If you are a fan of tritium watches then you should know the brand MB-Microtech. MB-Microtech is the leading manufacturer, if not the only manufacturer of tritium tubes for the watch industry. Their tubes are also used in gun sites and anything else the requires these self-luminated vials. Aside from providing these tritium tubes to all the watch brands that use them they also have their own brand of watch. MB-Microtech is the parent company of Traser. Traser has just released a new model called the Traser Aurora GMT and what is special about this is some serious crazy lume.
The Dial
As expected all the Traser watches are lumed with MB-Microtech tritium vials and on their watches they use trigalight®-hairlight vials which are about the thickness of a human hair. The Traser Aurora GMT is a four hander with a date window at the 3 o’clock position. Along with having hands for hours, minutes, and seconds, there is the 4th hand, which is the GMT hand and when traveling, it a great thing. All those hands are mounted to a reliable Swiss made Ronda quartz movement with GMT function. For the GMT there is a 24hour sub dial. All the hands have a tritium filled vial Traser calls trigalight®-hairlight. These vials are all over the dial on this watch. They are on the main hour markers and even on the GMT hour makers. The face on this dial transitions from blue on the bottom to black on the top, like going from day to night. Covering all of this is a scratch resistant anti reflective sapphire crystal.
The Case
Measuring in at 42mm wide and 10.4mm thick this Traser Aurora GMT is a nice size, not too big and not too small. Case is made from stainless steel and has a lightly brushed finish which has a nice shine to it but you don’t have to obsessively polish it. It has a push down crown with Traser “H3” logo. Water resistance is 10atm or 100 meters. The case back is a very flush screw down case back.
The Bracelet
The Bracelet is made from stainless steel and, like the case, has a light brushed finish. It has a good solid locking clasp and when wearing it there is no pinching or hair pulling, which for me is very important. This can fit a rather large wrist and for me I had to remove all the adjustment link to fit my 6.5 inch wrist. Lucky for my that was just good enough and it fits perfect.
Amazing Lume!
The glow on this Traser Aurora GMT comes from two sources, trigalight®-hairlight and super-luminova . The trigalight®-hairlight are tiny glass vials filled with tritium gas, which is an isotope of hydrogen. These vials are coated with a phosphorescent paint which react with the tritium gas. The most common tritium watches use T25 tritium tubes which have 25 millicures of tritium gas. The upper half of the GMT dial is lit up by Super-Luminova but what’s really cool is the super-luminova ring around the crystal. This combination gives off a great light show and what’s great is when the super-luminova wears down there will still always be light.
Overall Impression
The Traser Aurora GMT is very well made Swiss watch. Finishes are nicely done on both the case and the strap. The dial is the highlight of this watch. Combining the trigalight®-hairlight and super-luminova makes such a cool light show, especially when you add in that lume ring around the crystal. Adding all the qualities of the watch together such as the GMT feature, build quality, great lume, and being Swiss made this is a pretty good watch for just $495 USD. You can check them out at traserwatchesusa.com.
Review Summary
- Brand and model: Traser Aurora GMT
- Price: $495 USD
- Who’s it for? Travelers
- Would I wear it? For sure, even when not traveling.
- What I’d change: Nothing
- The best thing about it: Love the mix of lume.
Tech Specs from Traser:
- Movement – Swiss quartz movement with GMT function
- Case – Stainless steel, Ø 42 mm-
- Crystal – Scratch-resistant antireflective sapphire crystal
- Water resistancy – 10 ATM / 10 bar
- Size – Width 42 mm Thickness 10.4 mm
- Weight – 154 g (with standard strap)
- Dial Color – Anthracite with colour gradient from dark (night) to bright (day)
- Illumination – trigalight®-hairlight and Super-LumiNova
