ArmourLite's Isobrite Watches: Tactical Time Keeping

On watches, Walter Lange, Co-founder of famed watch manufacturer, A. Lange & Söhne said it best: “There’s something one should expect not only of a watch, but of oneself: to never stand still.”

Of course, while A Lange & Söhne watches are well beyond my budget, with price points ranging from $14,499 on an 1815 and $2.6 million on a Grand Complication, Lange’s point still hits center-mass with me. Watches are well-suited for active folks who prefer timepieces to keep them in check, as well as to make statements about various personality or life attributes – what makes you tick. Even today, a watch is one of the only pieces of jewelry I wear, and it definitely represents not just my livelihood, but my aggressive, American outdoor lifestyle as a rough-and-tumble military veteran, active hunter and unapologetically pro-2A shooting enthusiast… even with terribly problematic knees at this juncture of my life’s seasoning.

With ridiculously meticulous manufacturing, solidly affordable price points for serious wearers, and best-in-class durability (perhaps category wide), ArmourLite watches not only keep precise time, they can stand up to an insane amount of abuse. As an ArmourLite Isobrite watch owner for more than a decade, I can attest to its durability. I’m quite hard on my gear, from watches, range bags, optics and bipods to pistols, rifles and bows. Give me six months and I’ll make most gear and tools of the trade look like they’ve been in use for years. This was true in my Marine Corps days and remains today – a cornerstone of jarheads – we are experts at breaking things.

That said, not only have I not been able to break my ArmourLite Isobrite ISO401 Chronograph Watch, after ten years of use; its scratch-free sapphire crystal face looks as new as the day I pulled it from its ritzy packaging! The watch’s reliability, durability, aesthetics, and most importantly fit, form and function, turned me into quite the ArmourLite Watch fan so I was excited to return to where it all began to evaluate newer models.

At an industry tradeshow, I ran into ArmourLite founder and CEO, Ashely Deiner, and updated him on my decade-old Isobrite Chronograph. With the exceptions of replaced bands and some wear on the buttons, crown and bezel, the watch remains in excellent condition. This is a watch I have worn religiously as my primary go-to timepiece, day-in and day-out for more than 10 years and as I mentioned before, its face still looks new. As an avid bowhunter, rifle hunter, range shooter, professional shooting-demo guy and shade-tree mechanic with a solid reputation or breaking things, it remains scratch free and keeps precise time!

ArmourLite: A Brief History

ArmourLite was founded by Diener in 2007. Dissatisfied with market offerings for active lifestyles, Diener sought to deliver precision timepieces capable of surviving the boots-on-the-ground lifestyles of military, first responders, security professionals and outdoor enthusiasts whether their tasks or adventures took them to rugged, extreme landscapes, dynamic shooting or hunting environments, or far below the ocean’s surface.

With more than a decade of watch manufacturing under his belt by the time ArmourLite was founded, product development spurred Diener to remedy the lion’s share of mediocre watch performance with precision watch internals, tritium markers, rock-hard cases and even harder watch glass like sapphire crystal, Vickers (hardness) rated up to 2000 HV, and Diener’s own Armourglass watch faces rated at 6,000 HV. The latter is considered virtually shatterproof. Even sapphire crystal, before the introduction of Diener’s Armourglass, was considered second in durability to diamonds, making Isobrite watch glass nearly scratch proof. I personally witnessed Armourglass endure repeated hammer strikes under Diener’s hand.

Today’s ArmourLite watches, including Isobrite branded offerings, include many of the same insanely durable features except some glass and tritium elements. ArmourLite watches feature 2000 VH anti-reflective sapphire crystal, as well as 6000 VH shatterproof Armourglass while Isobrite watches stick with the sapphire crystal option. Another important distinction between the two ArmourLite brands is that ArmourLite watches feature T25 tritium markers and Isobrite, true to the brand’s name, boast ultra-bright T100 Trigalight tritium markers. All ArmourLite’s offerings can be found and researched at ArmourLite.com.

For my personal lifestyle and discriminating appreciation for fine timepieces, two models fit best: ISO1601 Skeleton Series and ISO403 Valor Series, and I have worn both watches regularly for more than a year.

Isobrite ISO1601 Skeleton Series Automatic Watch

What’s not to like about sneak peaks? Since the moment they were first revealed to me as a young boy by a watch technician, I’ve always been fascinated by the miniature parts and pieces that go into a quality watch. Watching their tiny, precise, cause-and-effect movements are as mesmerizing now as they were then, and even a bit therapeutic in my fast-paced life. Aptly named, the Isobrite ISO1601 Skeleton Series Watch shows off the front of these tiny, precisely crafted pieces in motion through most of the watch’s face, and it’s been the source of numerous comments from watch lovers over the past year.

The Isobrite ISO403 Valor Series Watch is powered by a Japanese NH72 automatic movement complete with 24 jewels, a self-winding bidirectional rotor and a Diashock shock absorber. I’m a fan of automatics, with my first dip into this type of movement on a Cartier Roadster, I love the simplistic, yet high-tech functionality of automatic movements and this watch include a lengthy automatic power reserve of roughly 41 hours, with vibrations calibrated at six per second, or 21,600 per hour.

