Been out and about today wearing my black faced 300M, love it.
Got me wondering about intense sun on the watch face, I would never let it 'cook' in the sun as being black I think it could get very hot but the lume being exposed to full sun.
Is it likely to be damaged or have it's its life shortened?

Alan

 

Good question...wondered the same about my PO but it's a daily wear so doesn't matter too much to me.

 

Luminova has very long useful life. Omega started using it pre 99 and I’ve never heard a complaint.

Tritium wears out as the tritium that makes it glow is radioactive and has a short half life. Luminova does not have that issue but glows from storing UV energy.

 

As far as I know, the sun will not fade either the dial or luminova. The only way to really damage either on a modern watch is probably water intrusion that is not quickly taken care of.

 

Well thats good news!

 

So my lume material is luminova? and acts like a lux capacitor? Must have a lifespan though.
I am surprised at how bright it can be.

Alan

 

There are Seikos from 1968 with lume similar to luminova that still work...

Yes your watch is luminova, the last tritium watched where 1999. Also tritium does not take a charge from UV light.

 

I think every material has some sort of lifetime, some shorter, some longer. If exposed to UV light i am sure the ageing process is accelerated to some degree, whether you are going to exeperience the results in this life or next generation... Only time will show
So far the material was used by Omega for only 20 years and no significant ageing took place as far as i see it.

 

I'm going to guess if your skin can take it the black color and the lume can take it. Perhaps not so much the red tip on the second hand. That's a good question about the luminescence however. I've long wondered if more sun takes some life out of it. One nice thing on my Seamaster is how easily I can read the dial at 5 am with long lasting lume. The wide sword hands are a help as well.

 

Wear it a lot and find out. Report what you discover.

 

Actually it does, it’s just very short lived, like 5 seconds. .

 

True but as you noted it’s extremely minor. Also not all... Rolex I thought don’t take any charge from light, whereas some Seiko tritium watches from the late 60’s can take about 5 minutes.

You would be amazed at how many people think you had to charge tritium watches with light when there were new... it’s a byproduct quirk that some tritium lume takes a small charge from light, they where not formulated too.

 

A table published by Nemoto & Co. includes data on an “accelerated light fastness test,” in which Luminova is constantly exposed to high-intensity light from a 300W high-pressure mercury lamp. The hours of high-intensity illumination necessary to cause a 20% drop in the intensity of the initial afterglow is “>1,000 hours.” Which suggests that some deterioration does actually occur.

http://kronometric.org/article/lume/

 

1 that’s a super high source, 2 that’s a pretty long time.

 

1. It depends on the distance from the source, i.e. a few cm away would even fry the dial. My guess is that they tried to simulate exposure to bright sunlight on a sunny day.
2. I think you missed the point. Degradation eventually will happen over time. And 1000 hours of sunlight isn't that long considering the expected lifetime of a quality watch. ( about an hour a day for 3 years)

 

Is there a real difference between Luminova and Superluminova? I know Rolex used Luminova for a short time in the late 90's before going with Superluminova. Not sure if there's a big difference and what Omega uses.

 

charge it up good and go to a long movie

 

Is there a thread / faq on charging lume? I have an LED plant grow bulb that puts off UVA and/or B, but I've never set my watch under it.

 

Very clever