Traser Commander

[dkpw]

For the past couple of weeks I've been considering the purchase of a Traser of some sort.

What I really would have liked, was one of Eddie's Precista Commanders but these sadly are long since sold out and discontinued. Here's a shot of Nalu's watch on a rather nice sand NATO, which I think works well with the titanium case.



As Eddie only had 50 produced, the Precista Commander is hard to find. Fortunately it was based on the still available Traser P6506 Commander, which includes some nice to have features not present on all Trasers, namely; a lightweight titanium case, screw-down crown, 200 meter WR and a sapphire crystal. Here's a bog standard stock shot, which does at least show the current dial markings which have changed over the years.



There are a number of authorised on-line suppliers but the RRP was rather steep in my view, at over £300 for the watch on a NATO or rubber strap.

However after some hunting around, I did manage to find a site called UK Tactical with stock at a reasonable price. Their range of watches is very limited but if you do have an urge for a Commander, this may be a good place to visit. They only have it on NATO and rubber, although a matching titanium bracelet is available.

If you are tempted, I'd avoid the OEM rubber strap, which I found to be too chunky and rather stinky. Mine's on Hirsch rubber at the moment but I'll be shopping for a couple of Eddie's 22mm NATOs, as the watch looked excellent on a green 20mm I had in the house.

Cheers,

David

[milesthng]

i picked a luminox 3001 instead of this traser! i just liked the REALLY lightweight feel of the PU case.
im sure titanium would be like too but just a preference i guess!

[Doug2507]

Had a Traser for the past 12 years and it's been the best watch i've had. Never skipped at beat and taken some serious amount of punishment.

[paulyg]

I had a 6502 and loved it! Was dead basic and didn't look anything special but you can't beat the tritium!

[Glamdring]

Bear in mind that the Precista Commanders will now be in the last five years of their proper tritium lume life, one of the reasons I didn't buy one when I first noticed them on TF. Tritium has to be bought new to justify the cost, IMHO. I did buy a Traser Classic chrono new.

[swanbourne]

Bear in mind that the Precista Commanders will now be in the last five years of their proper tritium lume life, one of the reasons I didn't buy one when I first noticed them on TF. Tritium has to be bought new to justify the cost, IMHO. I did buy a Traser Classic chrono new.

I understood that the tritium vials lasted longer than printed tritium?

Eddie

[Glamdring]

I certainly stand to be corrected but everything I've read on here suggested half life of under 15 years.

[dkpw]

When researching my purchase, I remember reading somewhere that a redial, or should I say a re-tube, was economically viable. I'll see if I can find that link. In the meantime, this from the support page on the Canadian Traser web site:

How long is the lifespan of tritium?

The lifespan is normally twenty years, but will start getting dimmer after approximately ten years. Our gaseous tritium light sources (trigalight) are guaranteed for ten years.

and this from http://kronometric.org/article/lume/#4.1:

Tritium

Tritium (H-3) is a low energy beta emitter with a 12.3 year half-life. The low energy beta particles cannot penetrate the watch case.

For a short time during the 1970s, tritium containing gas tube light sources (GTLS) were used to backlight liquid crystal display (LCD) watches. At that time, a typical activity for GTLS was 200 mCi. The sealed tubes, made of borosilicate glass, were 0.5 to 1.0 cm long, and one or two millimeters in diameter. The inside wall of the tube was coated with the luminescent material while the tritium was present as a gas. These days, similar but smaller tubes attached to the hands and dial faces of analog watches are used with an activity of no more than 25 mCi except by special licensing.

When incorporated into radioluminescent paint, much lower activities (2 mCi) are employed. The tritium is incorporated into a polymer that also contains the luminescent material (usually ZnS).

I think you're both right. :D

[seikopath]

ive had a few watches with tritium tubes from different makers, afaik all the tubes have originated from mb microtec, yet some of them seem to have faded quicker than others.