The 46.5mm watch case is constructed of carbon-fiber reinforced polycarbonate, includes 24mm watch lugs, and is water-resistant to 660 feet – perfect for divers. Despite its robust size, it is exceptionally lightweight, comfortable, and fits nicely on my arm. For comparison, an Apple Watch case (Series 9 and below, measures up to 45mm while a Series 10 measures up to 46mm). The case-back is stainless steel and fine-engraved with branding, watch features and a cool internal-watch-part design. I also love the ratcheting diver bezel, featuring 60-click unidirectional movement. For easy time-reference in low light, the Skeleton Series ISO1601 Watch also boasts Swiss-made Trigalight T100 tritium on all hour markers, the three watch hands, and the bezel’s minute marker. Illumination is battery-free, and the tritium markers are incredibly bright and last for years. In fact, the tritium markers on my decade-old watch continue to shine!

Like my Chronograph ISO401, the Isobrite ISO1601 Skeleton Series Watch shows exceptionally minor wear on the bezel and band after more than a year of abuse, and the glass looks brand new – not a scratch anywhere. This may be a shock to many watch wearers since typical watch glass is constructed of acrylic or mineral glass with Vickers hardness ratings around 500 VH (acrylic) and 700 VH (mineral). These glass types scratch easily and are mostly found in cheap, inexpensive watches. I have attended dynamic firearm trainings, conducted numerous shooting demonstrations, shot tens of thousands of rounds, worked on cars, performed plenty of gritty maintenance tasks, and have cleaned, repaired and built scores of rifles while wearing this watch and it still looks new. Nothing about the watch disappoints… it only impresses me as much as the condition of my 10-year-old watch does.

If I had one suggestion to improve the watch it would be the operation of the adjustment knob (crown). The Skeleton’s adjustment crown is a two-position plunger type, like my ISO401; however, in order pull, push or wind the crown it must be unscrewed. Once set, the crown must be pushed back in to engage the threads and tightened. My original ISO401 was immediately pull/push and winding. Of course, like a locking turret on a riflescope, the Skeleton’s system ensures nothing can ever accidentally manipulate the crown. So, I also appreciate the benefit here.

As a final note, this is an automatic. Put simply, your wrist movements wind the watch. Wearing it daily means you really shouldn’t have to adjust it. If you do not, the watch works off its reserved power. Once that is depleted, the watch will stop running and the time and date must be adjusted. I don’t wear my Cartier Roadster routinely so this would be more problematic; however, I store it in a watch-winder box. If you don’t plan to wear an automatic watch like the Isobrite Skeleton often, a winding box is a smart purchase. They can be found online easily and run from $25 to $500, depending on your needs. The first time you have to adjust your watch, especially to catch up calendar days, you’ll wish you had one.

Isobrite ISO403 Valor Series Watch

Like my original Isobrite watch, the ISO403 Valor is a chronograph watch built to last. Unlike the Skeleton, the Valor Series Watch is not automatic; however, it is powered by highly regarded Swiss-made Ronda 5040.D Quartz movement with a 54-month battery. Watch adjustments are made with a two-position crown, just as it is on my original ISO401 model. The watch face is solid black and features a date display was well as precise 1/10-second stopwatch functionality, including split, interval and accumulated times, operated by A/B buttons flanking the crown. The Isobrite Valor also incorporates the same anti-reflective, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal watch glass, carbon-fiber reinforced polycarbonate case and fine-engraved stainless-steel case back. The bezel is ratcheting diver-style with 60-click unidirectional movement. The watch case on the Valor is slightly larger than the Skeleton at 47mm, with 24mm watch lugs and includes two watchbands: silicone (my preferred) and military-styled black-nylon with stainless-steel hardware. As one might expect from Isobrite, the watch also includes Trigalight T100 tritium markers on hour, minute and second watch hands, as well as on hour marks and the bezel’s minute mark. Owners can expect tritium markers to shine for up to 25 years. Even at 12 years, T100 watch tritium is expected to be at half-illumination – still plenty bright enough for nighttime referencing.

One Year Later

While field testing both watches over the course of a year, I rotated wear pretty evenly to ensure fair assessments of their performances. The Valor Series Watch has held up just as well as the Skeleton. Even the bezel looks fresher, sharper than that of the Skeleton, perhaps this is simply a result of the Valor’s more aggressive bezel styling and brighter, busier numbering – the bezel numbers on the Skeleton are grayed out and numbered by 10s, while the numbers on the Valor are bright white and numbered by fives. Both watches also kept time precisely, never losing more than a minute or so through long periods of wear. The only exceptions were on the Skeleton’s automatic powering until I finally began storing it with my Cartier in the winding box – problem solved. Even so, I switch watches routinely enough that the Skeleton either held enough energy to keep time, or had only recently stopped making for quick, easy adjustments. Truth be told, post-testing, I have begun wearing the Skeleton much more often as my go-to timepiece.

Regardless of the brand family – Armourlite or Isobrite – wearers are assured years of precision time keeping from watches that seem virtually indestructible; in fact, considering my own Marine Corps service, 16 years of down-and-dirty factory work and nearly 20 years of glorious outdoor writing, ArmourLite watches, more specifically Isobrite, are the best watches I have owned and the Skeleton and Valor are living up to my same expectations.

ArmourLite Honors the World’s Finest Folks!

One final, worthwhile note here -- ArmourLite is a pro-2A company and exceptionally supportive of international military, law enforcement and first responders with a 20% discount! Who is eligible? ArmourLite has the most inclusive discount eligibility program I have seen. Discounts apply to all active-duty, veteran and retired military, active and retired law enforcement and corrections officers including non-sworn civilian employees, and first responders, including active and retired firefighters, EMTs, rescuers, dispatchers and other medical professionals like doctors, nurses, hospital staff and other medical professionals! 

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