Model # 1509
Brand/Model: Luminox Deep Dive
Automatic Series 1500
Movement: Swiss automatic
Material: PVD black stainless
steel case, rubber/polyurethane dive strap
Complications: date display
Price: MSRP $1,900 USD
Plenty of photos follow the review.
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
I’ve owned several
Luminox watches over the years and have always been impressed with their
overall quality and design. Since I
pretty much purchase only automatic movement watches these days, I decided to
check out the Luminox Deep Dive Series of Swiss automatics that the company
makes. From the moment I unpacked the
watch from its pelican-style waterproof case, I was impressed and several
months down the line, I remain so.
Luminox made their
name starting over 20 years ago by being the first company to mass-produce
constantly-illuminated watches via tritium tubes placed on the dial, hands and
bezels. The tubes are tiny sealed glass
vials filled with low-level radioactive tritium that glow continuously without
the need for an external charging light source.
The tubes can remain illuminated for up to 25 years. Luminox refers to this feature as ‘Night
Vision Tubes.’
The advantage of a
continuous illumination is no matter what the conditions one finds themselves
in, whether low light or no light, the watch dial and hands will always be able
to be read. Over the years, the tritium
tube technology has been refined and expanded, to include the standard green
color tubes, along with white, orange and blue.
The tubes can also be made flat instead of round, leading to a slimmer
overall watch dimension.
A watch with
tritium tubes usually has a deeper dial on it (the distance between the
underside of the crystal and the top of the dial) because of the thickness of the
tubes used on the hands and dial. More
space is needed between the hour, minute and seconds hand to allow for
clearance of the tubes. Sometimes the
deeper dials can look a bit odd, other times they look pretty cool.
A couple of other
notes about tritium tube technology; the brightness of the illumination is not
nearly as bright as fully charged SuperLuminova or similar modern lume. The tubes emit a softer glow, which still
gives a clear reading of the dial and hands, but it is not what one would refer
to as ‘bright.’
Also, since the
tubes have a limited life span, if you intend to keep the watch for more than
25 years or pass it on as a family keepsake, can you get the tubes replaced
when they dim out? Presumably so, but at
what cost? But I guess you could say the
same thing about standard luminous material, which does degrade in intensity
over time as well.
Now, back to the
watch at hand. The Luminox Deep Dive is
a serious, no-compromise true dive watch that is ISO 6425 certified. It carries a 500-meter water resistance
rating and has an automatic helium escape valve (HEV) fitted to the left side
of the case. And please be warned, this
is a large watch! Due to the already
heavy, large, thick case, the wide rubber (silicone/polyurethane) band with
triple pin buckle and the integrated design of the strap, this watch has
serious wrist presence. For my smaller
wrist, it’s about as large as I dare go, but I will also say this, this watch
looks pretty badass on the wrist.
The crown guard/crown
lock serves two purposes; one is of course to protect the large, signed
screwdown crown from damage and the other is to lock the bezel in place. This means you have to pull out the guard at
the bottom (it’s hinged at the top) to rotate the bezel, then push the crown
guard back to its locked position. It
all works well, but the piece that locks the bezel in place is a bit sharp, so
caution should be exercised. The design
of the crown lock is listed by Luminox as ‘Patent Pending.’
Also, since the
guard only swings out to slightly above a horizontal position, it makes the
watch a bit hard to manually wind and then screw the crown back in. Not a huge gripe, but something that
potential purchasers need to be aware of.
I always like winding my automatics and the easier it is to do this, the
better.
The Deep Dive
starts with an all stainless steel, brushed black-finished case. The finish is PVD and the quality and
evenness of the finish is superb.
The case measures
44mm without the slight overhang of the bezel, the large signed crown or the
hinged crown guard. Measuring the
diameter of the bezel gives a reading of about 44.8mm on the inside of the
bezel notches and when the crown guard is included, the diameter jumps to a
hefty 51.8mm. That being said, as I
mentioned earlier, this is a large watch, but it also doesn’t wear the way its
dimensions would indicate. It is
certainly on the acceptable side of wearability.
Lug-tip to lug-tip
measures 50mm; case thickness is 17.2mm.
The integrated strap measures 29.3mm at the case but tapers to about
24.6mm at the buckle. The HEV is
centered on the left side of the case.
The valve itself is silver with a red gasket.
The caseback is
screwed down and is also finished in black PVD.
It carries a cool embossed dive helmet logo, along with a variety of
printing in silver, including the individualized serial number and a small
Luminox logo.
The Deep Dive
Series has been expanded and changed a bit over the years. Originally, the black Deep Dive watches came
with orange, yellow, white or blue accented dials. They now come in both black and non-black
cases with blue or black dials with white accents. A ‘Scott Cassell’ special edition was also
produced.
My Deep Dive is the
orange-accent model and it looks great. The
orange is not fluorescent or too orangey, it is just about the perfect shade of
orange. The dial has orange markers at
each five-minute mark with a green tritium tube in the middle of each
marker. The wide V-shaped marker at the
12 position carries three (!) blue tubes
stacked horizontally.
The chapter ring
has white hash marks for each minute, with the five minute marks in orange to
match the markers on the dial. The
minute hand is larger and white with two blue tubes, the hour hand is smaller and
orange with a single green tube and the seconds hand is orange, with a small
green tube on its end. There is also a small
blue tube under a sapphire lens that functions as the lume pip on the
bezel.
