Marathon Pilot's Navigator 41mm Quartz Watch

Glow in the dark stuff is always cool, right? This is my first tritium watch. I'd been eyeing this up for a while and after watching a few videos on YT, I was convinced. Heinnie delivered in their usual exceptional way and two days later it was on my wrist! The watch is pretty light, but still feels solid. I had initial reservations with the fibershell case, but it feels as sturdy as anything. The included NATO strap is nice and comfortable. Strangely the lug widths measure more like 19mm, while the strap provided is 20mm, a minor gripe. I just swapped it for a 19mm grey nato. The dial is very legible thanks to the white hands, and the tritium in the dark is just so much fun! It's not super bright (the tritium tubes are small after all), but once your eyes have adjusted to the dark, the dial is plenty visible. Even though it's 41mm, it doesn't wear like it. It's quite thin, and the curved case hugs your wrist well. The black case also makes it feel smaller. If I had one complaint is simply the bezel is a bit difficult to grip and turn. It could be simply that I need to wear it in, but I suspect the detents for the 60-click bezel is also plastic so it's quite stiff and not crisp like a metal bezel. That said most people probably don't use the bezel, or even in this case it's meant to be moved to display a second time zone then left alone anyway. I don't intend to beat the crap out of this watch, but knowing it's mil-spec, I know it can take a bit of rough and tumble. All in all, it's a very legible, and fun watch that I could see myself wearing for a long time. Would highly recommend if you appreciate form-follows-function, and want to tap into the innocent fascination for glowy things.

I had the older version (one with the acrylic crystal) and I have to say this new model contains a lot of improvements, although I think it's still far from perfect. The improvements include: 1. Higher WR rating. 6 ATM for this version. The previous version I think had a 3 ATM WR rating. 2. Sapphire crystal. Though, personally I prefer the acrylic glass as it's a lot easier to maintain (to polish off the scratches, etc.) Thankfully, the flat sapphire crystal doesn't protrude much. It's almost flushed with the rotating bezel, so this should help protect the crystal. 3. The battery hatch is probably the biggest improvement. Now, you don't have to pry open the entire caseback just to replace the battery. 4. Metal crown. On the previous version the crown was plastic. It's still a non-screwdown crown, however. The bi-directional 2nd time zone rotating bezel is still a bit flimsy. It's rather easy to accidentally rotate it and misread your 2nd time zone if you're unaware of it. The box is no longer the practical, utilitarian, compact soft carton box: It's been upgraded to a much larger & thicker, more commercial-like, carton box similar to the kind of box they use for their divers watches. I personally like the old Navigator compact, soft carton box. The good thing about the tritium tube hour markers is that they don't require external source of light to be visible in the dark. They don't glow as bright as Super Luminova compound, for example, but they sure glow continuously. Having the orange marker at the 12 o'clock position sure helps with reading the time in the dark. The seconds hand doesn't have a tritium tube on it, so you can't see it in the dark. I prefer the no-date, sterile version, but I suspect the movement is the same as the one used on the date version (takes two pulls on the crown to stop the movement). Overall, this model is an improvement over the previous version, in my opinion.