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Luminox (Lumi is latin for light while Nox is Latin for night) was born in 1989, driven by a commitment to offer cutting-edge luminescence and readability in its line of high-performance sports watches. Since then, we refer to the illumination technology in the Luminox watches as the Luminox Light Technology (LLT).
1992 The Assistant Officer in Charge (AOIC) for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E), West Coast, Nick North, together with the Luminox founder, Barry Cohen, worked to develop a watch specifically for the Navy SEALs and the Navy SEAL watch was born
1994 After Luminox provided the watches to the SEALs, more elite units contacted the brand directly, including the U.S. Coast Guard, New York City Police Department, Singapore Air Force, Special Military Forces Israel and many other law enforcement groups.
1998 Luminox was approached by U.S. Air Force pilots flying the F-117 Nighthawk™ Stealth fighter jet. This initial contact turned into a worldwide license agreement to produce Lockheed Martin timepieces.
2002 The U.S. Bobsleigh and Skeleton Teams win six medals during the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. The teams wore co-branded Luminox Navy SEAL Colormark watches 3001 and 3957.
2003 Luminox opens its first mono-brand store in Tokyo. Luminox now has four mono-brand stores in Japan.
2005 Luminox creates the first Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird™ Limited Edition timepieces.
2007 Launch of the Navy SEAL Colormark 3051 Series — the evolution of the original Navy SEAL timepieces — soon to become the best-selling series of Luminox watches.
2008 Luminox expands its presence globally to more than 50 countries and becomes a truly global brand.
2009 Luminox partners with counter terrorism expert and undersea explorer Scott Cassell. Cassell is a dive professional and relies on Luminox watches as part of his essential diving gear.
2010 Luminox is proud to introduce its 50 bar (500 meter / 1500 feet) Deep Dive Automatic Series — Essential Gear for serious divers and a certified watch for use by professionals — complying with the strict and extremely high standards of ISO 6425 for diving watches.
2011 Launch of the first Luminox RECON series with the Point Man 8820.
2015 Luminox initiates the Luminox Special Operations Challenge (LSOC): honoring its heritage, Luminox partners with retired Navy SEALs to offer civilians the chance to train like a Navy SEAL for a day.
2017 New Swiss-Made law: The new Swiss-Made law came into effect as of January 2017 and all Luminox Watches continue to fulfill the new Swiss-Made regulations.
2018 Luminox named Official Partner of the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR). To celebrate and commemorate this partnership, Luminox has created a special ICE-SAR Arctic Series.
2020 Luminox announced its historic partnership with Bear Grylls, the world's most recognized face of survival and outdoor adventure and is rolling out the full Luminox X Bear Grylls collection.
AUTOMATIC MOVEMENTS
Also known as a self-winding watch, an Automatic Watch is a mechanical timepiece in which the natural motion of the wearer provides energy to run the watch, making manual winding unnecessary.
CHRONOGRAPH WATCHES
A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has an independent sweep second hand; it can be started, stopped, and returned to zero by successive pressure on the stem.
GMT Watches
The GMT watch is brilliant, not because of its complexity but because of its simple ingenuity. Because the movement's going train (primary series of gears) in a conventional watch is made to spin the hour hand around the dial every 12 hours, all that is required to become a GMT tracker is simply a second hour hand geared to run half as fast and an additional 24-hour time scale. In other words, the 24-hour hand circles the dial once a day instead of twice, its tip pointing to the corresponding hour, leaving no confusion as to whether it’s a.m. or p.m.
While GMT watches were first created for pilots and are historically linked to aviation, they have since taken on a reputation as an adventurer’s watch, useful for the traveler who wants to touch down in another timezone and have his watch keep track of his departure destination.
Super-Luminova Watches
Super-LumiNova® - High Performance Phosphorescent Pigments - also called "photo-luminescent" or "afterglow" pigments, these are the most common used, non-radioactive and non-toxic alternative for illuminating markings on timepiece dials and hands in the dark.
Unlike tritium, SuperLuminova needs to be charged by light to give an afterglow, thus illuminating the face of a watch in the dark.
These pigments operate like a light battery. After sufficient activation by sunlight or artificial light, they glow in the dark for many hours. Larger markings guarantee full legibility for the whole night. This feature needs to be exposed to daylight or artificial light for recharging the fluorescent material. On the other hand, Patented system (LLT) uses glass tubes filled with phosphor powder and tritium gas. This tubes glow permanently for up to 25 years with absolutely no charging necessary. Also, Super LumiNova's activation and subsequent light emission process can be repeated again and again, and the material does not suffer any ageing, while LLT loses intensity over the years.
