Hello! Is this dial repainted / Relumed? It is a 40 year old watch and should it light in the dark both dial marks and hands light the same amount..
Regarding whether it should light in the dark, sometimes, maybe. I've got two 45-50 year old tritium watches that glow for a short period after they've been in the light, the Zenith A386 glows like a torch after you hit it with black light for a bit. Then I've got a 1680 submariner with 100% dead lume and the are close to dead.
I would say its the original lume, only a bit of shrinking on the edges towards the outer side of the dial. Looks nice, even thou the minute hand has a lil bit of lume missing, but i bet you wont see this that much with the naked eye... at least i reached the age when i wont see it any more
i tested, i took the light from the phome flash light for 2minutes... it glows about 60seconds then really weak light up til 3minutes. both dial marks and hands glow the same
It looks original to me, the tritium lume does go like that with age - it shrinks a bit (but not evenly) and develops the slightly yellow patina. IMO no need to worry (or to touch it)...
and why are there white dots on the dial, is it when the hands was painted that some paint has fallen off?
Is it normal to see that type of receding in the lume? Is that a trait specific to tritium? Seems like a tough call to make with the dial's status as far as redial or original. Interested to know what others look for to determine original lume from redial or old redial.
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