About us
Proudly made in the USA since 1975
Light makes anything possible. It's a symbol of hope and innovation. It's also a daily necessity for everyone from backpackers to fire fighters. For over 45 years, Princeton Tec has pushed the limits of possibility with reliable, durable lights that shine bright in every situation.
We started at the bottom of the ocean
Our story begins 40 years ago in Princeton, New Jersey. Bill Stephens was running the dive shop he founded with several friends and punching the clock at his day job.
When Bill's engineering firm tried to relocate the Stephens family to land-locked Indianapolis, far from the Atlantic Ocean where he loved to dive, Bill quit and focused on creating the industry's first automatic dive timer, called the Bottom Timer. Princeton Tec was born.
Coming up for air
As the market was increasingly flooded with cheap imports, we doubled down on the in-house product line. We began offering the Bottom Light in a rainbow of colors. It was the '80s, after all, so divers were excited to match their flashlight to their wetsuit. We added a wrist cord, revamped the packaging to include batteries, and started selling our flashlight to law enforcement and firefighters.
