Advice needed about dials

[nottinghill]

Dear members,

Can someone enlighten me as to what is the difference on the marking of "Swiss - T <25" as compared to "Swiss Made" on some dials of the rolex watches? Does it mean it's a lower end version of the Swiss made?

For your advise, please.

[tonelar]

SWISS T<25 the marking before the SWISS MADE markings.. it meant that the watch dial and hands were Tritium Lumed (their glow was derived fromthe radiation emitted by the tritium in the markers and hands). The current crop of watches use Luminova or Superluminova (as Rolex calls it) so there isn't Tritium in them anymore but they need an external light source to "charge" them...

As the T<25 watches are all pretty much beyond their first half life(s) there aren't anymore T<25 dials that glow nearly as bright as the newer non-tritium dials.

Before the SWISS T<25dials there were T SWISS T dials.

Hope this helped...

[Gedanken]

Yup, Tony's spot on. It's a question of manufacturing specifications, but it doesn't necessarily mean that one is better than the other.

[tonelar]

Well.. the guys that want the newest Rolex on their wrists will look for the SWISS MADE models. Some of us who have older watches are proud to show off a Swiss T<25 cause it holds some veteran like status.

My favorite watch says SWISS MADE on it, while 2nd and 3rd places are definitely two of my SWISS T<25 watches.

[nottinghill]

Ok thanks guys.... I'm intending to get a pre-owned explorer II.... can I say that those dials with T<25 marked models should be lower priced compared to those swiss made marked models?

Or does such marking will have any bearing on the value of the watch? Thank you again bros....

[mike]

Originally Posted by nottinghill

Dear members,

Can someone enlighten me as to what is the difference on the marking of "Swiss - T <25" as compared to "Swiss Made" on some dials of the rolex watches? Does it mean it's a lower end version of the Swiss made?

For your advise, please.

After Radium was removed from watchdials due to possible health concerns some makers turned to tritium as an exciting agent in their watch dials to produce luminosity. Tritium is a low level radioactive substance that emits beta radition. SWISS T<25 on the dial indicates an output of less than 25 milicurries of radition(perfectly safe-beta will not penetrate the crystal).

As tritium is a radioactive substance it has a half-life of about 12.5 years. Tritium by itself does not glow. Rather tritium excits the phosphors contained in the paint matrix to glow.
What you see on the dial consists of three parts;
1-tritium
2-phposphors
3-the binding agent that holds the matrix together--about 90% of what you see.
The yellowing and cracking sometimes associated with vintage dials is this bonding agent drying out.
Superluminova came along circa 1998 as an answer to new regulations reguarding the outlawing of tritium on watch dials. (I know some still do-another story).
Luminova or superluminova is a non-radioactive substance that needs an outside light source to excite. Because of that the "glow" from superluminova will weaken over time.
Luminova is said to not yellow with age and does not have a specific "life".
It's probably a bit early yet to know.
These dials are normally marked "swiss made" or sometimes "swiss" .

About the last thing it means is a lower quality dial. Tritium dials are sought by collectors depending on overall condition.

[nottinghill]

Originally Posted by mike

After Radium was removed from watchdials due to possible health concerns some makers turned to tritium as an exciting agent in their watch dials to produce luminosity. Tritium is a low level radioactive substance that emits beta radition. SWISS T<25 on the dial indicates an output of less than 25 milicurries of radition(perfectly safe-beta will not penetrate the crystal).

As tritium is a radioactive substance it has a half-life of about 12.5 years. Tritium by itself does not glow. Rather tritium excits the phosphors contained in the paint matrix to glow.
What you see on the dial consists of three parts;
1-tritium
2-phposphors
3-the binding agent that holds the matrix together--about 90% of what you see.
The yellowing and cracking sometimes associated with vintage dials is this bonding agent drying out.
Superluminova came along circa 1998 as an answer to new regulations reguarding the outlawing of tritium on watch dials. (I know some still do-another story).
Luminova or superluminova is a non-radioactive substance that needs an outside light source to excite. Because of that the "glow" from superluminova will weaken over time.
Luminova is said to not yellow with age and does not have a specific "life".
It's probably a bit early yet to know.
These dials are normally marked "swiss made" or sometimes "swiss" .

About the last thing it means is a lower quality dial. Tritium dials are sought by collectors depending on overall condition.

Hi Mike....thanks for the info, I'm really impressed.....

Guess I think I shall stick to the normal non-tritium one....

Thanks again, mike... really appreciate it...

[padi56]

Great anawer Mike.

[Gedanken]

Could you start over from the paint matrix part, Mike? My pencil broke and I missed taking notes on the rest.

Seriously, great answer!

[tonelar]

Are we going to be tested on this?

I didn't know there was gonna be any quizzes or testing...