Hello everybody.

I was playing with an UV light and I noticed that the yellow hands of the flightmaster do not shine when exposed to the light while the orange one do.
Is it normal?

 

This is what i mean. I know the one with the orange hands is a Mark II, but the effect is the same.

 

I beleive your hands have been painted yellow somewhen back then.

 

So you confirm that also the yellow hands shine when exposed to uv?

 

Why would you expect the yellow hands to glow under UV? They don’t have any luminous material on them, and they are a pretty dull yellow. I believe that orange will glow more under a black light than yellows, and that is probably why the Mark II hands are more apparent.

 

Orange hands of Mark II and Flightmasters (and also the ones used in some Heuer) are made of some reflector material and when exposed to UV light they glow.
As far as I know the yellow hands were coated with camdium and were introduced for better visibility inside aircraft cockpits.

 

The yellow hands where made especially for pilots in the seventies for a night vision / red light cockpit environment. So in this red light the yellow hands are seen without the need for any luminous material. Maybe this is why they don’t shine.

 

The cadmium yellow hand don’t react to UV light. They react to IR light. As you say this was to be compatible with the lighting used in commercial airline cockpits. No reason to think your hands have been re painted, as these were standard Omega options.

Edit. Beat me to it Jan

 

Thank you for the exahustive answer!

 

If you repeated the photos under infra red the results would be reversed with the orange hands dead and the yellow reflecting brightly.

 

The reason I said that is that all my cadmium hands look a bit different to me. But it can be the light or the photograph.

 

Now I have to look for an IF light