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Old 12 April 2016, 12:33 PM   #1
ref1655
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Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: SF Bay Area
Watch: 1655/MkI
Posts: 1,100
Would You Buy/Wear a 'Hot' Vintage Rolex Submariner?

'hot' as in the radiation emanating from an older mid-50s Submariner with deteriorating radium hands & dial.

a colleague came across an older, 100% original Submariner (the kind with no crown guards) & the area between the dial & crystal was dusty + there were hairline cracks on the dial...typical signs of radium breakdown.

just out of curiosity, he took a Geiger counter reading comparing it with the luminova dial on one of his other watches & a tritium model from the early 1980s. both registered zero but the older Submariner excited the counter, registering what he estimated to be the radiation one might incur while undergoing minor dental x-rays over a period of 15-20 years.

his conclusion was that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to use the watch as a 'daily wearer' or to have it on while sleeping at night. radium apparently has a half-life of 1600 years while tritium's is approximately 12.5 years or so.

his last experiment was to expose the watch to some x-ray film & the dial left faint ghost images.

this watch was part of an estate sale & he eventually passed on purchasing it figuring why buy a potentially dangerous watch just for the sake of antiquity. would you have done the same?
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