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

cvalue13 · Jan 12, 2021

JwRosenthal
Not that I really care one way or another- lume ages as it does and what was original doesn’t really matter at this point- but from a photographic standpoint, the first group of pics in the ad all have a cyan hue, the big pic of the SM300 has lots of magenta, and the last group is what we refer to as “grellow”...lots of green and yellow cast.
If I actually have time tomorrow during my lunch break, perhaps I’ll color correct these and repost them for shits and giggles.

*holds chin in hand, drums fingers on school desk”

pdxleaf · Jan 12, 2021

Mad Dog
Those astronauts always appear to have good hair days.

How do they do that?

I want to do that...

I think it's the static created when they put those short sleeved turtle necks on.

Or it could have been the scarves

Edit- Great thread! Glad it was resurrected.

nzshadow · Jan 12, 2021

JwRosenthal
Not that I really care one way or another- lume ages as it does and what was original doesn’t really matter at this point- but from a photographic standpoint, the first group of pics in the ad all have a cyan hue, the big pic of the SM300 has lots of magenta, and the last group is what we refer to as “grellow”...lots of green and yellow cast.
If I actually have time tomorrow during my lunch break, perhaps I’ll color correct these and repost them for shits and giggles.

THIS. I
was about to chime in with what I believe to be the differing 'White Balance' of images which makes the comparisons quite tricky, but obviously Mr JW has a greater knowledge of colour theory than I.

This I believe, is the correct path to follow on our entertaining quest toward an answer of some sort.

eugeneandresson · Jan 13, 2021

nzshadow
THIS. I
was about to chime in with what I believe to be the differing 'White Balance' of images which makes the comparisons quite tricky, but obviously Mr JW has a greater knowledge of colour theory than I.

This I believe, is the correct path to follow on our entertaining quest toward an answer of some sort.

I'll leave what I wrote about this in the OP (and which is a valid skill to apply to ones eye when hunting watches off of very bad pics in anycase) and very relevant to pictures that may have had some color shift over time (which happens across the whole picture, not just certain parts)...

eugeneandresson
...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...

Those white parts can be used in SW to color correct for white, which is something I did on these pics, and something I do all the time (on bad discolored pics in current listings) 👍

madhatter77 · Feb 14, 2021

janice&fred
more like green to me. we have also handled many 1680s as well as vintage speedmasters where the lume was white as can be. I don't think they left the factory any other way and if anyone thinks so from photographs I would suspect lighting to blame.

How do you explain the difference in tone between lume and white painted indices if lighting was to blame? The difference is admitedly small bit it is there. But it is probably true that the difference was minor when absolutely new.

madhatter77 · Feb 14, 2021

nzshadow
THIS. I
was about to chime in with what I believe to be the differing 'White Balance' of images which makes the comparisons quite tricky, but obviously Mr JW has a greater knowledge of colour theory than I.

This I believe, is the correct path to follow on our entertaining quest toward an answer of some sort.

No matter how off true tone those photos are generally, if not manipulated on purpose on isolated plots of the photo, there is a visible difference between known white items and lumed plots.
On the Bond movi still we have cold bluish white on the case (so we can expect some whitish colors elsewhere) but the dial has better comparisons: there is what we know is gilt and int he middle of that we have something we argue about here: plots of lume that is arguably closer to gilt than to white - the difference should be starker, especially if we consider the cold blusih shine from the case as a control - which tells us the photo is not generally so yellowish that some pure white spots would appear close to gilt.
So again - if photos were not selectively manipulated, I think we have a few signs of different tone between what we certainly know is white and what is lumed or what we know is golden/yellowish and lume.

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

cvalue13

pdxleaf

nzshadow

eugeneandresson

madhatter77

madhatter77

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