We know what old tritium and radium looks like - do we know what superluminova is going to look like in 50 years? I'm trying to picture a Great White with tiger stripes and not doing very well....

 

I suspect it might not necessarily look bad or age excessively. A big part of what causes radium and tritium to deteriorate with age is changes to the crystalline lattice of the substrate due to radiation damage. This happens whether you're wearing your watch daily, or it sits in a safe. The aging of radioluminescent paint also leads to a loss of luminescent properties as well. Given that strontium aluminate isn't radioactive, if that the dial is decently protected from humidity, heat, and UV, it may not age at all.

Of all the factors that can are dependent on wear (in terms of wrist time), UV exposure is probably the greatest.

In practical terms, this may mean that dials on watches that aren't worn much may not age at all, while dials that are worn predominantly outdoors in the sun all day, for years on end, may see some change in lume color (as well as the dial itself).

 

Phew. Off to block out the glass top of my display case....

 

Spray paint it with the thickest black paint you can find. And only pull the watches out at night!!

 

I don't know if anyone really knows what is going to happen with Super LumiNova over the years. So far it hasn't really "aged" at all in my experience, and if you consider that most brands stopped using tritium and switched in the late 90's, it's has some years already and not much has happened. Contrast that to some of the late tritium dials that are almost as old, and they already show patina in many cases.

It can be artificially aged with heat (I've read some posts about people baking SLN dials in an oven to give it the aged tritium look) but I think under normal wear, provided no water intrusion or other "damage" it will look like it does now for the most part.

Cheers, Al