Yesterday, we started to take a look at the Black Falcon Titanium from MTM Watches, and we left off at the battery life (approximately two months on a single charge). Without any other background, that seems atrocious.
However, this watch has a trick up its sleeve that illuminates the reason for that lifespan…lights! There are actually five distinct lighting modes on the watch (all controlled by the pusher at 2 o’clock, which locks to prevent accidental triggering):
- Dial illumination: with a single button press, six blue LEDs light up, illuminating the face. This has an almost black light effect on the seconds hand; it also slightly charges the lume. After five seconds, the light shuts off.
- External illumination: the second press of the pusher turns on the three white LEDs on the face of the watch. This makes for a very usable close-quarters flashlight; it stays on for 25 seconds
- Emergency illumination: The third press takes you into a signal mode. The white LEDs go into a strobing mode. This lasts until deactivated, or the battery runs down (it should last for several hours on a full charge)
- Continuous dial illumination: The fourth press locks the blue LEDs on, once again until deactivated or the battery dies.
- Continuous external illumination: The fifth press works much like the 4th, except the white LEDs are activated, rather than the blue
So, now you can understand why the battery is rated (on the low side) for two months on a charge. The two month estimate is with using the illumination once per day; obviously, using it more or less will impact the time between charges.
And with the inductive charger, you might be curious as to how you know the watch is in the correct spot. Thankfully, MTM thought of that as well. Once properly place on the charger, the white leds blink (at a slow rate) to notify you it’s charging; when they turn off, it’s reached full charge.
And what of all the other watch specs we’re more familiar with? We’ll take a look at those tomorrow, when we wrap up the review.
