I did not see this one discussed here. I found interesting the language under the dial/hands description where it indicates "Service states the factory is required by law to remove radium luminous material so it was replaced it with modern pigments" Is this law requirement legit/accurate? Or just bogus smoke in an attempt to distract the less-knowledgeable about the redial? eBay item no. 322237096766
ohhh...another horrible 2914... usually Omega returns the replaced parts together with the watch sometimes Omega tries to "trick" and keeps them; but if you ask nicely they give them back
There are legal issues with shipping radioactive materials (i.e. radium) across international borders, so Omega does not return radium hands or dials in most instances. I've even heard of them not returning tritium as well
thanks! so I take it was legal when the watch came out of production with "fresh" radioactive material, but years later when the radioactive properties have [I suspect] decayed, is not longer allowed! makes sense!
Well, to be fair, peoples' understanding/views of materials change, sometimes impacting related laws. Think of the Ivory trade, as another example.
Half life of radium is about 1600 years. In the 60+ years since the watch was made radiation is only down by ~2%, so it makes good sense to remove the radium from health and safety concerns.
"...zinc sulfide undergoes degradation of its crystal lattice structure, leading to gradual loss of brightness significantly faster than the depletion of radium." - from wikipedia
I sent my 105.003 to omega for service and they told me 321s can only be serviced in Switzerland, which translated to 4 months abroad. When I got it back they hadn't sent my dial or hands back! Even though I specifically told them to return everything. I've been in contact with omega service here in the US for the past month.. they said they'll fix the issue, but it's been a nightmare.
It's not the radium that glows, it's the zinc sulphide it reacts with. The zinc sulphide degrades, it no longer reacts with the radium and the luminescence dies. The radium is however very much still radioactive and virtually as hazardous as it was when the watch was new.
I know this is an outlier opinion, but I would love to have this railmaster precisely because it has been refurbished by Omega. I'm an amateur watchmaker, and radium freaks me out, I can't help it. I've read everything I can find about it and I just can't get comfortable with it. It's frustrating because it renders a lot of my favorite watches off limits, but oh well. I do think that they should tint their luminova to keep the "decayed radium" look though.
so far we haven't been hit by this in the UK ...in February I sent my 2914 down to STS for a service ,if you are ever thinking about having your vintage watches serviced speak Simon first both the hands and the dial were not replace .I really cant speak highly enough of them great job good workmanship .here is the end result
It is an example of how to crush the value of a highly desirable watch by sending it to Omega. I bet they wouldn't do this to one of their own museum pieces.
