Earlier this year at SHOT, SIG SAUER announced the ROMEO-M17 red dot sight. It’s an enclosed emitter, gas purged design with a selectable reticle (2 MOA dot, 32 MOA circle or both) that’s designed for the military for use on M17 and M18 duty pistols. SIG SAUER calls it the best pistol red dot sight ever made.
The ROMEO-M17 isn’t for everyone. First, it’s expensive, retailing at about $800. It’s US-made, has 15 brightness settings, including three night vision settings, and it’s tougher than a $2 t-bone. It also uses SIG’s proprietary SIG-LOC mounting system. That means it doesn’t screw onto the slide from above, it attaches from below. As a result, it won’t mount on your garden variety P320 or other pistols.
When SIG officially announced the ROMEO-M17 in April, they made it clear that the sight isn’t made for your P320, and it’s “designed specifically to fit U.S. Military Modular Handgun System M17/M18 pistols, M17/M18 Commemorative Special Editions and M17/M18 Surplus pistols with a single hole in the slide to secure the sight plate.” They also promised commercial compatible pistols and slides would be coming in the future.
The good news is SIG will begin selling the ROMEO-M17 in an M17 slide/red dot bundle with the ROMEO-M17 pre-mounted later this year. Also later this year they’ll be selling an M17/M18 XCARRY pistol with pre-mounted M17 and expect it to be priced at about $1499.
I you opt for the slide/sight combo, you’ll be able to mount those to the P320 pistol frame and fire control unit you already own and be good to go.
The ROMEO-M17 and the work that went into developing it have become the basis for a new line of commercially available (conventionally mounting) red dot sights that SIG announced today. They’re calling them ROMEO-X and they come in two sizes. The full-size version is the ROMEO-X Pro and the smaller P365-sized model is the ROMEO-X Compact.
Both new ROMEO-X sights have the same basic feature set. They mount in the standard fashion from above, and are open emitter designs, but are made using some of the same parts and technology that go into the ROMEO-M17.
Like their bigger brother, both new sights are made in the USA of 7075 aircraft grade aluminum with 15 brightness settings (including three NV settings) and will have the same selectable reticles as the ROMEO-M17.
Like the ROMEO-M17, the ROMEO-X models’ batteries mount on the side of the housing for a low mount that co-witnesses with standard height sights. Battery life is more than 20,000 hours of constant-on use. The Compact will MSRP at $409 and the Pro at $459.
I got my hands on all three including a ROMEO-M17 pre-mounted on an M17 slide.
While we haven’t had a chance to put them through the full review process yet, they’re very impressive. All three use aspherical glass lenses, something a lot of other red dot makers don’t do. That means you get absolute edge-to-edge clarity. If you compare it side-by-side to standard mangin lenses that are in most pistol optics, you can easily see the difference.
Here’s are the specs for the two new sights . . .
Here’s SIG’s press release . . .
Introducing the all-new ROMEO-X series of optics from SIG SAUER Electro-Optics; inspired by the recently released mil-spec ROMEO-M17 the ROMEO-X delivers military-grade performance, reliability, and durability for civilian everyday carry. The ROMEO-X series of red-dot sights is offered as a ROMEO-X Compact for micro-compact pistols to include the P365 and a ROMEO-X Pro for full-size pistols to include the P320.
“The ROMEO-X family of red dot sights is completely optimized for everyday carry and built using the same technology and testing standards of our mil-spec optics that are designed to withstand the rigors of the battlefield,” said Andy York, President, SIG SAUER Electro-Optics. “The ROMEO-X Series is designed for ease of use beginning with the side battery placement leading to an overall low deck height of the sight. This profile gives the optic an extremely low position when mounted to the slide for a full-sight picture and co-witness with the existing standard-height iron sights. The ROMEO-X Compact and ROMEO-X Pro are engineered, tested, and built-in Oregon to be the ultimate aiming solution for EDC.”
The SIG SAUER Electro-Optics ROMEO-X Series red-dot sights are available in a compact version (ROMEO-X Compact), to fit micro-compact pistols, and a Pro version (ROMEO-X Pro), to fit full-size pistols, featuring distortion-free aspheric glass with a patent-pending Beryllium Copper flexure-arm adjustment system, in 7075 aircraft-grade aluminum housing with machined anti-reflection grooves on shooter facing surfaces. The ROMEO-X Series optics incorporate a high-efficiency point source red LED emitter with 2 MOA dot / 32 MOA circle reticle, side independent brightness adjustment buttons, 15 brightness settings including night vision settings, and a side-mounted CR1632 battery compartment with a threaded battery cap so the optic does not need to be removed from the pistol for battery changes. Additionally, the ROMEO-X Series offers a low deck height for standard-height iron sight co-witness, has a minimum continuous runtime of 20,000 hours at medium brightness setting, and utilizes MOTAC™ (Motion Activated Illumination), MAGNETAC™ (Magnetic Activation), and D.A.R.C™ (Dark Adaptive Reticles & Coatings) technologies.
it looks like the hellcat’s rear u sight blocks the optic ampules.
and why is that m17 covered in sand?
ah, no… that’s a hellcat as well.
Because I’ve been carrying it and shooting it for more than a week. That’s dust, not sand.
It does look like they may be looking to produce slides without a rear sight and only use an optic cut based on those sights having an integrated rear sight………could save on machining I guess …….or they already did so and I am just way behind on what Sig is putting out.
I can kinda see red dots on pistols like this for use with suppressors. But I really don’t understand the point otherwise. Attaching a laser makes more sense to me but I’m not sure I would do that either.
Having a light is the most important thing to me. Got ’em. This thing looks pretty good it’s way out of my budget…
for 459 msrp
ill keep rocking the romeo zero
thats currently on top of my p365xl thank you
For $1500 SIG couldn’t maintain consistent color on the paint?
So both the Compact and Pro have the exact same height and width specs??? There’s a big slide width difference between a P320 and a Hellcat.
There’s a reason people have been using Red Dots in competition since the early 1990s. They’re so miniaturized and ruggedized at this point I don’t understand why anyone would NOT want to be faster and more accurate with their handgun?
How do these compare to the Sig Romeo2 Red dot??
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