My lume has no stamina!!!

[seanbrooklyn]

Hi guys, I have a new explorer I and bought the watch as a nice dress/casual watch, I always wanted a rolex. I dont plan on doing any expeditions or going diving with it as is the type of watch it seems that it was made for, so the lume or superluminova is not a feature that I really need but I do notice that it lasts for only about an hour. now for a $4000 sport watch I would think that an hour of lume is not enough, are the other watches like that too? does a submariner do the same, or did I just get a bad batch of lume what do you guys think?

[Rubenonfire]

Some would say the achilee's heel of Rolex models...the superluminova. I don't get much of a glow from my GMT after an hour of total darkness. About halfway through "Live Free or Die Hard" I couldn't see a darn thing on my dial...just the way it goes. That being said, most watches except maybe some hardcore Omega or Seiko divers won't give you bright lume much past 60minutes.
Didn't Bo (Spacedweller) post a lume comparison he had found on another forum?

[USMCsilver]

I saw an excellent review somewhere but don't recall where. It even used some enhancing to show very slight lume after a long period of darkness. Lemme dig around...

EDIT -- Here's the best one I've seen -- scroll halfway down: http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthr...ume+comparison

[frostie]

Is the maxi dial maintaining the lume for a longer period of time?

[mike]

Yeah, that seems to be a frequent complaint about Rolex lume.
While not as good as some, I've found the lume on Rolex to be useable in most conditions. My experience has been ambient light, such as one might experience in a movie theatre or some other place tends to mitigate the luminosity as opposed to an enviornment of total or near total darkness (bedroom?).

Several factors seem to be at work.
The mixture of the luminova on the indicies plays a factor, and the surface area of the markers.
The larger the surface area the better the lume seems to be.

If we compare a standard dial to a maxi dial for instance we see quite a bit of difference in the surface area of the luminova and therefore the "glow"



If we compare the mixture used, for example Rolex to Omega we can see a difference in intensity of the luminova,

[Rubenonfire]

Originally Posted by USMCsilver

I saw an excellent review somewhere but don't recall where. It even used some enhancing to show very slight lume after a long period of darkness. Lemme dig around...

EDIT -- Here's the best one I've seen -- scroll halfway down: http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthr...ume+comparison

Great post, Sterling. The comparison I saw was VERY similar, but it actually had a Superluminova Rolex Sub and I believe an SD in there as well.

[USMCsilver]

Originally Posted by Rubenonfire

Great post, Sterling.

Thanks.

Yeah, I think it was the same guy, but he went into more detail on the test. I'll play around a little more and see if I can figure out where I saw the thing. It wasn't in a forum, but had the same pattern going as the guy at WUS.

[Atomant]

Guess it's time for me to supplement this thread with a pic of my smp I wear today with a rollie coming up shortly! The lume on this watch never fails to impress me and many many other ladies.

So where does the appeal lies on the Rolex?

[Blue Bull]

The SDs lume is worse than the Blue TT Sub and Expl II.

Lume not important to me.I like the solid wg hands you get on some DJs.

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by Blue Bull

The SDs lume is worse than the Blue TT Sub and Expl II.

Lume not important to me.I like the solid wg hands you get on some DJs.

Agreed....for a professional diver's watch, the SD's lume really sucks. Surprisingly, the Expy's lume comes up trumps!!

[Blue Bull]

Originally Posted by JJ Irani

Agreed....for a professional diver's watch, the SD's lume really sucks. Surprisingly, the Expy's lume comes up trumps!!

Rolex lume not the best,overall.So what.Not important.

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by Blue Bull

Rolex lume not the best,overall.So what.Not important.

Very true....we look at the dial - NEVER the time or any damn thing else!!

[Blue Bull]

Originally Posted by JJ Irani

Very true....we look at the dial - NEVER the time or any damn thing else!!

Better to have stamina in "other places" ....

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by Blue Bull

Better to have stamina in "other places" ....

YES....you need to visit my new place of work!!

[roadcarver]

It is important to some folks... legibility at night without the use of flashlight is a must. However, the lume does not deplete down to 0 lume so its still ok.

Originally Posted by Blue Bull

Rolex lume not the best,overall.So what.Not important.

[s7horton]

Panerai is known to have excellent lume on their watches.

My sub is faint 8 hours later, but if i strain, I can usually still read it.

[roadcarver]

Ball watches have great lumes. I believe it uses those special vials?

Originally Posted by s7horton

Panerai is known to have excellent lume on their watches.

My sub is faint 8 hours later, but if i strain, I can usually still read it.

[leopardprey]

Omega, Panerai and Ulysse Nardin have great lume. The new Maxi Dial Rolex have pretty good lum as well. The big improvement was the larger minute hand. Never really had a problem seeing the hour markers and hour hand in low lum, but the skinny old style minute hand faded away pretty quick. Lum is a feature I need. Out of all the Rolex watches I have had, the white face Explorer II has the worst lum. In low light or dim situation, with the white back ground, the lum is hard to see. Rolex needs to update all their watches with the larger hands like on the new GMT IIs.

[Incurable]

Most Seiko owners rant about their 'Lumabrite'. I don't really know the technical differences between the Lumabrite and Superluminova but... I do own a couple Seiko's and I would have to give them a slight edge when it comes to lume. It looks like the Omega has some pretty good lume as well. Nothing compares to the H3 Traser vials, however. Other than Ball, most traser equipped watches are rather pedestrian, however. I certainly wouldn't call Rolex lume deficient. I think it performs on-par with most everything else out there. That being said, Rolex and everything else could stand significant improvement. There is a need for a better, longer lasting luminous material for all watches, IMO.

[chris_nor_cal]

ive had an smp and the lume was amazing. is panerai this good?

[frostie]

rolex lume is not so bad but i think that it needs inprovement. they should come up with some kind of new mixture for the lume so that it lasts longer. I have a friend that owns the TT 116713 with the maxi dial and he told me that after 8 hours in dark he could see what the time was. I think that all rolex models should be equipped with the maxi dial as this is one way to solve the lume problem that rolex has.

[seanbrooklyn]

guys tell me if im wrong, but from reading all of your posts, it seems that a omega and seiko have better lume then a rolex but those watches dont come anywhere near what we pay for these "diver/sport" watches
for the price thats paid I think rolex should be much better in every aspect then a omega and seiko

[Atomant]

Originally Posted by seanbrooklyn

guys tell me if im wrong, but from reading all of your posts, it seems that a omega and seiko have better lume then a rolex but those watches dont come anywhere near what we pay for these "diver/sport" watches
for the price thats paid I think rolex should be much better in every aspect then a omega and seiko

That's what I thought so too. I find Rolex's lume to be on the inert side. But there's just something about Rolex that makes it more enjoyable having it on your wrist. My primary watch used to be the Omega, now it's the Rolex but I alternate both watches everyday.

[President]

How good is Steinhart Super-LumiNova C1?