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  1. devnull Nov 16, 2015

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    I sent a watch to a shop for service which was a good thing; the self winding rotor and the canon pinion need repairs. The original 50's lume is cracked, the repair person said that it should be removed as it is bound to continue to fall off.

    Question; I heard some folks having good luck applying a binding agent to the front and back of the hands (and some having bad luck with the whole thing falling apart while trying to coat it). What are they using for this? I would like to have this attempted, I really love the way they look.

    This is the watch in question:

    rolex 6084.jpg
     
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  2. SeanO Nov 16, 2015

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    I think the only answer here is to get your watch guy to colour match a filler (non-lume) and do both hands.

    I doubt that preserving the current lume in the hands would be worth the effort.
     
  3. devnull Nov 16, 2015

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    Why not? Do keep in mind that I want to preserve it purely for aesthetic purposes. That's the original lume that did the beautiful (eye of the beholder and such) radium burn on the dial. I really dig the way it has degraded, crumbled part and all.
     
  4. Aussie Jim Nov 17, 2015

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    Whatever the rights and wrongs about lume preservation, that is one hell of a nice looking watch! I am not a fan of many Rolex, but that one, whew.
     
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  5. SeanO Nov 17, 2015

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    the radium burn will be there forever. the problem will be fixing the old lume in place. It will still crack and fall off the hands leading to the stuff getting into the movement. It's also a health hazard of significant proportions.
     
  6. devnull Nov 17, 2015

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    That's what I'm not so sure about. Modern finishes have an amazing lifespan without cracking, yellowing, or deteriorating for a very long time. I would think that if it is properly encased that it would be the strength of the finish that would keep it together.
     
  7. STANDY schizophrenic pizza orderer and watch collector Nov 17, 2015

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  8. Archer Omega Qualified Watchmaker Nov 17, 2015

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    A standard lume kit you can buy for reluming hands (Bergeon, A*F, etc.) comes with 3 parts usually...the luminous powder, the binder, and a thinner. When reluming hands, you mix the binder and lume powder to create the slurry that you apply to hands. The binder is the clear adhesive that creates the slurry and eventually dries hard, and it can be applied to the back of hands to stabilize lume that is cracking or loose. This binder is what I use to do what the OP is asking about, but of course each situation has to be looked at to see if it will work. It is most successful when all of the lume is still present in the hand.

    Cheers, Al