Gear upgrade recommendations

sXePhenomenal

sXePhenomenal

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Mar 8, 2018
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Recently got to looking at the things I carry and realized the pen watch and light I use aren't as high quality as the rest of my items. My pistol a Sig 229 legion. Belts have a nice leather one from Jackson leather works and a Tuff products ranger belt for carrying my pistol. Blackpoint leather wing holster and my knives 2 XM-18s a case/bose dogleg and a ZT 561 .

So I'd like some recommendations for a watch pen and light that are high quality too.
The watch has to be a field watch with a leather strap just the look I prefer. As far as pen and light go I'm looking at a hinderer investigator and a olight mini baton. Thanks I'm advance for your recommendations!
 
the hamilton field watch is very nice, for less money the county com martac field watches are pretty well made too. Lum-tec makes some very cool field watches too and are pretty good quality. Pens, i carry Montblanc most of the time not so fieldy styled, hinderer pens look good, most anything that will take a fisher space pen refill will be good to use. Light's i like fenix and surefire and streamlight, countycomm has some pretty cool ones too like a all copper body led version.
 
The lum-tec watches are very attractive and have several models that catch my eye. The RR2, 3, and 5 are exactly what I'm looking for. Checking out the lights next
 
I love my Fellhoelter TiBolt pen. Insanely well made, a pleasure to use (you have to experience the bolt action; it's a hoot), and it will outlast me. Might be worth a look.

I don't know if you want to go down the enthusiast flashlight rabbit hole, or whether you want to mess with unprotected 18650 batteries, but for an EDC light I much prefer an 18650 to a CR123. You can get a lot more out of them in a light not much larger than the S1.

The ZebraLight S63w is among the smallest 18650 lights you can get, and ZL makes great lights; I used to EDC the version it replaced, the SC62w, and it's an excellent light. Slim and easy to pocket, great anodization and interface.

My current EDC light is an Emisar D4, which is kind of a turbocharged hot rod: ~3,500 lumens, four emitters (I went with Nichia high-CRI for the best color rendering), infinitely ramping interface, and will happily burn through your pants pocket on turbo. It's an amazing light.
 
Dadpool said:
I love my Fellhoelter TiBolt pen. Insanely well made, a pleasure to use (you have to experience the bolt action; it's a hoot), and it will outlast me. Might be worth a look.

I don't know if you want to go down the enthusiast flashlight rabbit hole, or whether you want to mess with unprotected 18650 batteries, but for an EDC light I much prefer an 18650 to a CR123. You can get a lot more out of them in a light not much larger than the S1.

The ZebraLight S63w is among the smallest 18650 lights you can get, and ZL makes great lights; I used to EDC the version it replaced, the SC62w, and it's an excellent light. Slim and easy to pocket, great anodization and interface.

My current EDC light is an Emisar D4, which is kind of a turbocharged hot rod: ~3,500 lumens, four emitters (I went with Nichia high-CRI for the best color rendering), infinitely ramping interface, and will happily burn through your pants pocket on turbo. It's an amazing light.
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A bolt action pen I gotta see this :eek:
 
It's a journey...

Just like you have multiple knives, you'll end up with multiple pens/watches/lights IMO.

Watchuseek is a good starting place for watches. So many choices - budget is a big factor as is case size I'm a SEIKO guy and like automatics. Have a look at a SARG005. 6R15 movement for $400. Great on leather or NATO. Classic dial.

Lights are all about battery size. AA and 18650 rule the EDC landscape for their output and run times. Again, so many choices depending.
One of the better 18650 lights for the money (output, build, interface) is the Emisar D4 with 219C nichia leds. Zebralight is also worth a look, but you'll pay more. Eagletac and ThruNite make pretty nice AA/18650 lights as well. USB charging is a nice feature these days.

Pens, well. Not so involved in my experience. I have a brass PicoPen sewn into the fold of my wallet in case I need one. The bolt pens are cool. Hard to beat a ZEBRA F-301 for small form factor.

Congrats on all the upgrades and enjoy the hunt for what works for you.
 
Me like Tuff Writer pens, Iso-Brite Watches, Lights are a little more complicated for me. I so so many I like: Off the Shelf = Surefire Defender lights, "custom" = Oveready BOSS, Sinner, Hanko, McGizmos.
Anyways, just a few ideas for you to check out and see what you like. Have fun and hope you get you something really nice.
 
Personally, of the watches I've accumulated over the years, I end up wearing/using my Citizen Eco-Drive versions most of the time (when I do wear a watch). Besides looking good and working fine, I haven't had to replace the batteries for twenty years now. They have a few different styles which might be closer to the style you like.

