{"id":469,"date":"2009-11-16T17:17:01","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T21:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/?p=469"},"modified":"2019-09-13T21:10:11","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T04:10:11","slug":"lum-tec-b2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/16\/lum-tec-b2\/","title":{"rendered":"lum-tec b2 combat."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few weeks ago, I read about an interesting independent watchmaker in Ohio who has been creating limited runs of about 20 different types of military style watches. I started doing some research and got bitten by the watch bug. Most guys who are into watches go straight for the generic fancy labels: Tag Heuer, Omega, Rolex etc. And all fine watches. I looked at them but I was really drawn back to the military style watches. The military and government currently issue the Marathon<\/a> Navigator watch\u2026 which looked nice but an interesting post on a forum<\/a> enlightened me to what is probably a very true reality: actual military issue watches are contracted out for the lowest price and are probably cutting some corners. Ha! So I also checked out Traser<\/a> watches which was interesting too (specifically the P6500). Lastly, I spent some time looking at the Breitling Avenger in black but at $4000, it was way out of my price range (I even looked into ordering a Breitling Chinese knock-off).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 3-4 weeks of pounding the online pavement, I kept circling back to that independent watchmaker: Lum-tec<\/a>. My original criteria was pretty much what I had currently been wearing\u2026 a black face and case, a chronograph for timing my runs, a diving bezel because I thought it looked nice (would have gone with a GMT bezel which is probably more practical) and a date. No Lum-tec model fit all these criteria. The closest thing they have was the M14. But it was already full on the pre-order list. So I kept looking\u2026 Hamilton, MKII, Seiko, Citizen, IWC, Luminox etc. What I kept getting drawn back to was the original Lum-tec watch that I saw\u2026 the B-series. Extremely clean, simple and beautiful. And when I put a picture side-by-side of the Lum-tec and one with a chronograph\u2026I started shifting towards the cleaner, simpler Lum-tec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 3 choices of the B-series that had black cases\/black faces: the original B1 which is out of production now and has an interesting dial pattern from 0-60 which probably would have slowed down my time telling anyway, the B2 which is like the B1 but with a date and normal dial and the B3H which was a limited run with a display case and no date. All beautiful and when I finally let go my silly criteria, I settled on the one that would be most practical for me every day: the B2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I got the B2 in, it was a really cool looking tank of a watch. Solid and the first mechanical watch I had ever owned. I wasn\u2019t completely sold just yet but after a short week of wearing it, I knew I was in love. I didn\u2019t miss the chronograph and really liked the pilot-watch-type styling. And there is just something very charming about the fact the watch was put together by hand in a private shop in Ohio. It\u2019s like buying local. The anti-reflective coat is beautiful and has withstood well against scratching. I got a green Nato band for it and it\u2019s been a pleasure to wear. And you know you have a unique timepiece when within the first week more than half a dozen people have asked about the watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now a note about Lum-tec. They really are a privately-owned family business. The owner picks up the phone when you call! How often does that happen these days. They were extremely accommodating and worked with me to get a second watch to me before my trip for a friend. I won\u2019t go into detail as not to set any ridiculous precedent for them but don\u2019t hesitate to order. It’s well worth every penny! My Tag is off to eBay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Order yours here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch in Auckland New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A few weeks ago, I read about an interesting independent watchmaker in Ohio who has been creating limited runs of about 20 different types of military style watches. I started doing some research and got bitten by the watch bug. Most guys who are into watches go straight for the generic fancy labels: Tag Heuer,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[335,334,336,337,333,342,339,340,343,341,338],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gearhead","tag-b1","tag-b2","tag-b2h","tag-b3","tag-lum-tec","tag-marathon","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-navigator","tag-traser","tag-watch"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/8A37A610-1D52-4B25-B1DF-FB18094F65D1.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2297,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/2297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronlam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}