Talking about tritium, I have a Speedy from 1966 and all the hands and plots work, it doesn't last a lot, it's not very shiny but it works. Also I've a Rolex GMT from 1993, nothing is glowing.
What's your opinion? How to explain that? I'd say the speedy hasn't been relumed and the rolex is clearly not a counterfeit.

Big thanks mates!

 

Omega tritium will hold a small glow for a minute or so. Generally quickly fade to a low level after 10 seconds.

The Rolex? Idk.

 

The issue is the phosphor material. That is what actually glows excited by the tritium radiation. Omega's material lasts usually for a few seconds and still glows under UV. Rolex is dead as a door nail.

 

for omega u r right for rolex it really depends on the year of manufactoring .... but i would never take rolex as reference to compare with omega

 

Tritium lume will glow briefly when stimulated by UV or strong natural light indefinitely as it is the zinc sulphide component which glows and this doesn’t fully degrade. The actual tritium has a half life of 12.5 years so won’t noticeably self induce glow after about 25 years or 2 half lives have passed. Radium lume acts in the opposite way, the phosphor degrades but the radioactive component remains active and has a very long half life.

No idea about Rolex, perhaps in their mix the tritium burns out the phosphor like with Radium

 

I think with a Tritium half life of 12.5 years all Rolex's stopped glowing about 7 years ago?

 

yes but some even don't react to uv light ... don't know why even they state it's not relumed ... but as it is a brand i really couldn't care less i dont spent time to investigate ...

 

Different compounds behave differently over time. There's no hard and fast rule. Instead, you need to look for information as to how these different compounds behave on different watches of different eras.

By way of three examples that I'm familiar with ..
1991 Rolex Explorere II (Tritium) - plots aged to a white with a touch of cream. Absolutely dead as a doornail. No reaction to white light and almost nothing to high intensity UV.
Omega Speedmaster Mark II (Tritium) 1973/1971 - I've owned two of these now. Plots on both aged to a gentle green. The first gave a gentle green glow under all lights which faded in a minute or so. The second is a mint example and the green is more intense, remaining for over 90 seconds. Both of these watches lived their lives in the UK, so consider mild and damp weather conditions.
Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.022-69 (because I'm wearing it now) (Tritium) - plots aged to a beautiful mellow yellow (maybe better described as a dark cream). There is a faint yellow glow under harsh white light or strong UV which lasts less than 30 seconds. This watch was delivered to South Africa.

I'm not sure if this helps to answer your question (because I'm not really sure what the question is), but if you're looking to identify relumed dials then you can only compare apples to apples and need to find more examples of the watches you're interested in.

 

My 1984 Sub also had no glow whatsoever.

My 145.012 with almost perfect lume had a brief (5-10 seconds) fierce glow when placed under UV which would be gone completely after about 15 minutes (only noticeable in a pitch dark room).

It isn't the tritium that holds the glow, but the photolumniscent paint (mix).

 

Rolex and Tudor Tritium lumes do not react to light(electric, sunlight or UV) anymore so you need to use experience your eyes and extreme caution if the buyer or watch is unknown.

 

Older rolexes had a lot of tritium -so common that 60s and 70s rolex lume plots glow for 30s or more if UV light is used.

From late 80s ( i think? ) the used tritium at reduced treat rates ( SWISS T < 25 ) dials - these are the ones that dont shine now - nothing, even with UV light as mentioned above

Search in the Rolex forums - loads of threads there explianing this in detail and far more elequently than I did

 

That doesn’t make sense. Do you mean older Rolex lume utilised a lot of Zinc sulphide (or similar phosphor) in the In the lume mix? If the 60s and 70s Rolexes used higher amounts of tritium it wouldn’t be any different by now. Higher amounts of phosphor might matter. It is not the radioactive tritium that glows remember.

 

Sorry, yes, it wasnt my finest work

The lume mix is also of great importance - been struggling to find an old thread that explains this - i will perservere

Cheers paul

 

some do some not, depends on the decade they were made ... but who cares about the overrated, waiter dress diver brand

 

who brought Panerai into this?

 

Just had a brief look into it, apparently around 67-68 (and maybe back to its introduction?)Tritium mix in Rolex and Tudor watches was similar to Omega's and does react to UV etc. After that it is dead. I was not aware of this, good info.

 

panerai are not the waiters first choice

 

Indeed, unless they were Arnie, they wouldnt be able to lift all those plates and the watch on the same hand!!

 

Many thanks for all your answers. Obviously the tritium from Omega in the 60's was a better quality as the 90's Rolex one.
Good to know!

 

I am mainly a Rolex collector, and have handled around 30 subs over the years (i.e. buying and selling, or helping friends sell off), and I still cannot figure out the tritium. I suspect some of the pieces had tritium touch ups along the way, which resulted in some inconsistency. I had some pieces from the 70s which still responded to light...