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Watch Review: Lum-tec 300M-1 and 300M-2 XL Dive Watch

19K views 30 replies 29 participants last post by  Marathonman 
#1 ·
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Reviewer: Don aka Tattoo Chef 
Donated for review.

Watch Being Reviewed: Lum-tec 300m-2XL 45MM PVD

Company Website: http://www.lum-tec.com/

About/History:From Website:
We are a family run, USA based company devoted to bringing you the best quality watches on the market. Our parent company Wiegand Custom Watch, LLC. has built watches for thousands of customers around the world as well as designed, improved, and built watches for many other well known brands. The LUM-TEC brand is the showcase brand for Wiegand Custom Watch, LLC, demonstrating what we are capable of producing. LUM-TEC watches are made with only the best available materials and components and are all hand crafted by our team of professional watchmakers.

Chris Wiegand - President, takes extreme pride in every watch we produce. He is always available to answer questions, and help the customers out with anything he can. He can be emailed directly at chris@lum-tec.com.

We take pride in our service. With service points around the globe, you can be assured that for any repair you will have an unheard of fast turnaround time, so you can get your watch back on your wrist fast and enjoy it.

LUM-TEC® takes watch manufacturing and design to a personal level. We freely communicate with our customers through email, phone, and on web forums daily about design input, suggestions, and any way to constantly improve our business and final product. Our customers make LUM-TEC what we are. Without you, we would be just another watch company.

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lumtecllc?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LUMTECwatches
Email:  info@lum-tec.com
Phone:
1-877-2-LUM-TEC

Specifications:
45mm width excluding crown.
24mm lug width.
54.5mm Lug tip to Lug tip length.
Weight on rubber strap: 4.8oz / 135g.
Weight on steel bracelet: 8.5oz / 241g.
316L stainless steel.Titanium Carbide PVD hard coating
Uni-directional 60-click rotating luminous bezel with sapphire insert.
Alternating brushed and high polished finish.
21,600 BPH Sii NH35 Japan automatic movement with hacking and handwinding features.
Sapphire crystal with clear double side anti-reflective coating.
Threaded solid stainless steel caseback.
LUM-TEC MDV Technology®. (2-tone)
Screw lock crown with double diamond sealing system.
300 Meters / 990 ft. water resistance.
2 straps included: Stainless steel bracelet with special ratcheting diver's extension and molded rubber.
One year limited warranty.
Free lifetime timing adjustments.
Price $925

Stock Photo:






Video Review:


[flash=425,344]http://www.youtube.com/v/TwUzbPmSnkQ&hl=en&fs=1[/flash]

 

First Impressions:
When I first took the watch out of the box, I noticed the large markers and the glossy sapphire bezel. While its specs would indicate a substantial sized watch, I felt the PVD toned down the size a bit. I also had to check out the new rubber strap immediately, and I am glad to say it is a big improvement over the strap that came with the 500m diver.

Packaging:
This is to my knowledge is an  upgraded presentation box from Lum-tec. As usual it comes in the white outer board box, and inside a new creme colored wood box with a branded metal Lum-tec plate. Inside it comes with all the warranty cards, manual, and Lum-tec business cards.

Lum-tec wood boxes always include two side compartments, which in this case houses the rubber strap and extra lug spring bars.

Packaging here gets an A+.










Dial:
Dial is beautiful , and what a dive watch should be. Large, legible, yet still good looking.
As far as I know the dial is an original design by Lum=tec and quite attractive. Instead of 12,3,6,9 like most do , it has the 12 numeral but then 3 large upside down V markers, which is a nice aesthetic. The dial itself is a matte black and so are the outlines of the hands, except for the second hand, which is white with a red tip and lume circle. The chapter ring if you will, sits above the dial, basically between the dial and crystal. At certain angles it does look like the upper chapter ring and dial markers do not line up, but its really an optical allusion, as they do line up perfectly. My only issue with the dial is the red Lum-tec and 300m. The red color is just very muted, and even in direct sunlight, is hard to see, like it almost is not there. I think a brighter color could have been used to make it pop a little more and give this all pvd watch some more color.








Case, Bezel and Crystal:
The case some what reminds me of the Squale 50 Atmos, in its angles and the way it curves down, and also how the actual case itself is not very thick, but the overall thickness comes mostly from the case back and the bezel.
On the wrist it has a pretty nice profile, which you will see in wrist pics down below.







The LT signed crown sits a little low on the case in between the crown guards, but because of the thick case back it is not a problem when on the wrist. The crown is super solid, unscrews out smoothly and has basically no wobble to it.