Flashlights are another personal preference. I have a few from SureFire, Fenix, EagleTac, and Nitecore which I have for different roles. For EDC, I've been very happy with my EagleTac Clicky in Ti (left back pocket carry). I have two, a CR123A and the AA version (most carried). The CR123A versios gets brighter with the rechargable RCR123A battery. Although I've grown to prefer the twist top plus clicky bottom, many flashoholics don't like that UI. It doesn't have a two-way clip either, if that's a requirement for you.

As a side note, I've had good experience purchasing CR123A's directly from Surefire which are generally newer and cheaper than CR123A's at my local stores.

For pens, I generally prefer the traditional style pens, but don't like them for EDC. My favorite EDC pen was a Cross Ion, but genuine Cross refills were hard to come by, and the generic refills didn't work most of the time. I used a Fisher pen with a keyring loop for awhile, until I wanted to reduce the amount of things on my keyring (regular Space Pen w/o loop would get lost too often). Right now, I carry an old Bic that I just chopped in half and use that.
 
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I won't be able to help much with watches. I'm a G shock or dive watch (Citizen Marine Sport) kind of guy. I also don't like leather straps.

Pen. I like Pilot G2 pens with a metal body instead of the normal plastic bod. I once put down my laptop bag on my jacket that had a plastic pen in it. Cracked it + a leak. Pens run $12 a pop and take different size and color gel refills.

Flashlight. I'm a AA fan. I tried the CR123 but prefer batteries that you can buy off the shelf. I also found I don't need to signal Mars at night. A few hundred lumens is fine. I prefer a model with low, med, and high settings. Anything from Olight, Fenix, Klarus, Jetbeam, or Nitecore will do just fine. A ton of different choices out there. Normal EDC light is a Jetbeam SSA10. I like the two, side buttons vs the tailcap button. 1xAA is good enough for daily carry for me.
 
I’ve got an office job that sometimes requires field visits and client meetings. I agree with the above, like knives you’ll end up finding a few that fit.

For a watch:
Citizen Nighthawk - daily
Seiko SNZG15 - for client meetings
GShock GA100 - weekends

For a light:
EagTac D25A Ti 2014 - daily
EagTac D25C Ti 2017 - daily, switched out with the D25A
HDS EDC Executive 250 - weekends
Surefire Backup - switches out with the HDS

I only carry one pen, a stainless Hinderer Investigator. Mostly because it fits in my wallet.
 
Can't help much on the watch. I switched to pocket watches on the farm, because a wrist watch was always snagging and getting nasty. And then I pretty much stopped using watches once I got in the habit of carrying a cell phone.

The lights you guys are discussing are just way too big for me to EDC. I stick with a AAA sized light because it's small enough to disappear in my pocket, and thus always carry along. I liked my Thrunite Ti3, but recently upgraded to the Maratac AAA since it has longer run time. The little Streamlight AAA lithium might be another option for you guys, but I absolutely wanted to stick with a format that would accept my Eneloop batteries.

If you don't mind the bulk of an 18650 sized light, take a look at the options on Parametrek: http://flashlights.parametrek.com/index.html?battery=1x18650
Did you realize some of those are capable of 600 meters of throw? That's incredible.

On pens, I searched off & on for years to find something truly tiny. Small enough to fold in my wallet or checkbook without making it bulge. I was even looking at the "refills", but did not quite find what I was looking for. Then, I found the Muji mini pen, which was exactly what I was looking for. (they also make a 0.5mm mechanical pencil of the same size.) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AWJYAFY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's fine point & writes well, and is only as thick as the ink tube inside a standard ballpoint pen.
 
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The Oris Big crown Propilot watch is a pretty sweet field watch too.

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sXePhenomenal said:
Recently got to looking at the things I carry and realized the pen watch and light I use aren't as high quality as the rest of my items. My pistol a Sig 229 legion. Belts have a nice leather one from Jackson leather works and a Tuff products ranger belt for carrying my pistol. Blackpoint leather wing holster and my knives 2 XM-18s a case/bose dogleg and a ZT 561 .

So I'd like some recommendations for a watch pen and light that are high quality too.
The watch has to be a field watch with a leather strap just the look I prefer. As far as pen and light go I'm looking at a hinderer investigator and a olight mini baton. Thanks I'm advance for your recommendations!
Click to expand...
So, it's near the end of May and everyone is dying to find out what you have gone with.
 
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