Recently TraserMilitary.com became the exclusive UK wholesale distributor for this series of watches and Flecktarn.co.uk kindly offered to send us a sample for review. Here's the announcement from them: "...TraserMilitary are the exclusive UK importer of the mil spec H3 Navigator Watch using traser technology. These are the original watches which were made to US Army specifications and issued during Desert storm. There are still 300,000 in use with US Navy Seals, US Special Forces, SAS, SBS and other elite military units worldwide. Up
until now, the US milspec watches were only permitted for military
personnel, but a Permanent Light Technology watch was produced
for the civilian market, using a lower specification adaptation
of the H3 Navigator Watch. These were marketed in the UK as Traser
and the US as Luminox. Traser? Traser watches are built to a fairly simple and very robust military specification. The term "Traser" refers to their unique luminous light system (permanent light technology) that uses a Gaseous Tritium Light Source (GTLS) to generate a low-level light. "Traser" is also a brand of watches that uses this technology as seen in this review. If you look closely at the photos you'll see that the green blobs aren't strips but are actually teeny tiny vials of gas. The technology behind the watch is guaranteed to glow for 10 years, now bear in mind that this glow is independent of the battery source. Unlike other "glowing watch" systems there's no recharge time, no electrical system, the little vials of Tritium simply glow all the time, but you see the effect only in low light conditions.
Traser quote the low light source to be over 100 times brighter than other watch dials. Having owned several illuminated watches I can tell you that although it's difficult to quantify luminescence without specialist equipment, the Traser watch is certainly brighter than anything I've ever seen that didn't come from a nuclear fallout region. Yes.. many moons ago my grandparents had some clocks with hands that glowed at night. After some research into what made them glow (most probably a product of Sellafield) in the late 80s they went in the bin. ^_^ (you can find some very unbiased Sellafield info here)
Features: As mentioned before the Tritium will glow for at least 10 years, the lithium batteries that drive the watch last for 8 years or so, a Swiss quartz movement, and the glass window is a hardened sapphire glass crystal, so about as tough as it gets. Glowing vials: The little glowing blobs are quoted as being fail-safe and maintenance free, each one actually being a CO2 laser sealed borosilicate glass vial. The low energy electrons emitted by the Tritium excite the phosphor and this in turn creates cold energy, which produces a low level light source without the need for filaments or heat dissipation, and "..no risk of fire or explosion" (I'm glad that one is cleared up). I can see the headline now: "..all new mil-spec watch, that doesn't set fire to your wrist or blow it off!" But anyway, as I was saying it glows. Erm now for anyone that hasn't caught on here, yes it works much like a TV screen, with the electron/phosphor system. The bit that may have gone over a few people's heads is that the gas does indeed emit electrons. The short explanation is that Tritium is heavy hydrogen (H3), more commonly known as the radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of ~12.3 years and a decay rate of 5.626% per year. Decay of Tritium H3 creates beta rays that, when they strike the phosphor particles that coat the inside of the glass microsphere, are converted to visible light. The term "half life" is the time required to reduce the particle output (and thus the illumination level) by 50%. This gives a functional life that technically exceeds 15 years (decay isn't linear it's an exponential function). In short it's not dangerous unless inhaled, but the vials in the Traser watches are tiny and incredibly well sealed, and built to US spec you can honestly sleep soundly owning one yourself.
You will find that there's oodles of strap. This is just so that it can be worn over just about anything. I have fairly big wrists and there's plenty of strap to go around. To loose the excess simple pass the tail through the securing loop, fold it over and then back again. Of course if you don't like the standard NATO style strap, Traser make several types that fit easily, and one is bound to suit you.
The watch casing itself is waterproof down to 30m/99feet (the Diver model is spec'd for 200m/660feet), and built from a polyester/glass fiber material with a double o-ring seal at the back. So unlike a cheapy digital watch from elsewhere it's unlikely you'll rip the strap pin out of the casing (as I did with a Casio many years back).
TraserMilitary.com - the exclusive UK importers of the mil-spec H3 Navigator Watch using traser technology Flecktarn.co.uk - who kindly supplied this model for review Traser-watches.com - the manufacturers of the product Tritium: The environmental, health, budgetary, and strategic effects of the Department of Energy's decision to produce tritium By Hisham Zerriffi Site links: TBA Comment on this review in the forums Last modified: Thursday, September 18, 2003 11:13 AM Copyright 2003 ArniesAirsoft
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