For the upcoming year, the American watchmaker has updated its military-styled Atacama series. Soon to be offered as Luminox Atacama Field Day-Date 1945 (ref. A.1945), the quartz-powered gadget is noticeably larger than the previous version and now features a slightly facelifted, more sober-looking dial.
If you compare the new model to the 2010 MY Luminox Atacama Field Day-Date, you will immediately see that the dial features a more discrete, square-shaped date window at 3 hours that doesn’t look like it was ripped-off some IWC pilot’s watch.
Since the “15” minute marker was moved to the left of the aperture, there is now (almost) enough real estate to place the “3” numeral thus making the dial look more consistent.
As usual for Luminox, the timekeeper features their proprietary T25-type LLT technology with tiny glass tubes filled with tritium: a radioactive gas that glows much brighter than Superluminova and retains its luminous properties for at around 25 years (and the tubes can be easily swapped for new ones if need be).
The watch has also grown in size. While the original measured only 42 mm in diameter and could be considered too small by the bigger guys, this one measures whole 45 millimeters, which makes it good even for competing bodybuilders although I personally don’t care much about its thickness: measuring almost 15 millimeters from solid bottom to the sapphire top (the synthetic crystal features antireflective coating, by the way, although I am not sure how durable it is,) it is just way too thick for a timekeeper that is animated by a hair-thin quartz caliber. Well, I am sure that guys at Luminox marketing department know what they are doing, but it would still be nice to have a slimmer version to choose from.
The movement, by the way of speaking, is still the same as in the original timekeeper. According to the watchmaker, the wristwatch is powered by the well-known Ronda 517 Day-Date HH6 caliber that, as the name states, comes with a date and day of week indicators. To make the watch look more original (and also more legible), both apertures were placed on different sides of the matt black dial at 3 and 9 o’clock respectively.
Alas, the price has also got more impressive. This time, Luminox offers the new member of the Atacama family at a whole $600. Still, there is a good chance that it will be a lot more affordable if bought at an online store.
See also: Luminox Valjoux Field Chronograph 1860 Blackout (Ref. A.1861.BO)
Photos: Luminox
Luminox Atacama Field Day-Date 1945 (ref. A.1945) specification
Price: $600 (MSRP)
Movement: Quartz, Ronda 517 Day-Date HH6, Swiss Made
Number of jewels: 1
Power reserve: 45 months
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date, day of week
Case: Stainless steel, black PVD
Shape: Round
Size: 45.00 mm
Case height: 14.75 mm
Dial: Black
Numerals: Arabic
Hour markers: Luminous, LT25 tritium LLT tubes
Hands: Steel, luminous, LT25 tritium LLT tubes
Water resistance: 200 meters
Strap: Beige leather strap with rivets and contrasting stitching
Crystal: Sapphire
Back: Solid