Hi all. Looking at getting my hands on a Seamaster
2531.80. I know around 98 the lume switched away from tritium. Any good recommendations to identify these watches beyond patina and active lume?

also I heard that the hand will be a different lume than the tritium. Is this true?

thanks in advance!

 

Any help anyone?

 

I don’t believe these dials have T on them to indicate tritium like other watches so it’s just based on patina.

Regarding the hands, I haven’t heard the, having a different type of lume but it’s quite common for lume in hands to age differently to lume on dials due to different manufacture dates, different manufacturers and so on so that may have started a rumour. Happy to be corrected if there is different lume in the hands but that would seem odd to me.

 

Omega usually changes the hands during a service. Which will mean that you can have a mismatch.

 

Like stuart70 said they do this, I have a 2000 seamaster with lume bezel pip and hands but on the dial its completely dead

 

@omegawatchlvr

I think that is because you actually have a <1998 Seamaster which has had the hands and bezel changed at service for SL lume items. That dial lume plot colour looks like tritium to me, in the first picture at least, the second is too washed out to judge. I would say that yours isn't one of the more obvious ones though, it is only a faint tint.

@Dr. K
Most tritium dial SMPs can be spotted by the slightly (or enormously) beige tint on the lume plots, the hands, even the tritium originals never seems to fade as much and often remain greener. Superluminova doesn't noticeably lose potency over time, not does it appreciably change colour unless it gets damp. If your lume no longer works and/or has faded to beige, it is more than likely not SL but tritium.

There is a way to spot an early SMP 2531 from the depth rating text, the font changed at some point in the 1990s, I think the tell was the loops on the 3 and the f in ft. I'll see if I can find a link to the info. The very earliest even lacked the Chronometer text in some cases and used a slightly different movement.

 

might be but is it bought at an ad around 2000 the 60 mill serial number also states this, last of the bunch i guess . And yes I had the bezel changed during service in 2008 they also replaced the hands then . And i know the differance between tritium and superluminova having serviced loads of them later on in life.

 

I had a 60.20m serial 2531 which definitely had a tritium dial, it was purchased in late 1997 (date on the card) so your may well have been in stock a couple of years before purchase. My GMT SMP (with SL dial, they all were) was on a 60.3m serial and dated at 1998, the year of its launch. Omega serials in this period can be deceptive, while these 2 watches were being made, the quartz versions were being shipped with serials in the 57m range. Very soon after the serials on the autos jumped to the 80m range, making dating SMPs from the serial very tricky.

EDIT: to make the relevance of this clearer, I would suggest that the cut off for a tritium dial auto SMP would be somewhere around the 60.2-60.3m serial number which may be of some use to the OP.

 

I also have 80 serial wich is a 2004 , anyway we're getting off topic , most of the 2531's if not all with (super)luminova the lume on the dial would appear white's with a hint of green. `They will also glow strong within seconds of being under natural sunlight and longer.