Traser has just released a new special edition “Red, White, & Blue” version of their recently updated H3 P6600 Shade watch collection meant to honor the large American watch market – and their many customers in it. Traser is the brand officially owned by MB-Microtec in Switzerland that produces Trigalight tritium gas tubes – those used in a range of watches from Luminox to Ball. Traser is among the original modern tactical watches with timepieces meant for professional use and popular with soldiers, law enforcement, emergency response personnel, and of course, weekend warriors. It probably doesn’t surprise you that Traser watches do well with the gun-lover audience here in America.

Ironically enough, given current politics in America, it might be the right time for the brand to release a watch such as this. This special edition takes the Traser P6600 Shade and gives it assorted red, white, and blue Trigalight gas tubes at the hour markers as means to remind the wearer of the American flag. Though it should be just as useful to remind people of other red, white, and blue national flags of which there are 38, according to Wikipedia. So depending on where you live and your particular flavor of patriotism, the Traser P6600 Shade Red, White, & Blue Special Edition watch could be in honor of the United States, Dominican Republic, Iceland, South Korea, Malaysia, Chile, Cambodia, Norway, Slovenia, Nepal, Thailand, France, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Panama, Russia, Nepal… and a lot more.

So Traser really has a lot of countries covered here even though they are emblazoning the American bald eagle and prancing frontier horses behind the image of the watch. The Traser P6600 Shade watch is itself a welcome upgrade from the previous generation P6600 Shadow. Upgrades are subtle but important for detail seekers who wanted the best possible watch in both quality and design. One upgrade is the use of black-colored discs (versus white) for the date and day of the week windows – an important refinement. Also, the pip that holds the tritium gas tube on the rotating bezel is now PVD-coated black versus in unfinished steel – which adds to the important stealth look of the watch.

Traser also apparently upgraded the crystal from mineral to AR-coated sapphire – which I think most people will appreciate. With that said, truly active watch wearers sometimes prefer mineral crystal because rather than shatter under large impact, it merely chips (or totally cracks depending on the force of the impact).

The 45mm-wide case is 12mm thick and water-resistant to 200 meters. The inner case is steel while the black-colored outer case is light and made of fiberglass-reinforced resin. That makes it lightweight at 80 grams (with the strap) and pretty durable. The dial is pure functionality with a scale for both the 12-hour and 24-hour time, in addition to the rotating 60-minute timing bezel. Inside the watch is a Swiss Ronda quartz caliber 517.6 DD (day/date) movement. Attached to the case is a black NATO-style strap, but a rubber strap is also available as an option. Price for the Traser H3 P6660 Shade Red, White, & Blue Special Edition watch is $475. traser.com