Going Pro

We investigate Protek's serious tool watch chops

- Zen Love

How might one sum up the particular niche to which products such as Protek's belong? ‘Tactical tritium watches’ would seem pretty apropos. That’s how brand founder Barry Cohen offhandedly described to me what he’s been focused on for the last several decades. First it was as the founder of Luminox and now, with his latest venture, Protek.

He's made a mark on the watch world. A handful of brands are known for regularly using tritium tubes for illumination, and their watches are often stylistically of the military and dark ‘tactical’ variety. It just kind of fits. Under Cohen, Luminox was among the earliest to lean hard into this category and popularise it. Making tough and affordable watches for the likes of soldiers and police, it turns out, was appealing to a lot of civilians as well.

After parting ways with Luminox in 2016, Cohen was back a few years later with a new brand of his own and a similar concept. He emphasises that, with his years of experience, it'll be even better this time around. Protek launched in 2019, and we recently got a chance to see a range of their current watches and to test drive one that represents the brand well.

The Protek Range

The Protek website currently lists multiple ‘series,’ and they more or less comprise two primary categories: A dive watch family and a field watch family. The dive watches consist of the Series 1000 with carbon composite cases and the Series 2000 in stainless steel, both measuring 42 mm wide, as well as a new Series 4000 Aggressor that's similar but even bigger at 45 mm.