I bought a tritium watch that's probably the same as yours but in the UK they're sold under the brand Traser. It hasn't broken during a year of abuse, but I did get that bad reaction to the back coating. In the end I scrubbed it off and it seems OK now. When this does die I won't be buying another, I think I'll go back to Casio (had an alti-barometer thing that was OK) or maybe try the Timex Expedition range.