I really doubt anyone buying a modern Omega or JLC or Panerai or whatever with Old Radium lume is trying to trick anybody into thinking they have a 50 or 60 year old vintage piece. And they are especially not trying to impress their "shallow co worker" who would be more impressed by any number of cheaper watches.
People who wear vintage inspired watches are by and large not trying to impress anyone--they are just buying what they like.
Similarly, people who wear actual vintage collectibles are doing it for themselves.
This gets at the heart of it to me.
I know it's not radium, but as a vintage guy I just like those tones. If you want me to buy a new watch, bringing some of that warmth to the dial is a good way to do it. And all this talk of "earning" patina...very few of us "earned" the patina on our vintage watches, unless you count paying the premium for a good example that happens to have aged well. While conceptually I like the idea that a vintage watch has lived a life, I also acknowledge that most of want something relatively untouched/unscathed. A vintage watch that's been beat to hell looks "tired" and most of us won't buy it. And even if you've bought a watch that has seen some cool things and would have "stories to tell," you probably don't know those stories because you bought it from another collector, not the guy who climbed a mountain with it or whatever. Then on top of that, for as much as we like to talk about vintage tool watches being ultra rugged, the glory days of exploration, etc, we (a lot of us anyway) baby the hell out of them to maintain their condition and value.
I ordered the speedy. I bought it because it's the closest I'll ever get to the 2915, my all-time favorite watch. I'm not trying to trick anyone into thinking I have a $150k watch. I bought it for me because I like it. I also bought it because most of my collection is vintage, and it'll be nice to have a watch that has the look that I like, that I can also wear and not worry about. It's not about trying to fool anyone. I just look at it as color. White is a color. Beige is a color. There's no reason why lume
has to be white. For a watch like this one, I think the warmer dial helps. Especially when you take into account the stability of superluminova vs tritium/radium.
As for showing off, vintage watches just don't really impress people who aren't into vintage watches...at least not in my experience. I work with a few people who collect modern watches. When one noticed my 1675, she asked me why I didn't just save more and get a new rolex.