on mine is a dark gray (carbon fiber look) so the markers do stand out better.
 
The face on mine looks black from straight on, but from the side it looks blue. I can't figure it out. .
 
I have a lowly 3200 series Luminox and love it. I get compliments on it all of the time. It glows brightly and keep perfect time. Mine also has the insert in the sweep hand.
 
Has anyone seen / handled the new 5.11 Tactical HRT watch? It's supposed to have a boatload of built in features to include come-ups and windage adjustments for sniping. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
 
That Luminox watch sounds very nice... any report on the accuracy at this point? Also the tritium has what?.. a ten year half life? Would it be reasonable to expect the "glow" to be decent at the ten year point?

...wish I could find one for the price of yours!
 
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