Debunking the Faux-Patina Myth : radium/tritium vintage watches had colored lume since new

I have long wondered why so many folks moan and groan 'oh no, that watch is bla bla rubbish bla bla faux-tina'. For instance, the new SS 321 'Ed White', or the SpeedyTuesday 'Ultraman'.

Guys (and girls)! Radium/Tritium Speedmasters (and I am certain other watches...feel free to add photographic evidence) lume was never white to begin with ... it came, new, with off-white creamy/lightly-canary-yellow/lightly-mint-green radium/tritium...or as every youtube-watchpro-wannabee calls it 'faux patina' or 'fauxtina' ... pretty much how the new 'Ed White' has it. Omega has actually nailed it pretty spot on. So, please stop calling everything with any color 'faux patina' or 'fauxtina' or 'faux', or whatever, please stop complaining, please look at historically accurate (to details as fine as lume color) modern watches that DONT have white lume in a positive way, and please please pretty please when you are GTG'ing with your watch buddies, educate them. And if you know any of the said YouTube-watch-pro-wannabees, definitely educate them. Thanks.

Here are some color pics from the 60s when these watches were new ...using the white hand and dial text as a reference for white (and preferably looking on a decent monitor, and not a phone with night-shade or power-saving), its clear to see the tritium/radium indices are not white...colored very much like the modern watches mentioned above...and colored very much like vintage watches today. I am not say that Tritium/Radium suppliers did not supply it as white (that would make the most sense IMHO for manufacturers to tint it as they wished), I am not saying it doesn't change, or darken...I am also not saying that all the faux-patina modern homages are not faux-patina (I am looking at you, new Bond SM300 ... although you are not a reissue of a historic watch and are yourself a first incarnation)...

105.003


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*



145.012(or 105.012...too lazy to research what Al was issued)



2998



(If anybody knows where to find a good res of this pic, please PM me)



And feel free to add more evidence, or prove me wrong!

PS: and to the choir who I am preaching too (I know you folks are a minority), I humbly apologize.

Edit : Here are more pics from further down the thread for the case you don't feel like reading every entry (thanks to all that contributed...I have seen most of these in the years before posting this thread, but had no record of where).

Ed White (From Ultraman TV show)




Advertising Images



(and here the mintest 145.012 'in the world' 🙄 superimposed on a product image...even the hand-lume mismatch is a match imho)



James Bond's Rolex



Blue radium…



A Breitling Top-Time with green lume

Faux tastic .

Faux rmidable

Great stuff Eugene!

You’ve given me the verbal bombs I need to throw - no more unnecessary slappy nerd fights for me at GTGs with them there ‘Tina Haters. My wife is tired of me returning from T4aP after midnight, battered, bruised and with a torn outfit.

📖 Not

"Here are some color pics from the 60s when these watches were new ...using the white hand and dial text as a reference for white, its clear to see the tritium/radium indices are off white...very much like the modern watches mentioned above."

The above is very easy to explain. Your analysis may be flawed.

The old photographs have developed patina as well! 😀

Understood... It's not "faux-patina" it is "fauxpas-tina". 👍

@Nathan1967 LOL. Yeah you are a hooligan bunch I know 😀


You shouldn't look on your phone, at night if it has 'night-shade' or any of those funny power-saving techniques.
(Edit: Any monitor displaying white correctly will do - ) I have a calibrated Eizo professional grade monitor (for photographers etc ... my better half got a 2-4-1 deal and so I ended up with it...luckily) ... its pretty clear on this side of the screen.

But agreed, this discussion might never end. Wish there were well document historic color pics of OTHER vintage watches when they were new...am pretty sure most folk are sick of speeee-eeeee-eeeeeedmasters 😀

screw what the haters say, I'm going to love creamy faux patina like I love pineapples on my pizza. I don't care what everyone thinks

Those astronauts always appear to have good hair days.

How do they do that?

I want to do that...

This.

PS - My recollection of my 145-022-74 when I first got it in 1982, the lume was pretty close to white.

Faux Rill.

Faux Sho