MANILA – Luminox Nick North, retired Navy Seal, was recently in the country to stir interest amongst local watch collectors about the brand. From among the timepieces that has made Luminox famous, North is particularly familiar and loyal to the Luminox Navy Seal watch. In the 90’s, he worked with Barry Cohen, one of two Luminox founders (the other one being Richard Timbo), to develop a watch that the Navy Seal can depend on for night missions.
“Luminox had exactly the watch we were looking for – we only added a few small things,” Nick North remembers. “We arranged to test some and they worked great. We made a few changes, then the East Coast team started issuing them and the West Coast teams came on board.”
After Luminox provided the watches to the SEALs, more elite units contacted them directly, while at the same time Luminox began marketing the watch across the country and the world. Luminox was then approached by US Air Force pilots flying the F-117 Nighthawk Stealth fighter jet. They were wearing the Navy SEAL timepieces, but chafed at the word “Navy” on the dial. Luminox then developed a watch for these pilots and approached Lockheed Martin, the makers of the F-117 Nighthawk for a picture of the plane to use in the catalogs that marketed the watches.
This initial contact turned into an exclusive arrangement to produce Lockheed Martin timepieces, including watches dedicated to the F-117 Nighthawk, F-16 Fighting Falcon, SR-71 Blackbird and the new F-22 Raptor.
The U.S. Navy SEALs use the watches, as do U.S. Air Force pilots, FBI and ATF agents, Secret Service officers, Border Patrol units, Coast Guard officers, SWAT teams.
Luminox has expanded its collection to include a variety of styles, created for the active consumer, the sportsman, law enforcement and military groups, divers and more. Currently, Luminox is distributed in 50 countries around the world and supplies elite units all over the world. In addition, the man on the street has shown particular interest in Luminox, anxious to use the watches put to the test every single day – on the world’s most difficult jobs, figuring rightly that if they have been requested by, designed for and used by the Navy SEALs, they have to be able to stand up to every day use.
