Evening gentlemen (And ladies). Looking at vintage speedys in particular, does lume tend to age in a certain way if it's from a certain location or environment? For example, do watches from humid areas tend to have yellow rather than brown lume? Does a well worn watch that has seen plenty of sun have lume of a certain colour?

cheers

 

Not too sure about the lume on vintage speedys but it has been pointed out for vintage rolexs that are out in the sun, tend to be lighter and turn/ stay 'white' while those left alone like in safes develop a deep patina.

Chye

 

Speedmasters that have remained dry tend to go a nice yellow or darker patina. Any moisture contamination over the years tends to turn the lume green. Overcleaning of the dial leads to the flat white hour markers (actually the white paint under the lume).

 

Not one has aged the same and cover a nine year span of production.

 

Respectable Member Ash

This is a very logic and appropriate reasoning of an aged dial with patina.

An example that has a nice patina means the tritium lumes tend to go 'a nice yellow or darker' because it has no moisture damage. Ones that turn green and spotted can be considered as moisture or water damaged. Little wonder we always come across the latter, not only in some Speedmasters but also especially, many Seamaster diver watches.

Thank you.

 

Resurrecting this thread as I have some questions:

1 - is there a particular aged and patinated color more desired by most collectors?
— I love the look of what I would call the rich golden yellow, is this what most people also prefer?

2 - for those very knowledeagble about vintage speediest, what age / version are most likely to age to the rich golden yellow lume?

I’m not a hard core vintage collector, I like buying reasonably affordable watches that I can wear without worrying about destroying significant value. I would be happy to wear a modern Speedy I only it had rich golden yellow lume markers. This isn’t possible, so I’m trying to figure out what age of Speedy I should target with best chance of getting the look I’m after.

 

I'm tritium the warm to dark yellow is miost preferred. With radium it's more the orange shade.

It's not an exact science but certain references do tend towards certain lume colours.

For instance -68 transitionals often have a pale- medium yellow and some 69's are prone to a minty green yellow. Interestingly some of the nicest lume and best value I think is on 80's Speedmasters. They often age to a lovely dark yellow.

 

Thanks for the quick feedback!

An 80’s Speedy would fit my needs nicely if I can find one with a nice color.

Worst case - I know I can always get a dial trounced by the legendary Hyman. For my purposes that would work fine as well (won’t sell, intended only to wear for my personal enjoyment). However, an honest and original would be much better.

 

For someone wanting a vintage Speedmaster and especially if you aren't tied to the 60's, you can't go wrong with an 80's or even early 90's Speedmaster.

Like I say, they often have beautifully coloured lume, good prices, sometime a good 1171/1450/1489 bracelet and as prices haven't shot up like their earlier siblings they tend to be more honest.

 

I’ve seen some 90s Speedies aged beautifully to a dark yellow or cream lume color and own such 3570.50 from 1998 (transitional with tritium).

Personally, I haven’t seen any 80s aged nicely, unfortunately, as my birth year is 1981 and all watches I saw from the period has green unattractive lume.

Also ‘67, ‘68 has a beautiful lume, but are in different price category – if you preference is purely aesthetical, I would go 90s and focus on condition Still affordable and can be found with box and papers.

 

Creamy with a hint of green. Explain that?

I think water exposure is more mossy not green...

 

Do you have an example please?

 

https://omegaforums.net/threads/omega-speedmaster-145-022-1986.78376/

https://omegaforums.net/threads/1988-omega-speedmaster-professional-145-022-unpolished-b-p.24367/

 

The most relevant factor seems to be moisture and heat ...

 

Remember the bulk of this thread is 4+ years old.

 

Noted, even though I didn't realise as I read last night

Is that just anecdotal? The three I posted above are all -69s. The one on the left went to South Africa. The other two aren't mine, so I can't tell you where they've lived their lives but there's a definite yellow to the one that was hot/warm all its life while the other two have a greener hue. Of all the references I've seen, those that can be shown to have been warm and dry have gone yellow while the majority of northern European ones have been green(ish).

 

Oh yes purely my observations, based on what I own, what I've owned in the past and what I see on my daily searches. Certainly nothing scientific and others may disagree.

I'm also generally talking about lume that's aged in stable conditions and not overly degraded in excess moisture, sunlight etc as I'd say any tritium lume is prone to the mouldy, moss coloured lume we sometimes see.

 

Also, I'm not saying it's definitive "this reference will have this lume". It's more a tendency and what I expect on certain references.

From my observations 105.003's have a wide range from pale to dark yellow and most shades can be expected. The same can be said for the 105.012's although the early references can tend towards a mid-dark yellow whereas the 66CB's often show a beautiful mid yellow.

The 145.012's have a wide range from pale to mid yellow, the mint green still isn't seen and the lume can look wobbly on the plot. Good condition -68 transitionals often have a very pleasing and uniform pale yellow colour.

The lume on -69's can be various shades but from what I've seen it's the first reference where rather than varying shades of yellow, a mint green hue is also present (not to be confused with the mouldy green on degraded lume).

70's examples can be anything from mint green to mid yellow, and then by the early-mid 80's mint shade disappears and I expect to see a mid-dark yellow.

Again, others may completely disagree and many references are kinda "anything goes" but I do expect certain traits on certain references (or perhaps I'm more like to accept a certain dial is correct for a give reference if I see those traits).

 

My -76 has gone green