Hi all, Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I'll keep this short and sweet: about a year and a half ago (December 2016), picked up the vintage Seamaster pictured below from a dealer in Austria. I got an extract of the archives a few months ago, which tells me that it's a 14700 from 1960. According to the dealer, the inserts on the markers and hands are onyx. My question is this: is it possible that the watch has lume in it, either tritium or radium? All of my other pieces are modern (luminova), and I'd prefer to not have vintage lume (especially with the recent press re: old radium dials -- https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/new-report-shows-radium-dials-might-pose-serious-danger). Unfortunately, I don't have a gieger counter on hand, or any other way to check, so I figured I would ask the vintage experts here -- many thanks in advance for any input or information that you can provide!
A UV light would be the cheapest way to check these things. It doesn't appear to have any lume on it. I'd bet it doesn't at all.
You don't have to worry about that here as there's never been any lume on that dial. That's a very nice watch!
No "T" on the dial, black onyx markers, black inlay in the hands -> no lume ever. Radium was phased out in the 50's and 60's, so if you stick to post-1960 or so, you're unlikely to run into radium on watches.
Thanks for the very prompt responses! I had read that radium was phased out starting around 1960, hence my concern. And although the inlays on the markers and hands are onyx, I was concerned that it might be patinated lume. But your assessments certainly help; I might order a UV light, just to be on the safe side.
It wouldn't have T's even if it did have ume in 1960 as radium was still in use, it was phased out about 1962. That dial has no lume whatsoever. No UV lamp needed, black onyx isn't lumed. Even when dials like that with applied indices do have lume, it tends to be in dots at the outside edge. That clearly has none and never had any.