Luminox built its name on blacked-out watches made for soldiers, divers and rescue crews. Its newest watch goes the other way. A burnt orange ceramic bezel insert sits against a black wave dial on the Pacific Diver Automatic 3100 Series Limited Edition, reference XS.3109.N, and Luminox is making 400 of them at $1,745 each.
Orange has been a diver’s color since Doxa put it on a dial in 1967, working from tests that showed it staying visible in murky water after other colors faded. Luminox has mostly passed on it. Its catalog leans on military greens, blacks and grays, so an orange bezel on the line’s flagship automatic stands out twice, once on the wrist and once in the range.
Price: $1,745
Where to buy: Luminox
The orange sits in ceramic, not paint
A unidirectional bezel in 316L stainless steel carries the color as a ceramic ring insert. Ceramic shrugs off the scratches and fading that age an aluminum insert, and the white numerals and minute marks print straight onto it. A single lume tube sits in a steel housing at 12, so the bezel’s zero point still shows in the dark.
Under the sapphire crystal, the dial keeps the Pacific Diver’s molded wave pattern in black, with applied markers and big Arabic numerals at 12 and 6. Orange shows up in two small places, the AUTOMATIC print above the 6 and the tip of the seconds hand. The watch reads black from across a room and orange up close.
A Sellita automatic where most of the brand runs quartz
Most Luminox watches run Swiss quartz movements. The 3100 Series runs a Sellita SW200-1 automatic with 26 jewels and a date window at 3 o’clock. It’s the movement under a lot of Swiss divers at this price, and parts and service for it are available almost anywhere watches get repaired.
A screw-in caseback with a sapphire window shows the movement, and the steel ring around the window is engraved with the series, the water rating and the individual number out of 400. The case measures 42 mm across and 13 mm thick in 316L stainless steel, with a guarded screw-down crown, and Luminox rates it to 200 meters and tests each watch individually.
The strap is black rubber, 24 mm at the lugs, and it cuts to fit. Sizing is a pair of scissors and the steel signature buckle rather than a stack of links or a row of holes, and the brand name is molded into both sides of the rubber.
Tritium tubes do the night work
Luminox’s light system uses tiny glass tubes filled with tritium gas, set into the hands, the hour markers and the bezel pip. The tubes glow on their own, with no button to press and no charge from a lamp, and Luminox rates the glow to hold for up to 25 years.
This limited edition splits its tube colors, blue and orange across the markers and hands, which makes the dial quicker to orient than a single color does. It’s the same light system the brand sells to military units, carried into a watch that’s otherwise built for collectors.
Same case and movement in blue for $156 less
The limited run isn’t the only way into this watch’s hardware. A standard version, reference XS.3104, runs the same 42 mm case and Sellita automatic with a blue wave dial on a steel bracelet, and Amazon has it at $1,588.88.
| Watch | Price | Dial | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Diver Automatic Limited Edition XS.3109.N | $1,745 | Black wave, burnt orange ceramic bezel | Sellita SW200-1 |
| Pacific Diver Automatic XS.3104 | $1,588.88 | Blue wave, steel bracelet | Sellita SW200-1 |
Price: $1,588.88
Where to buy: Amazon
What the extra $156 buys is the orange ceramic insert and a number in a closed run of 400. The movement, the case and the 200-meter rating stay the same either way.
Price and availability
Luminox sells the limited edition through its own store at $1,745, and it was in stock when checked today, with free shipping from Luminox’s US store. Once the run sells through, the standard automatic stays in the catalog, so nothing about the hardware disappears with it.
That’s the whole choice here. Orange ceramic and a number out of 400 at $1,745, or the same diver in blue for $156 less.
Price: $1,745
Where to buy: Luminox
