Before my first divorce, I owned a collection of fine watches. After the divorce, two. Taking a Patek Phillipe or Blancpain to a gun range makes as much sense as taking a Ferrari F335B (also gone) off-roading. So I looked for something more durable. My newfound interest in self-defense added another requirement: a watch I could read in the dark. Without glasses. I shared my eventual choice with TTAG’s readers back in 2012: an Armourlite Captain Field Series AL307. When Armourlite introduced a line of new, larger-face models, I hit them up for a $325 Caliber Series AL613 (with industry-leading brightness). To test for shock resistance. On your behalf. As you can see from the picture above, I strapped it to a Benelli M4 . . .
Tyler Kee and I shot the gun with 100 shells as above. The Federal stuff: Power Shok 12-gauge 3″ 1.25 oz. rifled slugs. The brown paper shells: generic 12-gauge 00 buck. It would have been all slugs, but that’s the entire Austin-area supply available during the week in question.
Click here to see the photo gallery of images taken at Best of the West Shooting Sports in Liberty Hill, Texas. Here’s the video . . .
It has to be said: the Caliber took a licking and kept on ticking. And Tyler and I learned just how much fun shooting the you-know-what out of a Benelli M4 can be. Of course, there are those of you who’ll say this wasn’t much of a test. To these naysayers I say: 50-cal test to follow. Should the watch remain functional, we’ll have a contest and award it to some lucky reader. [NB: the International Dibs Accord of 1975 does not apply.] Watch this space.
[Edit: The article originally and erroneously identified the watch as the Isobrite ISO100, MSRP $499.00.]