ProTek Dive Series 1005 Watch Review
Today I have the great pleasure to tell you all about one of my latest watch obsessions: the ProTek 1005 Dive Watch. I was sent one of these recently, and I can’t seem to stop wearing it.
This watch is part of ProTek’s 1000 Series of watches, all of which share a lot of common features. They mostly differ from one another in color combination, dial marking style, or in some cases more significant differences like varied band or case materials. The 1005 is black with green accents.
ProTek watches also share more than a little DNA with Luminox watches. That’s because they’re designed by Barry Cohen, the guy who founded Luminox. Think of them as Luminox watches that are a little more rugged and tactical, and come with less hype and baggage.
The tactical quality really comes across in the ProTek 1005. These watches have become favorites of military personnel and other folks who tend to put their watches through a lot of punishment. They’re dive watches that are simple, reliable, and built to take a beating.
ProTek Dive Series 1005: First Impressions
Wow. This is a beautiful watch that really makes an impression as soon as it’s unboxed. Beautiful in a rugged way. It has a sturdy, tactical look to it, but is also surprisingly lightweight (both thanks to the carbon composite construction). It’s comfy, easy to read, and looks like it could stop a bullet. I also like the green accents of this particular model.
Measurements & Specs
Let’s take a quick look at how the ProTek 1005 measures up and what it’s made out of. First and foremost, you’re looking at a carbon composite case that measures 42mm wide, 49mm from lug to lug and 14mm thick. The case back is embossed 316L Stainless Steel.
The watch has a flat sapphire anti-reflective crystal, along with a 60-click unidirectional rotating bezel and a textured steel screw crown. The strap is genuine rubber (22mm at the lugs, tapering down to 20mm) with a steel buckle. The weight of the watch, including strap, is a trim 73.2 grams.
The “engine” that powers this bad boy is a Japanese Quartz Citizen/Miyota 2S60 movement with a 10-year battery. Illumination is courtesy of self-powered tritium illumination technology. I’ll talk about each of these features in greater detail as we move along.
Battery & Movement
I’ll start here because this is arguably the least noteworthy thing about this watch. I say that not because there’s anything wrong with the Miyota 2S60 movement that powers this watch or the single CR2012 battery cell it uses—for the record, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with either—but because they’re straightforward and not especially noteworthy.
These elements are practical choices for what is, ultimately, a very functional and utilitarian watch. The simple three-handed quartz caliber keeps time with an accuracy +/- 20 seconds per month, and the battery has an expected lifespan of 10 years. Nothing to write home about, but certainly nothing to complain about either.
Illumination & Readability
Here’s where things start to get fun. The Swiss ProGlo T25 illumination system is a standout feature of the ProTek 1000 Series watches, using tritium tube illumination to provide a continuous glow. It doesn’t need sunlight to recharge like lume, and it doesn’t require a push of the button to activate. It just glows all the time, all by itself.
What is tritium tube illumination? It’s essentially a small glass tube filled with faintly radioactive material. The glass protects the wearer from any actual radiation exposure (which would be perfectly safe even if the glass were to somehow break), and the tritium has a half life of about 12.5 years, meaning it will take around 25 years to be fully spent.
The resulting glow is vastly brighter than conventional lume, and it lights up each of the three hands and all 12 hour markers. That makes the watch exceptionally readable in all conditions.
Illumination aside, the dial of the ProTex 1005 is well laid-out and easy to read at a glance. The black dial features gray skeleton hands and white Arabic numeral hour markers that display both 12- and 24-hour time. The only numeral missing is the “3”, which was left off to make room for the nearby date window.
All of the above are adjusted using the crown, which is fairly intuitive. And again, this is a true dive watch, so the bezel isn’t just ornamental. It’s a 60-click dive timing bezel, designed to monitor oxygen levels for a 60-minute dive, but equally useful for keeping track of time in any situation. There’s also a tritium illumination tube at the zero marker of the bezel.
Durability & Water Resistance
Again, the ProTek 1005 is a legit dive watch, so it is water resistant to a depth of 300 meters (the folks at ProTek, I am told, actually test their watches in the water). Unless you’re a professional diver, you’re not likely to find yourself anywhere near that depth, but suffice to say you can wear it while you’re snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, water skiing, or whatever it is you do.
The steel screw crown is a big contributor to the watch’s water resistance, featuring multiple o-rings to keep its inner workings free of moisture. It also has a good number of threads to help it avoid becoming stripped.
This is also a very tough watch from a wear-and-tear perspective. The sapphire crystal gives you not only phenomenal clarity, but also offers just about the best scratch-resistance you can get on a watch. The carbon composite case is tough and durable, and also has something of a distressed look so it doesn’t readily show any scuffs or scrapes it may acquire.
Comfort & Wearability
The Protek 1005 feels great on my wrist. Its dimensions might be a little larger than some folks prefer, but it’s remarkably lightweight for its size. At no point while wearing it did I feel like I was wearing a big watch.
The genuine rubber strap is a nice touch. From a dive watch perspective, the advantage of natural rubber is that it’s resistant to damage from salt water. Natural rubber also has a higher tensile strength than most synthetic rubber materials. Moreover, it’s soft, supple, and has the ability to flex without splitting. In this particular case, the rubber strap of the ProTek 1005 also has steel tubes molded inside of it for added strength.
Final Thoughts on the ProTek Dive Series 1005
I have nothing bad to say about this watch. The comparison between ProTek and Luminox watches is an obvious one, but the more time I spend wearing the ProTek 1005, the more it’s obvious that this is a superior time piece than any of the Luminox watches I’ve owned. Everything from the look and design of the watch to the materials used is 100 percent on-point.
This isn’t a cheap watch, but I’m of the opinion that its construction, attention to detail, water resistance, reliability and overall wearer-freindliness justify its $450 price tag. The ProTek Dive Series 1005 is a great choice if you spend a lot of time outdoors and are ready to make a serious level-up from entry-level watches.
Protek USMC Official Dive Watch
A few months ago, Protek released an official United States Marine Corps version, and I was super excited to get one for myself and my son, who is a Marine and currently stationed as an Air Traffic Controller in Okinawa.
You can see the USMC version here: Protekwatch.com
Blair Witkowski is an avid watch nut, loves pocket knives and flashlights, and when he is not trying to be a good dad to his nine kids, you will find him running or posting pics on Instagram. Besides writing articles for Tech Writer EDC he is also the founder of Lowcountry Style & Living. In addition to writing, he is focused on improving his client’s websites for his other passion, Search Engine Optimization. His wife Jennifer and he live in coastal South Carolina.