If you’re keeping
track, that’s 18 tubes in all on this watch.
Cheaper versions of watches with tritium tubes will always have fewer
tubes on the dials, because this saves money and sometimes, cheaper versions
have standard luminous material in certain places as well. The more tubes, the more expensive the watch.
One thing that
Luminox did with this design to help counter an overly deep-looking dial is
since the hour hand is fairly short, they recessed the dial to accommodate only
the hour hand. This results in a dial
that is not super deep and also creates a neat recessed circle in the center of
the dial that adds a nice dimension to the watch.
The dial is easy to
read overall, although sometimes the orange seconds hand gets lost on the dial
amidst the orange markers. There is no
marker or tube at the three position, because this is where the quickset date
resides. The date wheel is black on
white and the alignment within the window is good.
Luminox did
something here that I greatly admire.
Instead of using the typical too small date window or slapping a cyclops
magnifier on or under the crystal, they used an ETA movement that has a date
wheel with larger numerals and enlarged the date window on the dial accordingly. While it’s not by any means considered a ‘big
date’ design, this solution works great and is something I’d like to see more
of. The date window is framed with an
orange box to make it easier to see.
The Luminox logo is
found under the 12 position and too much wording is printed above the 6
position. Luminox found it fitting to
cram in ‘professional’, ‘500 meters’, ‘helium valve’ and ‘automatic’ in four
separate lines printed in orange. It’s
really a bit much for such a great-looking tool watch.
The bezel is a
60-click unidirectional design, which, as I mentioned earlier, can only be
rotated once the crown guard/lock is opened.
The bezel rotates with a distinctive ‘click’ but does have some backlash
when unlocked; once locked, the bezel still has a bit of play to it. The bezel insert is brushed black aluminum
with silver arabics and markers around its entire circumference. Arabics mark every five minutes, with hash
marks for the remainder of the hour.
Capping the dial is
a sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective coating. The crystal is slightly recessed from the
bezel.
Overall fit and
finish on this watch is of a very high quality.
And as mentioned before, if you haven’t figured it out already, the Deep
Dive is factory-rated for 500 meters of water resistance.
Inside the Deep
Dive is a Swiss Made ETA 2826-2 automatic movement, which is a minor variation
of the ubiquitous 2824-2 movement that needs no introduction, as this is the
workhorse of any number of automatic watches being sold today.
The 2826-2 movement
has 25 jewels, runs at 28,800 bph, hacks and manually winds and all functions,
from the quickset date to manually winding and setting the watch work as they
should. The 2826-2 has the larger date
wheel as previously described.
Timekeeping has
been exceptional; off the wrist, the Deep Dive has run about +2/24 hours while
on the wrist, it runs at no variation, spot on!
Power reserve is in the expected range, this example clocking at 40.25
hours.
The strap is
rubber/silicone/polyurethane and while I usually disdain rubber straps, the
strap on the Deep Dive is exceptional.
It is well-made, soft, flexible and doesn’t have any scent or smell to
it. It also has an imprinted tread-like
design on the inside to give it some grip on the wrist or a wet suit. The outer side of the strap has a
double-ridge design running from the bezel down the strap for a distance of
40mm on either side. It looks good.
The strap is
integrated into the case and is held in place by screw bar attachments. The strap measures 29.3mm at the case and
tapers to 24.6mm at the buckle. The
buckle is black stainless steel and has a triple pin design, with the center
pin being slightly longer than the outer two pins. There are two keepers, one fixed (held in
place by small nubs molded into the strap) and one floating. The fixed keeper is a bit wider than the
floating keeper.
Luminox also
includes a dive extension strap for those who wish to explore the depths while
wearing this fine timepiece. Since I
purchased this watch grey-market, it did not come with the dive extension, but
that’s fine, as I don’t plan on diving, swimming or even showering with this
watch.
Due to the design
of the strap at the case, fitting an aftermarket strap would be a challenge,
but I’m sure it could be done one way or another. But as rubber straps go, this one is a winner
and should be kept as-is.
The presentation of
the Deep Dive is another strong point of this watch. A white outer cardboard wrap encases a
two-piece box. Inside the box is a
pelican-style waterproof case with the watch, dive extension and paperwork inside. A perfect box for a Deep Dive watch!
Luminox has always
made great watches and the Deep Dive is no exception. While not cheap, a watch that has this many
features with a Swiss engine and Swiss quality can and should cost more. Since these watches can be found discounted
if you know where to look, it makes the value proposition that much
stronger. Whether you’re a serious diver
or a guy like me that just likes nifty dive watches, the Deep Dive is an uber
cool dive/tool watch that should not be overlooked.
Pros: great quality all the way through, Swiss
automatic movement, tritium tube illumination, a date display you can see,
unique feature set
Cons: integrated strap a bit bulky/hard to fit
aftermarket straps, crown lock a bit clunky to use, size too big for some, no
strap option other than rubber
Verdict: a
super cool, super well-designed real dive watch that presents a true value
among Swiss-made, Swiss automatic dive watches.
Nicely done!
Thanks for reading
and enjoy the pics.
Excelsior!
-Marc
