Nightwatch NS73V1

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Nightwatch NS73v1 specifications

Brand/model	Nightwatch NS73V1 Incredible
LED	3x SFN55.2
Max. Lumens	14,500 lm
Max. Beam intensity / distance	N/A
Battery config.	1*21700
Onboard charging	N/A
Modes	53
Blinkies	Strobe
Reflector	OP
Waterproof	N/A
Review date	June 2022

Today’s review light is the Nightwatch Incredible NS73v1. Nightwatch is one of those sorta-obscure brands that I’ve seen around for a little while, but have never owned one of. To my knowledge, you can only get them through Nealsgadgets unless you’re familiar with navigating the vast marketplace of Taobao. From what I see on Neal’s website, Nightwatch only makes one thing: big, bold lights. The aptly-named Incredible is no different. This lumen monster claims to put out 14,500 lumens from 3 LEDs and a single battery. That almost sounds too good to be true – let’s find out if it is.

Package quality.

The Nightwatch Incredible arrived in a bubble-wrapped sleeve that was stuffed into a lightweight, battered, white carton. It reminded me a lot of what Convoy uses with some of their lights. I honestly don’t know if this is the actual packaging, or if this is a pre-production that just got stuffed into a random package. Inside the box was:

• Nightwatch Incredible NS73V1
• Lanyard

Yup, that’s it. No manual, no o-rings… nothing.

When the packaged showed up, looking a bit smaller than what a C8 ships in, I thought something was wrong. Certainly a light with a claimed 14,500 lumen output had to be larger than that! Nope, it is legitimately a little bit smaller than your average C8.  The 21700 tube makes it comfortable to grip. The Nightwatch Incredible is very round and will easily roll away if you lay it on its side. There are several deep heatsink fins that should help with heat dissipation – and let’s be honest… its going to need those.

The only included accessory was a pretty standard lanyard which works well enough. There’s no clip, nor is there an obvious spot for one. There are several rings cut into the body tube and the tail cap, so you may be able to figure something out if you really want to.

The Incredible is an incredible lumen-monster. Tons of floody lumens with very little throw. Due to its small size, I wouldn’t count on using this in Turbo for great lengths of time, but it would be great for things like taking walks / hikes with 1,000 lumens or less, but then being able to kick into Turbo when you need a few moments of blindingly bright light.

The Nightwatch Incredible NS73V1 is mostly aluminum. The anodizing is shiny black, and according to Neal’s website it’s supposed to be HA III hard-coating. I’ll be honest, the anodizing reminds me of cheaper lights. It seems thick enough to be fine, but the glossy sheen brings the appearance down a notch. On the plus side, the Incredible has a snazzy stainless steel bezel.

If you lose your grip on the Incredible, that’s not it’s fault. This thing is completely covered in knurling. Like, even the heatsink fins and the rest of the head are knurled. Most of the body tube and the tailcap are covered in knurling. It is well executed and clean looking, if not a bit utilitarian.

Nightwatch spent a lot of attention to make sure the path of electricity had very little resistance. The driver contact is a large, beefy brass stud. The tailcap utilizes a spring bypass setup that I’ve never seen before. Instead of soldering a wire to the top and bottom of the spring, there’s a wide metal arm that reaches up from the PCB in the tailcap and sits on top of the spring, sandwiching it in the middle. It’s a unique arrangement that looks quite effective.

Overall, I feel like the design of the Nightwatch Incredible portrays “function over form”, save for that nice touch of the stainless bezel.

Warranty: I don’t see anything about a warranty, neither on Neal’s website nor on the non-existent manual.  So I guess if you run into issues, just reach out to Neal for assistance.

The Incredible uses not one, but three of the new-fangled Chinese LEDs. These ones happen to be the SFN55.2 model. They consist of nine dies each. From information on BudgetLightForum, they are 7070-footprint domeless 3V LEDs supposedly capable of 7800 lumens (each!).

The three LEDs are arranged in a shallow, clover-leaf shaped, orange-peel reflector. The reflector is covered in a sheet of AR-coated glass, which is held in place by the aforementioned stainless steel bezel. The bezel is nice and smooth, no crenulations.

As expected, the beam is extremely floody. The LEDs are on the cold-white end of the spectrum, but are actually below the BBL.

Measurements from Opple Light Master:

• CCT: 7089K
• CRI: 71.7 Ra
• DUV: -0.0030

Dimensions: 

Dimension	Millimeters	Inches
Length	133 mm	5.2
Head diameter	41 mm	1.6
Body diameter	27 mm	1.1

Weight: 

Weight	Grams	Oz.
Without battery:	187	6.6
With battery	254	9.0

Flashlight size comparison with its competition

Mid-size 21700 lights, from left to right: Sofirn IF25A, Astrolux EC01, Nitecore P20iX, Nightwatch Incredible NS73V1

High-output Chinese LED lights, from left to right: Nightwatch Incredible NS73V1, NlightD T90 GT9090, NlightD T90 SFN43, Lumintop GT3 Pro

Without a manual, I looked to Neal’s website for any clues about the UI. Details were scant, merely saying “double clicks turbo, triple clickes strobe”. Thankfully, this is a clicky light and the UI is quite simple.

