In March of 2015, the monthly giveaway watch on aBlogtoWatch was a Traser Classic Automatic Master watch. The winner was Sylvain D. from Miami, Florida, USA, and after enjoying his new timepiece, he has shared with us a watch winner review for you – the aBlogtoWatch audience. Thanks to Sylvain and all the other watch winners who share their experiences with the world. Here is Sylvain’s review:

I was really thrilled when I heard that I had won the Traser Classic Automatic Master, one of only two automatic models in Traser’s catalog. This would be my first watch with Tritium tubes, a technology that I had long admired and really wanted to try. On the other hand, I was a bit worried about the size of the watch; at 46mm, this is the largest watch in my collection, and I tend to prefer watches in the 40-42mm range.

Appearance:

I was pleasantly surprised when I took the watch out of its box: it looks better in the steel than it did in photos. I’m not a big fan of stainless steel bezels with painted numerals. But in reality, this watch has a very elegant yet sporty appearance, making it a highly versatile watch that looks at home with jeans or with a business suit. The dial has a ton of details with a nice textured background, Tritium tubes that embed in the chapter ring and highly-polished applied SS arrow-heads that point to the tubes. I think the large roman XII looks rather odd on this sporty watch, and the watch would look better with just a double-marker at twelve. The date window is unfortunately white, but it is rather discreet.

Ergonomics:

The Traser Classic Automatic Master actually fits my 7.5” wrists very well thanks to its short curved lugs. The watch is also relatively thin at 11mm, which gives it a very thin looking profile in relation to its diameter. This means that while the watch has a lot of wrist presence, it doesn’t appear ridiculously large. The crown is nicely proportioned and has robust knurling making it very easy to grasp and adjust.

I elected to receive the watch on the bracelet, as I live in a tropical climate and don’t like wearing leather straps during the day. While the bracelet doesn’t look or feel as high quality as that of my Christopher Ward C60 Trident, in reality, it is a very comfortable bracelet that doesn’t catch hair, conforms itself nicely to my wrist, and basically allows me to forget about it all day long. The clasp is of the “double-safety lock” type and works well enough. This Traser Classic Automatic Master watch also provides 100m water resistance, so when combined with the bracelet, one can wear it with confidence while swimming.

Legibility:

This watch is highly legible during the day time, with it’s silver colored hands and markers and white Tritium tubes. It is also highly legible in complete darkness, thanks to those glowing tubes on the three hands and on the hour markers. However, in some low light situations, like when in a movie theatre, the watch can be a little hard to read because the tubes are not bright enough if your eyes are not completely adapted to darkness. In those cases, you can twist the watch a bit to allow the screen’s light to reflect off the SS arrowheads, still allowing you to read the time. This was an aspect of the Tritium tubes I was a bit disappointed by. They shine all night, but they aren’t all that bright. They work great for reading the time off my wrist during the night, but if I leave the watch on my night stand, I find reading the time from it more difficult.
The rotating bezel is a 60-click unidirectional type, and it has a nice firm feel to it. It isn’t as stiff as the one on my Trident, and it does have a bit of slop-back, but it is well aligned and easy to grasp with the coin-edging.

Movement:

The Traser Classic Automatic Master comes with an ETA 2824-2 Elaboré movement which is visible through a display back. I was quite disappointed on the first day when I saw that the watch was taking 2 seconds per hour. I confirmed over a few days that it was running +48 seconds per day. I figured for sure it must be magnetized, so I purchased one of those $10 de-magnetisers on eBay. After de-magnetizing the watch, it is still running at +38 seconds per day, so the it will have to be regulated.

Conclusion:

I’m very happy with this watch! It is a solid, comfortable, well-built watch with a lot of wrist presence. It is highly versatile, feeling appropriate at home, at the beach, or at the office. The Tritium tube technology is interesting and makes the watch perfectly legible even in complete darkness without having to worry about “charging” the lume. At $1,100 retail for the Traser Classic Automatic Master watch it is a bit pricey compared to other offerings on the market, but there aren’t many Swiss automatic watches with Tritium tubes.

Thanks to aBlogToWatch and Traser for this great giveaway! traser.com