Traser P99 A Tactical

Watch Review

A watch review was not on my radar. Then, Traser Watch sent me a press release. So I asked if I could review one of their new Tactical watches. Traser kindly sent me the new P99 A Tactical Carbon. It has tritium dials, an automatic Swiss movement, and a carbon fiber polymer case.

One might ask what a watch has to do with firearms, outdoors, or anything else we review? To start with, who doesn’t need to tell time? How are you supposed to know what time to meet up for the boogaloo, when to testify on the gun control hearing at the capitol, or more importantly, when to be home from the range for dinner. Either way, having a tacticool watch that winds itself should be reason enough. But mainly, if you are into the stuff we do here, there is a good chance that you are into quality watches also. After all, it is another piece of gear that helps you in your day to day life.

The Traser P99 looks exactly like you would expect from a tactical watch. It has an outside bezel with corresponding 5 minute marks laid out around it. So every 5, 10, 15 minutes and so on. Inside the bezel it also has these same minute marks in a smaller font size. On the watch face, it has tritium vials at every hour mark. With the 12 o’clock mark being orange in color instead of green like all the others. Of course there are white minute marks going around the dial as well. Inside those are numbers 13-24, so if you use military time, Traser has you covered for that too. In the 6 - 9 o’clock space is also a date reading. This “date” shows a bunch of the day's numbers, but has a red chevron (arrow) pointing to the today date. The hour and minute hands are painted red but also have a green tritium insert in them to see them in darkness. The second hand has a little orange tritium insert in it. Besides just tritium inserts, the P99 also uses Super LumiNova luminescence, or glow in the dark. For the luminescence glow, there is a complete circle around the watch face along with the 15, 30 , and 45 minutes marks on the bezel. Covering all that is an anti-glare sapphire crystal. The P99 watch face is nicely designed and easy to read, day or night.

Traser’s first watch was made in 1989. This watch was made for the US Army and was the first ever tritium watch. The first watch was made possible because of a company called Trigalight. They were the first to mainstream the manufacturing process of tritium into little vials, down to 0.3mm in size. These vials can be installed into anything that you want to glow. Trigalight probably produces tritium vials for most, if not all the manufacturers in the firearm space. Trigalight and Traser are sister companies under the MB Microtec umbrella, which helps explain the P99 watch from Traser.

For the P99 A, Traser uses a Swiss automatic movement. The “A” after the P99 stands for “automatic”, if you have not picked up on that yet. The automatic movement winds the watch from movement in your wrist. So unlike solar watches, you don’t need light for it to keep time. It does have a power reserve of about 2 days, but also can be manually wound using the crown. I only wear a watch during the day and take it off at night. I have not had to ever wind the watch manually. One flaw with automatic winding watches is that they have a specification for how accurately they keep time. The Traser P99’s spec is plus or minus 30 seconds a day, with the best automatic watches being plus or minus 15 seconds a day. The P99’s movement is fully mechanical, so no batteries are ever needed.

Surrounding the automatic movement is a carbon fiber reinforced polymer. This case also has a steel container to house the automatic movement of the watch. This carbon polymer case is what gives the watch its looks. It also has flake style carbon on the watch face itself. I am pretty hard on watches and I have not even marred the P99’s case. Hooked to the case is a choice of 3 different watch straps. You can either get a fabric NATO strap in grey camo or black, with the other option being a rubber strap. I opted for the camo NATO strap and couldn’t be happier.

The Traser P99 A has a few other features. The mechanical movement can be seen from the back of the watch, through a large clear window. All this really does is make it look cool and I am okay with that. The P99 A also has a water resistance rating of 20 ATM which is the equivalent of 200 meters under water. Helping to make this water resistance specification is a “screw down crown”. What is a “crown”? Well, the crown is the part of the watch that winds it, or adjusts the date and time. On the P99, to adjust the date or time, you must first unscrew the crown, which is the little dial thing on the side of the watch. Then just pull it out to the correct step and adjust what is needed. Push it back in, screw the crown down, and you will be back to getting wet and telling time, in no time.

The bezel, or the outer ring of the watch face, on the P99 rotates. It rotates with a click for every minute. Why you might ask? It is so you can spin it to match up with the minute hand. Then you will be able to tell the elapsed time. So say you wanted to train pistol draw strokes for 20 minutes. Just turn the dial to the current minute hands position, then when the minute hand gets to the 20 on the bezel number, you know you have done 20 minutes worth. It is pretty easy and useful for certain things.

I have worn the Traser P99 A for months now. It is not a small watch by any means, but it isn’t huge either. I like the size. There are a few aspects of the P99 that I do not care for, but they are minor. One is that this particular watch gains about 2-2.5 minutes a week. It is within the Swiss movement's specifications. I just turn it back 5 minutes every two weeks. Since it gains time, you will always be early for dinner. My only other complaint is that the bezel needs a stronger spring, or whatever is used in it for the detent positions. It moves sometimes. Like I mentioned, I am pretty hard on watches because I work with my hands, so the bezel is getting bumped and moved. On a positive note, I have yet to have scratched the crystal or marred up the watch case. A true testament on how rugged this watch actually is. I shoot with the watch on also. I have destroyed other watches while doing this, both analog and digital. The P99 has withstood everything I threw at it. The tritium in the watch is super bright. I really enjoy being able to tell time in dimly lit rooms easily because of this. The Traser P99 A Tactical has been a great watch

If you happen to be looking for a “tactical” style watch that never needs batteries, the Traser P99 A might be for you. Its auto winding Swiss movement is nice. The tritium inserts are what really make this watch shine. They are super bright and placed just about everywhere on the watch. This watch is also almost indestructible. Maybe the most important aspect is that the Traser P99 A Tactical Carbon looks great. Go check it out, along with the other Traser products at www.traser.com.

Firearms Insider Reviews - Key Points

Claim to Fame:

Tritium watch with automatic winding Swiss movement

Target Market:

Anyone wanting an analog tactical watch that never needs winding

Features, Benefits, and Specifications of this product:

Trigalight self-luminous technology on the dial, hands and underneath the Traser logo
Luminescent glass seal
Trigalight cross insert in bezel, Super-LumiNova (SLN) marking on bezel
Luminescent ring on crown
Movement: Swiss made automatic
Size: Ø 46mm
Glass: Anti-reflective sapphire
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer double case with internal steel container
Screwed-down crown
Transparent case back
Carbon fiber back face
Date window at 7.5 o’clock
Strap: Textile NATO strap and rubber strap
Water resistance: 20 atm / 20 bar