Hi, Matteo from Italy
I'm new here

I recently bought a Speedmaster reduced
the hands and the indexes has a yellow vintage patina (so I think they should be in tritium and not in superluminova)
according to the serial number (5505XXXX) it should be from 1999
but, as far as I know, omega stopped using tritium in late 1997, early 1998

does anyone can clarify it?
maybe the dial has been changed?

thanks a lot

 

no one has an answer?

 

No answers here, but a suggestion. If there had been a change from super luminova to tritium at a given point in time, there may have been older super luminova dials in inventory that would likely be used up rather than turfed. Chances are someone else might have a more plausible explanation. I have a Speedmaster reduced from 1988 or 1989, but I would have no idea which lume was used on my dial. The list I referred to indicated that a 55 million serial number was from 1995. Was Omega still producing the reduced as late as 1999?

 

It's Definitely Tritium . You can't date your watch to a specific year just by the serial number.

 

thanks
the serial number says that my watch is from 1999, no doubt about it
but some doubt about the tritium, that should be discontinued in 1997

 

Personally I wouldn't care too much about whether the dial had tritium or SL, or what year the watch is from, etc. However, I would want the hands and dial to match. From that photo, they seem very different, but perhaps it is the lighting or the photo has been overly processed.

 

You know best.

 

I would ask again, was the Speedmaster reduced still being produced as late as 1999.

 

maybe it's just the photo
looking closely even the hands seems to have a yellow patina (not so intense as the dial)

 

Yes, I see that, and the lume in the hands also seems to have some damage, suggesting they are not new. If you are uncertain, the best way to tell is to look at the dial under UV illumination and see that the dial and hands look the same. If they match, and you paid a fair price, then I wouldn't worry about the exact year. It's quite unlikely that SL dial and hands were replace with older tritium, it probably just came from a time where Omega was transitioning from one to the other. However, if you specifically wanted an SL dial, then you are out of luck. Tritium dials are not going to be active at all after 20+ years.

 

Just a guess.

Here are three lists with serial numbers EXCLUDING the Speedmaster (The Moonwatch has its own list.)
Maybe your Speedmaster reduced fits in here.

The lists date your watch to 1995.
So everything seems fine .

https://omegaforums.net/threads/omega-serial-numbers-on-watches.91390/

http://chronomaddox.com/omega_serial_numbers.html

https://millenarywatches.com/omega-serial-numbers/

 

now it's all clear
I saw that lists but I thought that "excluding the speedmaster" means excluding ALL the speedmaster collection, and not just the moonwatch
that's why I dated my reduced at 1999, because I was using the speedmaster list

thanks

 

Except for the fact that he bought a Speedy reduced.

 

with a 15,5 cm wrist is the best I can afford

 

It almost certainly doesn’t contain tritium, as I believe it is not legal to put it in the dials without the “T” indicator. However, it is pretty easy to test yourself.

Leave your watch in a dark place for an extended period of time, and check to see if it has stopped glowing — if this is the case, you should then be able to expose the dial to light, and the glow will return when put back in the dark.

If, however, there is simply a constant glow through these steps, this would indicate the potential use of tritium.

 

Also, I have a speedy reduced as well with similarly aged hands, and have confirmed that it does not have tritium

 

This is totally incorrect. The simple answer here is that the OP dated his watch wrong, it’s from the mid 90s and did use tritium.

Interesting first post though.