I have owned 4 Luminox watches, all have been good watches. No troubles at all with any of them.

 

Most all quartz are pretty tough... it's hard to say which may be tougher but I'd say that one of the composite cases of the luminox or trasers would be toughest vs. a SS case. The Marathons are military issued so I'd imagine they are pretty tough as well.

 

I have both a Luminox 3101 and Marathon Navigator. As far as performance, both run accurately as a quartz watch should, though I believe the Luminox has a higher jewel count Ronda movement (I read 5 jewels in a post over on TZ-UK) vs the basic 1 jewel ISA in the Marathon. I definitely prefer the overall look of the Marathon but since it is all plastic/composite I don't know how it will hold up versus my stainless Luminox. The bezel is definitely better on the Luminox, plus the design of the chapter ring may allow you to replace tritium tubes down the road. The Marathon will need a replacement dial since the tubes are attached directly.
I had my Luminox exactly one day and I scratched the "scratch resistant" mineral crystal. o| Duarte at NEWW replaced it with sapphire. The Marathon has a nicely domed acrylic crystal so if you scratch it a tube of Polywatch and a buffing cloth will take care of that!

I don't have a comparable Seiko quartz so I couldn't say which is better. However, their mil style auto is a sweet little watch in your choice of color for very little money :-!

I hope this helps,
Griff

 

I have both a Luminox 3101 and Marathon Navigator. As far as performance, both run accurately as a quartz watch should, though I believe the Luminox has a higher jewel count Ronda movement (I read 5 jewels in a post over on TZ-UK) vs the basic 1 jewel ISA in the Marathon. I definitely prefer the overall look of the Marathon but since it is all plastic/composite I don't know how it will hold up versus my stainless Luminox. The bezel is definitely better on the Luminox, plus the design of the chapter ring may allow you to replace tritium tubes down the road. The Marathon will need a replacement dial since the tubes are attached directly.
I had my Luminox exactly one day and I scratched the "scratch resistant" mineral crystal. o| Duarte at NEWW replaced it with sapphire. The Marathon has a nicely domed acrylic crystal so if you scratch it a tube of Polywatch and a buffing cloth will take care of that!

I don't have a comparable Seiko quartz so I couldn't say which is better. However, their mil style auto is a sweet little watch in your choice of color for very little money :-!

I hope this helps,
Griff

I've had a Luminox 3000 series watch for @ 5 years. I use it as a beater, and it's been banged, bashed, dropped, slammed and scraped into just about everything possible. It's definitely not very pretty looking anymore, and the crystal is trashed, but still readable. I've never had any problems whatsoever with the movement, and it's stayed very accurate, as far as quartz goes.

I say go for it. I really like their new Evo Colormark series. The original, basic black plastic cased models look great on a Zulustrap.

 

I am also contemplating picking up the Original Navy Seal version of the Luminox. Thanks for your comments gentleman.
I'll post pics when it is up.
Regards.:thanks

 

Here are some Luminox's ...................

 

Martin, that Lumi does look great on the NATO... Luminox makes great sport watches that are solid and dependable...

 

Seiko has many movements ranging from ok to superb. You'll have to bring in specific models for a good comparison.

As for Marathon TSAR, it uses one of the cheapest Swiss movements on the market, the ISA 1198. Parts house list it at around $7 so it probably costs Marathon $2. As throwaway as they come. Just swap out the cannon pinion assembly for the h3 hands and you're done. High-torque imho is just euphemism (afaik they're stock ISA). Those are gas tubes, not huge lume filled diver hands.

The Ronda 715 found in many Trasers/Luminox is better. All metal and repairable. Costs considerably more than $7 but still disposable.

That said, Luminox uses many quartz modules too. The Ronda 5xx series is considered a step down from the 7xx. There are others but I'm not familiar with them.

 

"As for Marathon TSAR, it uses one of the cheapest Swiss movements on the market, the ISA 1198. Parts house list it at around $7 so it probably costs Marathon $2. As throwaway as they come. Just swap out the cannon pinion assembly for the h3 hands and you're done. High-torque imho is just euphemism (afaik they're stock ISA). Those are gas tubes, not huge lume filled diver hands."

I did a bit of research, and you're 100% correct. (Not that I doubted you, but it pays to check out what you find on the 'net).

This is AMAZING that Marathon would charge over 400 dollars for a watch with a 7 dollar disposable movement in it. Unreal. They should be ashamed of themselves!

Of course the ETA automatic movement that you can get for about 200 dollars more probably doesn't cost them but what... about 40 bucks max?

Rip off masters for sure. My American tax dollars at work I guess. They should have bought Casio G-shocks for the military guys. Cheaper and tougher and most of them are wearing G-shocks which they bought themselves anyway.

Dan N

 

Marathon doesn't charge $400+. It's the vendors who sell these sexy Mil-Issue tacti-cool watches that do. If you browse the GIS catalogue online, US government (certain branches, including the military) personnel can get it for I don't remember, around $200 or so.

That watch may be rugged, but too heavy and thick to be practical in the field.

I wore a g-shock when I was serving my time.

I was really surprised the T-SAR sold so well.