There are 5 brightness levels; Nealsgadgets just says “M-L1-L2-M-H”. For the sake of easy naming, I’ll call the lowest one Moon even though it’s definitely not worthy of the name “moonlight”.

Available modes: Moon, Low, Med, High, Turbo

From OFF:

• Single click: turn on (last used mode)
• Double click: Turbo
• 3 clicks: Strobe

From ON:

• Single click:  turn off
• Fast press: change mode (Moon > Low > Med > High)
• Double press: Turbo
• Triple press: Strobe

Mode memory:

• Yes, it will memorize the four “normal” modes (not Turbo or Strobe)

Shortcuts:

• To Turbo: double press
• To Strobe:  triple press

Low voltage warning:

• Every 6 seconds or so, the light gives a double blink.
• In some of the tests, the LVP blinks last for up to two hours

Strobe/blinkies

• Strobe mode, can be activated by a triple press

Lock-out mode: 

• None

PWM

• I measured PWM at 19.8 kHz, which is fast enough to not be readily apparent by the naked eye

Additional info on the UI: 

• This is a really straight-forward, typical clicky UI
• Neal’s website says there is “Temperature control, 52°C will step down”. There does indeed appear to be temperature control, though I’m not sure about the 52°C set point.

The Nightwatch Incredible uses a single, flat-top, non-protected 21700 battery. It is recommended to use a battery capable of 40 amps or more. The strong battery I had available was a Samsung 40T. While that battery seems to be a good fit, if you want the absolutely highest output, you should opt for something with an even higher amp rating (like a 30T). These LEDs are hungry, and I really don’t think that there is a single 21700 in existence that is capable of giving the LEDs all the power that they could handle.

Lux was measured by a UNI-T UT383 BT at 10 meters. Lumens were measured in a homemade lumen tube using a TSL2591 sensor, calibrated with a Maukka calibration light. The temperature was monitored with a MLX90614 IR temperature sensor. A Samsung 40T was used.

Lumen measurements (for each mode)

Mode	Amps at start	Specs	turn on	30 sec	10 minutes
Moon	0.4 A	240	200	–	–
Low	2.1 A	1,050	989 lm	972 lm	932 lm
Med	5.2 A	2,500	2,291 lm	2,261 lm	1,022 lm
High	19 A	7,500	7,122 lm	6,663 lm	600 lm
Turbo	41 A	14,500	12,394 lm	10,219 lm	963 lm

Parasitic drain:

• N/A, it’s a clicky switch

Runtime graph

My Turbo measurements are a bit below specs, but I’m sure that’s a limitation of the battery. I measured 41 amps when I first kicked it into Turbo on a freshly charged Samsung 40T, which is the top end of what can be done with a 40T. On Taobao, I see an output table that lists 14,500 being generated at 50 amps which sounds plausible. But asking 50 amps from a single 21700 is an awful lot. Regardless, 12,394 lumens is ton of light for something smaller than a C8.

Mode	Specified	Measured runtime (ANSI)	Time till shut off
Moon	–	–	–
Low	–	2h 7min	4 h 8min
Med	–	1h 36min	1 h 50min
High	–	6 min	3 h 20min
Turbo*	–	2 min	3 h 40min

From what I can tell, Nightwatch has not provided runtime numbers. Due to the temperature control, the output dips considerably after the first few minutes in both High and Turbo. That technically ends the ANSI runtime, but the Incredible put out a usable amount of light for an 90 minutes or so.

ANSI FL1 standards: The runtime is measured until the light drops to 10% of its initial output (30 seconds after turning on). This does not mean that the flashlight is not usable anymore. The last column shows how long the light actually works till it shuts off. If there is a + symbol, it means that the test was stopped at that particular point, but the light was actually still running. This happens on certain occasions, with certain drivers, firmware, or batteries.

Throw numbers: Peak beam intensity 

Measured at 10 meters

Mode	Specs	Candela measured	Meters	Yards
Turbo @ 0 sec		33,400 cd	366	400
Turbo @ 30 sec	N/A	36,900 cd	384	420

Extra info: Peak beam distance according to ANSI FL1 standards: The calculated value of distance in meters at which the flashlight produces a light intensity of 0.25 lux. (0.25 lux is about the brightness of a full moon shining on an object).

The farm shed in these beamshots is 100 meters (109 yards) away. Pictures were taken with my Pixel 6 using ƒ/1.9, ⅕ second exposure time, and ISO200.

• Nightwatch Incredible NS73V1
• NlightD T90 GT9090
• NlightD T90 SFN43
• Mateminco MT90 Mini

Disclaimer: This flashlight was sent to me for review at no cost by Nealsgadgets. I have not been paid to review, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.