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1980s/90s Tritium or Luminova?

GTveloce
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I've become more interested lately in 1990s pieces.
One interesting feature from this period is the transition away from tritium... often you can choose from examples of the exact same model with either a tritium or luminova dial.
I usually tend towards tritium, I think it's best of both worlds having lume patina as seen on "true" vintage pieces... yet generally being modern enough for easy daily wear.
But occasionally there's a piece I think looks better with nice factory-crisp white luminova markings.
So... just taking a casual poll out of curiosity! 😀
Given the choice of the same watch with either tritium or luminova which would you choose?
 
asrnj77
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Give me an even, custard beige tritium dial any day.

That being said, it’s also nice to have watches that actually glow at night so it’s best to mix up the collection. 😉
 
GTveloce
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asrnj77 asrnj77
Give me an even, custard beige tritium dial any day.

That being said, it’s also nice to have watches that actually glow at night so it’s best to mix up the collection. 😉
Generally speaking, I'm with you! 😉
 
IMG_6367.JPG
Caliber561
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Creamy Tritium for my vintage watches, and Luminova for my modern beaters? Not to throw any shade to the OP, but I find that a lot of the time, the answer to these 'one or the other' questions constantly posed in watch communities is simply:
both.PNG
 
ApolloXVII
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If we are talking about the same watch i will choose the tritium version because we already talk about an older watch which it's definitely more interesting with an aged tritium..
 
MtnMarine
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It depends on the watch for me but I always prefer anything over Faux-Tina…
 
GTveloce
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Caliber561 Caliber561
Creamy Tritium for my vintage watches, and Luminova for my modern beaters? Not to throw any shade to the OP, but I find that a lot of the time, the answer to these 'one or the other' questions constantly posed in watch communities is simply:
both.PNG
No shade taken... however please note I did say quite specifically "given the choice of the same watch with either" 😉
I'm also not interested in strict "one or the other" comparisons.
 
Fritz
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Last week I wore my lovely GSTP pocket watch camping. This week I’ve wearing my RCAF wrist watch, since both are WW2 issue I guess I’m for radium?

and why am I growing flippers anyway...
 
Eve
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Generally i prefer my watches to be functional, and mostly own Luminova models, however i also think it depends on a watch.
Tritium is only attractive when it has a nice beige lume tone, but less so when it is green or almost turnibg black (for me at least).
The new 321 Speedmaster has the best of both worlds, intence lume and a very attractive colour. but not only colour, also the structure of lume.
The lume on my 2254 Seamaster is also slightly off white, which i like that the printing and lume are not exact same colour.
So yeah, it depends very much on a watch.
 
hronists
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It depends on watch. Speedmaster definitely looks better with tritium dial. Actually all black dialed watches look better with aged tritium.
 
GTveloce
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For clarity thread title edited for those of us who only read that bit! 😉
 
padders
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The switch over was around 1998. All things being equal you would expect tritium to look better but with some of the late 1990s Omega models the SL version has the advantage in both looks an utility. With an SMP ie the Bond 2531.50, or Dynamic Gen 3 for instance, the tritium version just look dirty and tired, particularly the SMP since hands always fade differently to the dial but with a Speedy Pro or Reduced, tritium is king.
 
wilderbeast
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padders padders
The switch over was around 1998. All things being equal you would expect tritium to look better but with some of the late 1990s Omega models the SL version has the advantage in both looks an utility. With an SMP ie the Bond 2531.50, or Dynamic Gen 3 for instance, the tritium version just look dirty and tired, particularly the SMP since hands always fade differently to the dial but with a Speedy Pro or Reduced, tritium is king.
Absolutely this. I’m glad my midsize Bond Seamaster is SL, but if I owned a vintage Speedy, I’d want tritium for sure.
 
ghce
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Given the choice I would opt for the functionality of Luminova so long as its strictly period, ie a vintage with Luminova? call the originality police and have that watch arrested!
 
DoctorEvil
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I have a watch from the early 1990s with Tritium and it's now got almost no legibility in the dark. Because I rate functionality highly, I'd probably pick Luminova over Tritium if I had to choose. Bond Seamaster Pro is a classic example of a watch being available with either option.
 
Servius
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Tritium all day long. Never been really convinced by fauxtina, I prefer the watch designers to come up with something new… Even if sometimes it does match.

Tritium aging does give an uniqueness to each watch specimen, what makes (to me) watch collecting fun.

The best tends more and more to be modern tritium, like the superb 16570 up there…
 
ConElPueblo
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padders padders
... but with some of the late 1990s Omega models the SL version has the advantage in both looks an utility. With an SMP ie the Bond 2531.50, or Dynamic Gen 3 for instance, the tritium version just look dirty and tired, particularly the SMP ...

That's (partly) fighting talk.

I vastly prefer tritium on the modern Dynamics and find the luminova ones lifeless and missing that link to the past as the retro styling promises. On the other hand, the white dial Seamaster Professionals look atrocious to me. The brown plots clashes with the optimistic, fun bright dial, IMO.

Which is why two of most recent Omega purchases look like this:

IMG_20210626_133505_361.jpg IMG_20210505_171118_488.jpg
 
padders
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Well I see your point except you might concede that your Dynamic (which looks a lot better than some) apparently still has mismatched hands and dial plots. That is my main reason for preferring the SL version and I see you are conflicted since you mention that your prefer SL on your white dial SMP.

Here is my 3 hand, the SL version. Personally I vastly prefer SL on these. I also at one point owned a chrono 5 hand SL version too so we have a lot of overlap here:

tempImagefaBzot.png
Edited:
 
ConElPueblo
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Yeah, it's a shame that it has those hands, but it is only visible in certain lighting conditions or when magnified in photos. I'm wearing it right now and honestly I cannot tell the difference between the numerals and the hand inlay.

It is a nice example, full set and all. I only realised that it was a screw-down crown a week ago when a friend noticed it wasn't screwed down 🤦
 
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