One of the great aspects of the Vintage 44 is its light weight. Coming in at 44mm, with a lug to lug of 51mm, and a weight of 74 grams on the leather strap, it is a great size, and very comfortable on the wrist. The lugs are also greatly curved down, to make for an even better fit. While the watch head is only 12mm thick, with the way the leather band attaches and sits , it jumps up to 15mm thick. But this is not a watch that is meant to fit under a shirt sleeve or suit, its meant to be used for rugged activities or play. The case is non reflective with its sandblast finish, and is a very fine sandblast, giving the case a very smooth feel. The offset crown, located at the 4 position, which lines up with the date wheel, is sturdy, and functions well, though I did find it a little on the small side, making it difficult to grasp and manipulate with bigger fingers. Fortunately, though, it is a quartz watch, so you will probably not be setting the time and date too often.
The screw down case back is all titanium as well, and is engraved with, well, a lot of info and logos. All of the info on the case back, is another reason I feel that all the text on the dial, is not needed.
The illumination of the Vintage 44 is supplied by T25 tritium tubes. For anyone not familiar with tritium tubes, tritium is a gas encapsulated in a tube, and will glow for 25 years, although, they do start to fade usually after 10-12. Tritium tubes, are not the brightest illumination you can get, as you can see in my pictures(which is hard to photograph), but they require no light source for charging. This means, you can stick the watch in a drawer for a year, and when you take it out, and go into the dark, it will glow in the dark no problem. One thing to keep in mind, tritium tubes are best in complete darkness, they do not show up well in low light situations.
I will sum up the Bertucci Vintage 44 illuminated , by saying that I can easily see how this would be a true field use watch. All the components are made well, using swiss quartz, solid titanium, sapphire crystal, heavy duty watch bands and solid lug construction. For those who are not out in the woods every weekend , the Vintage 44 might fill that spot for collectors and watch enthusiasts, as being something they do not already have, and a watch that does not look like every other one in their watch box.
This particular Bertucci model is at the higher end of the price spectrum, but they do have models that start as low as $89.99. Check out the full Bertucci line HERE.
Thank you to Bertucci Watches for supplying the for review.
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