Did an Affordable Brand Just Launch the Year’s Most Compelling Dive Watch?

Luminox is known for its rugged, no-nonsense tool watches, but its latest diver aims quite a bit higher.

By Johnny Brayson

Published August 15, 2024

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Updated August 15, 2024

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Luminox speaks to a different audience than many popular watch brands.

Although its watches are Swiss-made, Luminox is an American-owned company. Most of its watches are quartz-powered tool watches with rugged, utilitarian designs; many of which are oversized.

The brand has a longstanding relationship with the Navy SEALs and veterans nonprofit Folds of Honor, and its affordable offerings tend to be more popular with military and law enforcement types than with your average watch enthusiast. (I’m sure the brand’s 25% discount for military and first responders doesn’t hurt, either.)

But today, Luminox is casting a wider net with its latest dive watch, the Pacific Diver Automatic, which looks to appeal not only to its core customers but also to enthusiasts who are in the market for an entry-level luxury diver.

Luminox Pacific Diver Automatic

$1,395 at Luminox

Luxury Luminox?

OK, Luminox certainly isn’t using the word “luxury” to describe the new Pacific Diver Automatic, but the watch sure has a lot in common with some of the biggest names in the high-end watch space.

The Pacific Diver collection has long been Luminox’s most palatable collection to generic watch enthusiasts thanks to its more mainstream design language, but as an exclusively quartz-powered collection, its appeal was limited.

The new watch solves this by equipping the Pacific Diver with an automatic movement for the first time, with the tried-and-true Sellita SW200-1 powering the watch. But there’s more going on with this new model than a movement swap.

luminox watch caseback showing an automatic movement — Visible through a sapphire caseback is the custom black rotor of the Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement.

The design has also been refined and elevated, taking clear inspiration — to my eye, anyway — from the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M, a watch that retails for more than four times as much.

The engraved wave dial is a dead ringer for the Seamaster’s iconic face, as are the three color options available: blue, black, and white with a black bezel. Even the long red tip of the seconds hand on all three colorways is Omega-esque.

But the new Luminox diver is far from a direct copy of the Seamaster — there’s still plenty of Luminox design language here.

The symmetrical numbers on the bezel, the bold Arabic 12 and 6 indices, the “ears” of the 316L stainless steel case and the fat syringe hands are all carry-overs from Luminox’s standard non-automatic Pacific Diver. But like everything else on the watch, they’ve been upgraded.

The bezel insert is now made of hard-wearing ceramic rather than Carbonox. The indices are applied instead of printed. There’s now a custom black date wheel. The case features a sapphire caseback to show off the Swiss-made movement and its custom black rotor. And there’s a large, three-dimensional steel bezel pip to better draw attention to the luminous tritium gas tube within.

luminox dive watch on a boat — It’s not just the new movement: The entire package of the Pacific Diver Automatic feels like the most elevated watch Luminox has ever made.

Luminox is known for its luminous treatments (duh), and the brand is one of few that favors the use of always-glowing tritium gas. The Pacific Diver Automatic definitely doesn’t disappoint in that regard.

All three colors of the new watch feature gas tubes on all three hands, all twelve hour markers and on the aforementioned bezel pip. The white dial takes things even further, with its entire dial having been coated with Super-LumiNova so it completely lights up in the dark. As a result, the white is the only one of the three to get its own dedicated model name: the inarguably cool “Midnight Mariner.”

three luminox dive watches glowing in the dark — There’s no shortage of lume here, particularly on the white-dial “Midnight Mariner.”

The Year’s Best Affordable Dive Watch?

We’re halfway through 2024, and a lot of cool watches have come out, but I’m not sure I’ve seen another diver this year under $1,500 that’s quite as compelling as this one.

The wave dial, the ceramic bezel, the symmetrical design, the automatic movement, the killer lume treatments … there’s an awful lot to like here, even for people like me who don’t normally go crazy over Luminox releases.

If you’re in the market for an automatic diver under $1,500, and especially if you love the look of the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M, then the new Luminox Pacific Diver Automatic should really be on your radar.

You can order all three versions directly from the brand’s website. The black on a black rubber strap is listed at $1,295, the blue on a three-link stainless steel bracelet is $1,395, and the Midnight Mariner on rubber—my personal favorite—is also $1,395.