What is the point of lume if it doesn't stay active very long?

[stil]

+1 I all those tritium comments. At lease you'd be able to see it thought the night.

I agree with Tools as well though on always being able to find a tiny bit of light to see the time. I also have a 90s tritium dial on my sub and its well past worn out and I have no intention on replacing the dial.

[stil]

Originally Posted by Lordofrolex

I was thinking the same thing. For example diving watch if the lumes go out so fast how is a diver suppose to use there watch as a diving tool.

Exactly my point!

[somdej]

I think only ball have lume that last until midnight, or may be I'm wrong.


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[WIS]

Originally Posted by ndsleep612

Or a Seiko Monster, Seiko SKX...

That's true. Got a new gen monster about a year ago... Great new movement and big lume. Got the black one, wondering if I should've gone with orange?


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[EdipisReks]

I have a ball trainmaster world time that I more or less wear as a movie watch. It works well for the purpose, but keep in mind that tritium tubes aren't all that bright.

[Old Expat Beast]

Lume on my Black Bay, THC and Ranger seems to last all night.

[El Cascarrabias]

Originally Posted by stil

Call me stupid but what's the point? No matter what I do or how much light I expose to my 16234 (or any of my other watches that have LumiNova) it doesn't stay active very long. If I wake up in middle of the night I can't see the time...

Why not keep using Tritium since it doesn't require an energy source?

I agree with your assessment.

Chromalight is a marked improvement. I normally charge my dial with a powerful LED light as I retire for the night which works well. Recently, however, several nights I've been too tired to remember to charge the dial and found the dial is still just as readable without the LED charge. Granted I was outside in the sunlight most of the day.

I'd love to have the brightness of tritium tubes on my SDc, but tritium degrades over time and would have to be replaced. I assume the Chromalight will last much longer.

But to answer your question, "What's the point?" I don't know, it's a Rolex thing.

[Wesley Crusher]

Forget tritium, bring back radium!

[Wcdhtwn]

My GMT IIc stays lumed all night as does my Seamaster. I don't do anything special to make them glow, just regular daylight. My GMT which I bought new in March of 2015 isn't as bright as my Seamaster from 1998, that's a bit disappointing for the Rolex but impresses me about the Omega.

[WIS]

Originally Posted by Wesley Crusher

Forget tritium, bring back radium!

Lol, ah the radium girls of the 1950s lest we forget


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[RolexxxeloR]

When you really need lume, it's never there. I don't care what these guys say on here. You'll hear a lot of tall tales on here about lume that goes all night, etc... It's all bs.

[stil]

Sounds like it's quite hit or miss. That said looks like the trend is that the watch faces with larger markers typically stay charged longer.

@Adam - you think the lume on Tudor is longer lasting than the Rolex sports models with similar size plots?

[Sublover2166]

I just wish Rolex would not "advertise" their lume as able to glow for 8 hours.
I purchased a brand new Hulk last year and I can honestly say Rolex' claim is purely hype and nothing else. 8 hours? No way.

[toneafficianado]

Originally Posted by traf

Not sure, mine glows and remains legible all night


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Mine too. It's part of what I love about my Sub and Explorer II.
I can read the time without waking up my wife by turning on the light!

[Tony64]

Originally Posted by stil

Call me stupid but what's the point? No matter what I do or how much light I expose to my 16234 (or any of my other watches that have LumiNova) it doesn't stay active very long. If I wake up in middle of the night I can't see the time...

Why not keep using Tritium since it doesn't require an energy source?

I think it's a very interesting question and one that I've wondered myself.

From a practical standpoint modern lume does seem to have a rather limited window of utility. I do think however that it's essential to have lume on a 'sports' watch though, if for no other reason then we've grown accustomed to it always being there. The original tritium served the purpose well.

What I'm still scratching my head over are the 'dress' watches with lume. I've tried to figure that one out for years and have passed on buying otherwise nice watches for this very reason.

[Mauiguy]

Originally Posted by traf

Not sure, mine glows and remains legible all night

What Dave said. Also, I don't think the use of luminous materials was intended to light up a room. To remain readable by human eyes that are adjusted for the dark seems to be a reasonable goal.

[Dirt]

No problems with the chromalight on my DSSD.
The lume lasts all night so I can read the time in the dark if I bother to charge it a little before going to bed.
It's superior to my Seiko diver and any Omega that I currently have/had.
The brightness of the lume immediately after going from outdoors in the sunlight to a darker place in the shed makes it more than user friendly, and is superior to any Tritium I've had in the last 40 odd years. Chromalight rules as far as I'm concerned and is perfectly functional.
That's why my DSSD is the go to watch for daily wear.

I have seen charts in the past that map out the relative performance of the different types of lume.
In real terms, initially even Luminova is superior to Tritium for about 30 - 45 minutes after a charge. After that it starts to fall away below Tritium in performance. I consider this alone to be more than adequate and fit for purpose for the vast majority of end users.
I would imagine that any diver planning to dive at night would have a source of artificial light to see what they were doing and where they were going, so luminosity wouldn't be an issue anyway.

