Dead Tritium Dial?

[jm433]

Will an older tritium dial be completely dead? I have two 70s era vintage watches, both with yelowed patina on the tritium. One will still glow if exposed to light. The other is totally dead. I wonder if the one that is totally dead was retouched with a yellow colored paint or if it is normal to be totally dead?

[argee1977]

tritium has a half life of around 12 years, so for a 30 plus year old watch it'll have either stopped working or be down to bare minimum.

If you look around you can still find places that will touch up a tritium dial, just not Rolex, infact i think Rolex would remove it due to COSHH regulations.

[Ed Rooney]

My 21 YO Seiko glows for a minute or so if exposed to intense light.

I miss looking at my watch at 6am and seeing the time. Rolex lume sucks.

Doxa has a new Sub with tritium tubes.

[Tools]

Dead is pretty much dead........ Doesn't matter what brand you have..

Rolex actually expects owners to have their Rolex refurbished from time to time, so a re-dial will keep it fresh and modern..

However, some of us like to keep the original trit dials, even though we know they are dark... It's kind of an inner peace thing.......

[Bisquitlips]

Originally Posted by Tools

Dead is pretty much dead........ Doesn't matter what brand you have..

Rolex actually expects owners to have their Rolex refurbished from time to time, so a re-dial will keep it fresh and modern..

However, some of us like to keep the original trit dials, even though we know they are dark... It's kind of an inner peace thing.......

[argee1977]

Originally Posted by Tools

Dead is pretty much dead........ Doesn't matter what brand you have..

Rolex actually expects owners to have their Rolex refurbished from time to time, so a re-dial will keep it fresh and modern..

However, some of us like to keep the original trit dials, even though we know they are dark... It's kind of an inner peace thing.......

Yep, the patina look is what a lot of people look for. If i was in the same situation, and needed a luminous dial i would get hold of a replacement dial and hands and get a good watchmaker to fit them, then store the old dial and hands safely. Then if i ever decided to sell it on or wanted to revert back i could, never ever send it back to Rolex without express instructions to not replace the dial/hands, even then they might not touch it due to the tritium flaking.

[mike]

Originally Posted by jm433

Will an older tritium dial be completely dead? I have two 70s era vintage watches, both with yelowed patina on the tritium. One will still glow if exposed to light. The other is totally dead. I wonder if the one that is totally dead was retouched with a yellow colored paint or if it is normal to be totally dead?

James what you're experiencing with the one dial might be the phosphors in the paint matrix becoming temporarily excited by light. It happens to some vintage pieces.

Indeed some collectors have noted trit. dials from the 60s exhibiting slight lume as Rolex was know to vary the content of the matrix from time to time.

Tritium dials are composed of three things:

1. Tritium-a mildly radioactive substance (beta) that in and of itself does not glow, but acts as an "exciting" agent for,
2. The phosphors that "excite" and glow.
3. The bonding agent--the stuff that holds everyting together--about 90% of what you see.

As stated tritium has a half-life and degrades.

[jnewell]

Correct me if I'm wrong (quite possible) - tritium lume is supposed to glow all by itself, without exposure to light? The glowing after exposure to light is only an accidental by-product of the phosphor???

[Tools]

Originally Posted by jnewell

Correct me if I'm wrong (quite possible) - tritium lume is supposed to glow all by itself, without exposure to light? The glowing after exposure to light is only an accidental by-product of the phosphor???

That is absolutely correct..

Any incidental glow of the phosphors after the tritium has depleted only lasts a few minutes..

[mike]

Originally Posted by jnewell

Correct me if I'm wrong (quite possible) - tritium lume is supposed to glow all by itself, without exposure to light? The glowing after exposure to light is only an accidental by-product of the phosphor???

Spot on. Tritium needs no outside source to "charge" It is/was "always on" Luminova (non-radioactive) needs a light source to charge.

[jm433]

very helpful, guys. Thanks.

[Spark]

I can't add anything to the technical info already so expertly given , but just to give you some idea of how different the old Tritium Lume can be with temporary glow after charging with a light source.

I have a 1968 meters first 5513 sub that will glow after exposure to light, but my 1984 Explorer II 16550 is totally dead as is my 1994 Explorer II 16570.
My late 70's Tudor Oysterdate glows, but my 1979 Explorer II 1655 doesn't.

[hsung]

Originally Posted by argee1977

Yep, the patina look is what a lot of people look for. If i was in the same situation, and needed a luminous dial i would get hold of a replacement dial and hands and get a good watchmaker to fit them, then store the old dial and hands safely. Then if i ever decided to sell it on or wanted to revert back i could, never ever send it back to Rolex without express instructions to not replace the dial/hands, even then they might not touch it due to the tritium flaking.

Yes, Rolex will replace the hands if the tritium is flaking because they consider it a risk to the mechanics of the watch.

[osidak]

I have a 16800 from 1986 that I have worn daily since then - today I noticed that the 12 marker has a what looks to be a crack in the lume portion

Is there anyone that offers to relume using tritium - I have no interest in going to SL or changing the existing dial and hands

[Dalton]

Originally Posted by osidak

I have a 16800 from 1986 that I have worn daily since then - today I noticed that the 12 marker has a what looks to be a crack in the lume portion

Is there anyone that offers to relume using tritium - I have no interest in going to SL or changing the existing dial and hands

leave it alone. it's your best bet

[emmagee]

The dial and hands were replaced on my '86 vintage Sub because of flaking. The watch simply stopped; I took it into the RSC Dallas and they said it stopped because of the flaking and both were replaced.

[Boopie]

My husband recently gave me a 1940s era vintage Movado sports watch (Acvatic) that belonged to a great-uncle. It looked as if the hour and minute hands had luminous material on them, so I held the watch directly up to a light to test it. Sure enough, the hands actually glowed, after 60 years (and after probably decades in a box)! It was very cool. It will be interesting to see if my now-8 year old Yachtmaster has any glow left in another 50 years.

Question...what material was being used for lume in the 1940s and 1950s? I presume it's some sort of luminous paint.

[osidak]

probably a mixture of phosphrus and radium

[Boopie]

Will strange lumps start growing on my wrist if I wear it a lot? :)

[osidak]

doubt it - so very little radium was used on the dials that you should have no worries

as i understand it the issues that did arise where due to the workers licking the paint brushes used to paint the dials to bring them to a finer point and thus ingesting the material

[Singslinger]

I have a 22-year old GMT 2 (16760) with a Tritium dial that was replaced by Rolex around 9 years ago, so it still glows after being held under light for a few minutes. I'm not sure how long they keep spares though, so if I need a dial change in 10 years or so, I'm not sure how I'll manage it.