Opening a can of worms

He offered whatever level of lume I wanted, can do in many variations.

Funny, I had just liked one of your posts in another thread when a notification popped up you responded to my question here.

Thanks for the reply, I will look into them.

Has anyone ever had a watch relumed here? https://www.internationalwatchworks.com/

@Marsimaxam, Most successful marriages embrace wabi-sabi. (Sorry, it was hanging there.)

This question also applies to many collections, originality over completeness. A watch has fewer bits that decay, the lume, paint and even crystals and oil, but they still decay.

Certain bits are accepted as maintenance, such as oiling the watch and the crystal. But the lume is not. Perhaps because it was not originally designed to be replaced to extend the life. Maybe that is why we question the originality of the lume but not the crystal. Plus the lume is more integral to the ascetic.

Going back to preference, I too do not care for mold. There are enough choices without mold so I pass. Would I prefer a beautiful relume versus a moldy lume if all other conditions are equal? That's tough. The older and more rare it gets will throw the weight towards the moldy lume only for something hard to find.

Thinking through this (just for me), this follows a natural cycle in objects. At some point, that old chair gets refinished. It's been in the family for a long time and is getting worn. One less original chair. Over time there are fewer and fewer chairs until there are only a few known left. Sure the caned seat is gone or the leather back has all but disappeared, but it's original. Watches are not much different than other collectibles. The combination of beauty/asthetics and history/rarity equals the allure in vintage.

But there are still alot of watches. In summary, a well done relume is preferable to significantly decayed lume. Nice original is preferred to above all. One person's opinion.

I am looking forward the the thread on rusty hands.

Like the @SkunkPrince example, there are times when a relume makes sense. In the case if a nice vintage speedy like yours, I’m a no.

My intention wasn't so much as to question if I should relume or not but rather the fact that as all of our watches get older and the lume degrades to such an extent that it is non existent or down right ugly will reluming become a necessity rather than a personal choice.
I as like many regard originality highly and up until now have never contemplated reluming any of my watches but I suspect that in the future we may all look at the process in a different light.

As tritium or radium lume ages naturally in a seal environment, they turn various shades of yellow,


orange,


lime green

and even pink depending what lume compound was used- it varies- and sometimes hands and dials can age very differently


depending on formula used by the source of the parts.

When moisture gets into a watch- even just from light sweat wicking in through a compromised back or crown seal, the lume acts like a sponge and absorbed it first. This will usually turn the lume dark moldy green to black. Sometimes is subtle with speckles on the surface of the lume (this one had a bad crown seal at some point)


Depending on how much moisture got in it can go almost complete black. To me- this lume is not aged or patina'd, but damaged.
(This Pic from a web grab of an older thread here)


When I see lume this dark, it's a canary in the colemine to me- this watch got damp inside at some point- I tend to just avoid them.

I can see how the older lume could be visually unappealing but I prefer the original version. It seems to have more character that way. Just my 2 cents.

That's it exactly. Future collector's will likely feel differently.

Using the antique chair example, it's acceptable to have a restorer remove dirt, oils and varnish. Even oil paintings can get revarnished without loss of ascetic value. Should lume be treated similar to varnish?

Would be nice if mold and dirt could be removed from lume and the lume stabilized. This is frowned upon today but may be more acceptable in the future. (Assuming it would actually be possible to remove mold and dirt with stabilization.)

So, should stabilization be considered an acceptable method for preserving originality as it is with paintings and revarnishing? Wouldn't that preserve the original lume? Or perhaps just accept that mass produced watches are not paintings and accept reluming.

(I am not an advocate one way or the other. Just trying to think through this. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a relumed watch if it was nice and the price was right. The pictures in prior posts show the improvement a nice relume can make.)

Happy Monday.