The bezel has some issues in my opinion, which I document and show in the above video.
The bezel insert itself is a lumed elasped time sapphire bezel, and it does have a great look to it. The bezel is easy to grip off the case , but turns very easily. I can actually turn it with one finger. It is not as loose as the Lum-tec 500m was , but it is still not as tight as it should be in my opinion. Also the bezel has movement to it, which I show in the video as well. It is something I have never really seen before. This is actually the second 300m I  was sent, as the first one I sent back because of the same thing, thinking it was a defect. Unfortunately it seems to be how the bezel was designed.
It almost sees like it is just not on track, but does not seem like it will come off either. I tested the watch under water, and no issues, so it does not seem like it will be a problem of any kind.
Ill be honest, little disapointed in the bezel action, especially at this price.




The crystal is an sapphire crystal with dual clear AR coatings. The crystal does sit slightly above the bezel, as you can see in this pic.



This is a good shot , showing that the case including the inside of the lugs is very evenly coated in the PVD.




Case back:
The case back is an engraved stainless case back. I feel its a pretty thick case back for a watch that is only 300m water resistant. I'm not sure it really needs a case back this thick, but maybe it was just part of their design. The engraving is pretty much the same as the Lum-tec 500m, with the sand blasted center with he LT logo.








Bracelet :
Here is the 24mm bracelet. Bracelet is constructed well and uses friction pins to hold together. The bracelet does resemble the Omega Planet Ocean Bracelet. The clasp is the ratcheting extension clasp now used by many different companies and always a welcome choice. I have always said, I feel all dive watches that have a bracelet should use this clasp. One thing is the end links are very long on this bracelet, which does make the lug to lug length a little longer on this watch.









So this is where the bracelet has some issues. It seems that the bracelet was assembled first then pvd coated. This to me is an issue, because as you can see in the pics below, the inside of the links have the rainbow effect as I call it, and then a thin strip of stainless showing. This is between all the links. At this price point of $925 I would expect all the links to be coated individually. I have seen pvd bracelets from watches costing hundreds less that the links were all completely coated.






Rubber Strap:
This is the new anti static molded rubber strap from Lum-tec. This is a huge improvement over their much thinner straps that came with the 500m diver. It is soft and pliable, but not too pliable like silicone is, 5mm thick and has a very signed Lum-tec pvd buckle. The strap is 24mm at lugs and tapers to 22mm at buckle.







Here you can see that the strap looks very well on the watch itself. The lug space has 2 seperate holes, the first hole being for the bracelet end links, and the second hole being for the strap which allows the strap to sit close to the case as to not have a huge gap.




Wrist shot on my 7 1/2" wrist:













Movement: 
The movement is the Seiko NH 35. Mike shows and describes the movement in his review below.
While this is an inexpensive movement it does hack and can be manually wound and my example had been keeping spot on time in a 72 hour period, maybe being +1 second which is excellent.

Lume:
As you can see in the pictures below, the lume is amazing. No other word to describe it. The hands, markers, the 5 minute marks on the chapter ring and bezel are all lumed. And this I believe is the first time Lum-tec used the dual lume colors, the green and the blue. It is super bright and long lasting, and might be the best looking lume I have ever seen on any watch.







Summary:
So , how do I summarize this?
Pros: It is a design that does take cues from other brands, but still feels original. The dial is beautiful and easy to read, and you find yourself looking at it often. It comes with both a bracelet with ratcheting extension and a wonderful rubber strap. Presentation is that of a more expensive watch, and of course again the lume is nothing short of spectacular. Assembled and tested here in the USA.

Cons: The movement. While the movement has been keeping great time, it is pricey when this movement can be had in watches costing hundreds less. The bezel. The bezel action is just not what I expect on a watch such as this. And of course the bracelet and not being coated in between the links.

Overall thoughts. I would say this is a great looking dive watch, there is no doubt about it. When you look the pics, if you like dive watches, you are like "Damn! look at that watch". I personally would suggest wearing it on the rubber, as the bracelet really is a finger print magnet, and I think it wears more comfortable on the rubber. As said, the movement has been keeping excellent time, and Lum-tec has said they have less repairs on watches with this movement than any other autos they use. With that said, I would have liked seeing the Miyota 9015 in this for the price. I do understand that it is assembled and tested here in the US, they design their own watches, an expensive lume process, so I know there are much more costs involved than just the movement. Overall it is a great looking dive watch, that does not look like everything else out there, is very comfortable, and has a nice low profile, which can be worn under dress shirts. In the end , a nice example from Lum-tec.

Thank you for reading.


 
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#30 ·
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I received my 300M XL yesterday my only regret is I'm starting to think that I have should have gotten the smaller version not the XL but haven't put it yet on the rubber strap so maybe I will feel differently after I do so.

I do love everything else about the watch.Thanks for the review!
 
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