Reactor Watch Faces Extreme Underwater Testing

By JCK Online Staff

Posted on February 2, 2009

Watch manufacturer Reactor said its Gamma water sport watch has been attached to a shipwreck submerged in 300 feet of saltwater off the Southeast coast of Florida, where it will remain for three years, exposing the watch continually to the harsh conditions. 

Testing will be monitored once a year by expert diver Mike Barnette, co-founder of the Association of Underwater Explorers.

“Our Gamma pushes the limits of our core design,” Jimmy Olmes, founder of the Agoura Hills, Calif.-based wacth brand. “It is built as strongly as we know how to make a watch today, and we want to know just what it is capable of.”

Reactor’s Gamma is built on an oversized 45.5 mm case that is forged from solid 316L marine-grade stainless steel and is depth tested to 990 feet. The case is capped by a K-1 crystal with four layers of antiglare coating that makes it easily readable under water, and is sealed with Reactor’s exclusive triple o-ring screw-down crown system. The quartz day/date movement features a 10-year lithium power cell, and Reactor expects the watch to maintain the correct time during its entire three-year submersion.

The company claims its Gamma watch is the world’s only non-tritium sport watch to offer 24-hours of luminosity.