My watch today is a Luminox 3005 that I have modifed with a new dial from Mk II. Luminox is known for making a variety of military-style watches with Luminox Light Technology, their name for a night illumination system using tritium-filled glass vials. While the luminous paint on most watches needs to be "charged" to glow in the dark, this system will produce light for something like 20 years. Originally, this watch had a yellow dial like this. I like to call this my "Super Stealth" since it has black hands on a black dial. It's still quite legible thanks to the tritium tubes in the hands. Swapping the dial wasn't incredibly difficult, but I did need to get a hand remover (#RM 590345, the cheap one) and a tool to set the hands back in place, not to mention some rubber gloves so I didn't leave fingerprints all over the new dial. I was careful when re-setting the seconds hand to make sure it lined up perfectly with the marks on the chapter ring. A second hand that stops in between the marks is always an annoyance on a quartz watch. Newer versions of this watch have a chapter ring that is the same color as the dial, so I'm happy I had an older model with the black chapter ring. This dial replacement is really only possible because the tritium tubes are in the chapter ring and not on the dial itself. The watch is made from carbon reinforced polymer which seems to be very durable and much harder than other "plastic" watches, like most G-Shocks. It has a 60-click one-way diving bezel with another tritium "pip" at the zero/12 o'clock position. The Ronda movement is very accurate and reliable. I usually store this watch with the crown pulled out as if I was setting the time. This seems to "turn off" the movement and keep it from draining the batteries. I have it on a black NATO at the moment, but I think I'll change back to the stock Luminox strap as I think it will look "stealthier". A black date wheel would also be a nice addition, but I don't know if they're available and it's probably not worth the effort.
My watch today is my only Zodiac so far. I have considered buying a number of vintage ones, but as with many vintage divers the prices have skyrocketed in the last few years. The release of the Zodiac movie probably didn't help matters either. This Zodiac chronograph was released about five years ago, and I believe it was one of the first new models released after Zodiac was purchased by Fossil. I originally thought this model was pre-Fossil because it is so much nicer and more expensive than Zodiac's more recent offerings. It seems that the brand has been brought a bit downmarket recently because the current collections are mostly quartz and seem to turn up more frequently in department stores than specialty or jewelry stores. I really like this watch and was very happy it was available when I was ready to buy it. I was looking for a chronograph that was dressier than my two Hamiltons and this one fit because it's a little smaller (40mm without the crown) and looks really good on a leather strap, which tends to dress up any watch normally on a stainless band. I also really liked the dial design which I think is clean and relatively original. The movement in this one is not a Valjoux chronograph movement (like my other automatic chronographs) but an ETA 2824 with a Dubois-Depraz chronograph module. This kind of movement is typically found on higher-end watches (Breitling, Bulgari, Jaeger-LeCoultre, etc.) and is essentially a regular automatic movement with the chronograph module on top. This makes the watch slightly thicker than normal, but the action of the chronograph pushers is much less clunky than those on the Valjoux movements. Because the two movements are not as integrated as an all-in-one chronograph movement, this watch has 51 jewels, about double the number of jewels in a normal automatic. The only downside to this arrangement is the date is placed far behind the dial, and even with the magnifier in the date window, it is sometimes hard to read. This is actually the watch I wore when I got married, and I think I made an excellent choice, so I don't mind that it will probably be in my collection forever.
In April I mentioned the reissue of the G-Shock II DW-5500 and how the look of the Mudman I was wearing was inspired by it. Well, I have since picked up one of these G-5500s and am wearing it today. As far as I know it was only released in Japan (although made in Thailand) but I bought mine from a seller in Austria who shipped it to the U.S.A. quickly and cheaply. The original DW-5500 was somewhat of a flop. It was probably too modern a design for the times considering the public had just gotten used to the design of the original G-Shock DW-5000C. I actually like the design of the 5500 quite a bit. The vertical and horizontal symmetry is very appealing and the red buttons and wide strap are nice details. The addition of solar power is a nice update, but the omission of atomic timekeeping is a little disappointing. The Dawn Black version of this watch does include the atomic timekeeping, so it actually makes this one a little more unique. I really like this model as it's chunkier than the 5000s/5600s but with a charm all its own. Casio has released the 5500 in a number of colors recently, including the camo-like Jam'n Color as well as red, green and white. The Dawn Black version was the first one I got (and will be appearing on this blog in the future) and since then I've been hooked on the design and always on the lookout for new and interesting versions to add to my collection.
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