Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired 
For his first couple of decades on the silver screen, James Bond was a Rolex Submariner kind of guy. Since the mid ’90s or so, he’s been an Omega Seamaster man. There were a few Casios and a Breitling in there somewhere, too. Even though he tends to favor timepieces costing thousands of dollars (and that shoot poison darts out of the crown), my guess is he’d feel right at home wearing Victorinox’s Night Vision watch.
By day, it’s an unassuming and elegant Swiss-styled stainless steel quartz watch with a cleanly designed analog face. But by night, its stealthy Swiss Army functionality is hard to miss: integrated into the case is a clever illumination system comprising a trio of low-energy but extremely bright LEDs.
A quick press of the button on the side of the watch activates an eye-pleasing blue LED glow that lights up the watch face. Even though the Night Vision sports luminescent hands and numerals, I found the blue light atop the 12 mark really does maximize legibility in any light. But it’s particularly striking in a dark setting.
But here’s the cool factor: push the same button two times in rapid succession and a second, white LED on the outside perimeter of the watch case bursts to life. It’s as bright and powerful as a flashlight. Victorinox claims the light is visible up to one kilometer away. Quite the boast — I didn’t get to test against it, but I can tell you it came in handy when reading a menu in the bat cave-like restaurant I ate in the other night.
For the next trick, press the control button three times. It causes the flashlight-style white LEDs to go into an emergency strobe mode — they flash quickly, and will continue to do so for up to seven days. This could prove especially handy when you need to signal the rescue helicopter as you tread water after disarming the nuclear warhead and escaping the evil genius’ island fortress and blowing the hatch on the secret micro-sub. Or, when your Buick ends up in a ravine and you want the tow truck guy to find you. (Hey, you never know.)
Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
The third LED is a red pilot light at the 6:00 position, right below the date indicator. Blinking at 12 second intervals, its does double-duty — it helps you find the watch in the dark, and it serves as a battery end-of-life warning.
The uniqueness of these triple illumination features is that they are assimilated into a handsome, if a tad heavy at 5.7 ounces, Swiss-made watch. The LEDs and the time mechanism are each powered by separate batteries. Available with a white or black face, and with either a stainless or leather band, the Night Vision watches were tested with a German team on the latest Siberian Black Ice Race. The team praised its illumination-producing and location-finding prowess during the dark nights on the tundra. It also held up in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Still, it’s not likely James Bond is going to ditch his Omega — or the product placement dollars that put it on his wrist — anytime soon. But hey, if 007 doesn’t want it, I’ll take it.
WIRED Handsome stainless steel Swiss quartz watch. Ingeniously incorporates three LEDs to illuminate watch face; act as a flashlight and emergency beacon; and to help find the watch in the dark.
TIRED It’s heavy, nearly six ounces. The otherwise useful blinking red pilot LED can be disconcerting.
Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired