The Commando Series from Luminox is designed to pay homage to military units all over the world. Developed with military and law enforcement expert Andrea Micheli, the Commando Series meets the needs of law enforcement personnel, as well as adventure lovers who want a reliable and precise analog watch.
Review: The Luminox Commando Raider
The Commando Raider combines all the details for which Luminox is famous – tough, luminous, extremely water resistant, highly legible – with a sand-colored dial, military style numbers and military time. The Raider adds a CARBONOX™ unidirectional countdown bezel with an integrated compass rose, in a light and extremely durable 46mm CARBONOX™ case.
The Case and dial
Exclusive to Luminox, CarbonoxTM is a tough and durable carbon-based material that is 6 times lighter than steel and 3 times lighter than titanium. It is also hypoallergenic, extremely durable and shock resistant.
The watch features a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, and is water resistant to 200 meters. It is also equipped with the Luminox Lighting Technology (LLT), which guarantees ultimate night vision to its wearers for 24 hours a day, up to 25 years through the use of tritium gas tubes. As expected, the lime is bright, and stays bright all the time.
The watch has a rather busy dial with a 24 hour rehaut, 12 hour numerals in large print, an additional 24 hour military time small print, and contrasting hands. The sword shaped hour and minutes hands are paired with a spear tipped seconds hand with a chevrons counter balance. An additional red arrow tip 2nd timezone hand sits at the bottom of the handstack. The red GMT hand is independently adjustable via the 2nd position on the crown.
The watch uses a bright green colorway, matched with a khaki dial and black case with white accents. It also comes in a black strap variant which will offer a more subdued look for those who prefer more subtlety. The strap uses a deployment clasp, and requires a cut to fit adjustment.
The caseback shows a COMMANDO compass logo and marks the specs of the watch, sapphire crystal, H3 tritium, 200 metres water resistance and Carbonox case.
The Movement
The Ronda 515.24H movement yields an approximately 50 month battery life with -10s/+20s per month accuracy. One downside to it is the lack of an end of life or low battery indication. As stated before, it houses the usual time and date feature, with an additional 24 hour GMT capability.
Concluding thoughts
The Luminox Commando Raider is an unusually bright Luminox, which has mostly opted for black or darker colored dial variants. It provides a more vibrant variant for those who appreciate a little more fanfare but maybe less appreciated by those who want more tactical accessorizing. That said, the bright green is not a blocker for those who prefer a tactical color, since there is also a black strap variant. As expected of Luminox, the timepiece is a straightforward tool watch with an additional GMT function, ideal for rough daily wear and a bonus for those who travel across timezones. The watch retails at US$595.00.
3 Comments
The strap uses a deployment clasp
Love the green they chose and especially that red/orange GMT hand, gorgeous. Not sure about the sand coloured dial. The date window is really squished in there, would have been cleaner at the 4 o’clock position.
Wow, that looks awful. Not constructive, I know, but I can’t see many merits for 600 bucks.