Further to this, Super luminova is slightly better again than Luminova and Chromalight is slightly better again than Super Luminova.
Given the superior life span of any of the modern lume variants as opposed to the limited life span of Tritium.
I would rather have the modern lume any day over Tritium as I know my Chromalight will be going strong well and truely after the Tritium has died.

To all those who long for the "good old days of Tritium".
I would assume you have had the rare privilege of using one of the 5517 Mil subs with the sword hands back in the day.
That's the only application where I can imagine where the Tritium was actually superior to the current Chromalight.

[stil]

Originally Posted by Mauiguy

What Dave said. Also, I don't think the use of luminous materials was intended to light up a room. To remain readable by human eyes that are adjusted for the dark seems to be a reasonable goal.

I agree...completely. That said, I have yet to experience lume bright enough to see in the middle of the night.

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by toneafficianado

Mine too. It's part of what I love about my Sub and Explorer II.
I can read the time without waking up my wife by turning on the light!

Agreed

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by stil

Why not keep using Tritium since it doesn't require an energy source?

Because it's a known health hazard, and people have to disassemble these watches in order to service them.
The radioactive material can break down and crumble away over time. This raises the risk of exposure.

The dials and hands have to be manufactured in the first place and this increases the exposure risk for workers.

I have seen 2 people die from Mesothelioma and it's not a pretty way to go.
Perhaps you would rather they bring back the use of good old Asbestos for Brake and Clutch lining material?

[El Cascarrabias]

Originally Posted by RolexxxeloR

When you really need lume, it's never there. I don't care what these guys say on here. You'll hear a lot of tall tales on here about lume that goes all night, etc... It's all bs.

Uhhh . . . no.

[RolexxxeloR]

For anyone looking to Rolex, or for that matter, any watch manufacturer, for lume that "lasts all night", you're going to be sorely disappointed. Chances are, you'll last longer through the night than any lume... Chromolight, luminova, super luminova, supernova...blah, blah, blah...It's all gibberish.

[traf]

Perhaps the issue is not in the actual lume, but rather in the user's eyes 👀


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[SpaceWanderer]

Originally Posted by Lordofrolex

I was thinking the same thing. For example diving watch if the lumes go out so fast how is a diver suppose to use there watch as a diving tool.

Nothing is less important on a dive watch than lume that lasts for hours. If you're going deep enough that it will be dark or you're night diving, you'll have at least two lights with you and probably a third as a tiny backup light can get stashed anywhere. The spill-off from your main light is more than enough to make the watch visible, and also keep the lume charged. If you lose all your lights and all the lume on all your instruments, you have a bigger problem than seeing your bottom time.

[Lordofrolex]

No ones answer the question yet. Why would someone use a Rolex diving watch. You can even use it because the lumes go out so fast.

[withthesword]

i think the thing that people need to realise is that we live in a hyper electrical world. everything is electronic, and everything is powered by electricity. you can't turn yourself more than one degree in any direction from stationary without seeing a source of light.

in the cities, there is so much light everywhere that it is very easy for our eyes to lose their night vision. even when you're out camping, or roughing it in the field with your comrades, it's near impossible not to have some random light source mess with your night vision.

luminova may SEEM to be a relatively short lasting lume, but trust me when i say that it glows for a long, long time. the key is night vision.

on one of the exercises i was on maybe a year or two ago, i remember that i had to man a trench overnight. it was a supremely boring detail but, there i was doing it. i can attest that the lume on my sub gave off a steady low green glow for the entire night, from the moment the last lick of light from the sun set to the moment the skies started to brighten again.

while tritium will give off a glow whether you charge it up or not, i can say without any uncertainty that luminova when properly charged will easily last all night.

it's all about the night vision.

[DocHorton]

Lume in my GMTc, both my Explorer II's, SubC, and Smurf all last long enough for me to read the time at 5:30 AM.

I typically charge my watch with the flash light on my iPhone for about 10-15 seconds before bed and I can easily read it all night.

[HogwldFLTR]

Originally Posted by stil

Call me stupid but what's the point? No matter what I do or how much light I expose to my 16234 (or any of my other watches that have LumiNova) it doesn't stay active very long. If I wake up in middle of the night I can't see the time...

Why not keep using Tritium since it doesn't require an energy source?

Mine certainly works well enough through the dark hours of the night. The Lume on dive watches would work well enough during short duration deep dives. I guess imho, the current lume does the job it's called on to do. I do have a tritium dial however that I can still see glowing at night when my eyes are acclimated to the dark.

[marzzz]

Originally Posted by DocHorton

Lume in my GMTc, both my Explorer II's, SubC, and Smurf all last long enough for me to read the time at 5:30 AM.

I typically charge my watch with the flash light on my iPhone for about 10-15 seconds before bed and I can easily read it all night.

I live in Arizona, so my BLNR gets plenty of sunlight and I can read it all night long. I also use the UV/Blacklight trick (as opposed to iPhone or nightstand light)- we use UV lights to hunt for scorpions (they glow bright green under UV), so I always have one handy and give my watch a 20-30 second "charge" just for fun.