About 9 years ago, I discovered Tritium in the form of a Smith & Wesson wanna-be military watch with a rotating bezel in the best of P650 traditions, but with minutes on it. Can't imagine where it was made but the orange tube at 12 barely glowed and the others were none too bright. So back it went and I bought a Luminox "Lady Divers" 7001 for Wifey so she could illuminate door locks and read maps at night. However, the glow became a grail for myself and I found a "Navy Seals" Luminox on eBay and was taken in by all the blurb . . .

The glow was most impressive. The bezel had been well-used and was seized solid. It came with a "Navy Seals" Velcro strap that was seriously comfortable on my delicate wrist. When I learned a little more about those watches, I cut the Luminox logo off the strap but it was still there on the dial along with "NAVY SEALS" in huge letters. So the next step was to buy a genuine P650, thereby setting off a collection of Stocker & Yale watches that continues to this day, see here http://kronometric.org/tcw/

This fine watch has all the right stuff and I still own it. But it did cost more than a buck or two, so I started looking around for something similar for daily wear and discovered the Traser P6500 by MB-microtec. An excellent copy and it came with the date function (present but hidden on the real thing). So, I ordered one. To my horror/delight, they sent me the rather more expensive P6502!

Pardon the bad image. The watch was of much higher quality than the P650 or even that P6500 which I never received. Stainless steel case, screw-in back, screw-down crown, illuminated seconds hand, nice job but . . . it had 'Traser' on the dial and all the other blurb. Seeing 'Traser' every time I glanced at the time didn't work for me, so off it went to eBay-land. Then, a year or more later, I was searching eBay for a combination of tritium and titanium and up popped a P6506 'Titan Commander' with a sterile dial! Couldn't resist it . .

One of our members might recognize it ;-). To me, this watch represented a pinnacle in the Traser wanna-be series. As a watch it was superb, even had the Ronda 5-jewel 715 in it. Then I went through an intense phase of disliking 'homage' watches and sold all such in my collection, including the P6506, regrettably. Now, in my declining years, I've become a little less picky about such things and therefore, I've just bought a P6500 . . . and a Luminox Velcro strap!

Some of the Trasers have the cheaper, assembled elsewhere, Ronda 515 movement. I'm pleased to say that this one has the gilt finish 5-jewel Ronda 715, marked "SWISS", not "SWISS PARTS". The glow is as expected from a new watch. The bezel has been duly set so that the little hand points to local solar time on the bezel. The strap is wider (32mm) than the one I had before and is just as comfortable. The logos, being black, are less obtrusive and will be left on.

The wheel has turned!