Hi and good morning.

First some pics of the watch in question.





I’ve had this Omega 30t2 for a while now and it’s time to send it off for a spa treatment.
As can be seen, the radium(?) has unfortunately disintegrated from the hands.

The dial will be left as is, but I would be most grateful for some advice from the forum regarding what my options are for reluming of the hands? Should they be left as they are(not very appealing aesthetically). As can be seen the lume on the dial and hands is a lovely dark green colour and I expect that this cannot be recreated with a relume....or is it possible to colour the tritium in order to change the colour?

Many thanks for your feedback and apologies if there is a previous post that addresses this issue.

Regards
Chris

 

That's a massive task you're setting any repairer. If you relume one part but not the other, the whole look and balance of the watch will be ruined. You could try looking for similar vintage syringe hands with the tritium still intact, but this would take years I fear and might not arrive intact from transit. I think it's a charming watch as is and personally I wouldn't touch it. If you're looking for a daily wearer with nice bright lume for nighttime I'd go looking for something a little less vintage.

 

Hi and thanks for the reply.
Yes, I fear you would be correct on both counts. Sourcing a new set would be quite difficult(and from experience with other watches often ends in a compromise as to what you can get hold of) and I don’t want to change what you nicely describe as the “balance” of the watch.

It wouldn’t be used as a daily beater, but I do like to use my vintage watches. I’ll mark you down as 1 point to keep as is.
Thanks for your input.

Regards
Chris

 

My guy could match the lume in the hands to the dial, it would improve the look of it and prevent the remaining lume from flaking into the watch. That's what I'd do, however the other imperfections (like the missing lume at 3 o'clock) might become more visible to you if you do that. Another option would be to remove the remaining lume from the hands.

 

It’s a beautiful watch and I wouldn’t touch it.

I’m so tired of looking at watches that got f*ucked with and came out worse. Trying unsuccessfully to relume hands is a category separate unto itself.

It’s a beautiful watch as is.

 

If it was me and I really liked and wanted to wear that watch, I would look for someone who could repair those hands with lume to match the dial as best possible. By starting this thread you clearly aren’t happy with how it looks now, so why not do something it?

 

Have you considered buying another set of syringe hands to relume and keep those as backups in case you dislike the results?

 

No relume.

 

That would also be my concern.

 

Definitely relume. Watching those skeleton hands would worry me every single day. And as @djmusicman states, it's not just cosmetics.

 

Thanks for some interesting and relevant feedback.
I like the idea of getting a second set of hands and trying them out.....if I can get hold of some(thanks morningtundra for that suggestion).

I’m interested in taking the watch back to a usable state and would be concerned about the flaking of the lume into the watch once it’s had an overhaul.

I’ve got some time yet before taking it into the watch repairers so I might see if there are any hands out there I could possibly use as replacements and see how that works.

I note with interest that it should be possible to relume to the same/similar colour, I’ll also discuss this with my watch repairer, but think I’m pushing their skill level with regards to vintage watches.

Many thanks for your feedback and comments.

Chris

 

hands down, relume.

 

I'd re-lume it as well for the reasons already stated. It is possible to stabilize old lume so it doesn't flake but, your hands look too far gone. You might be lucky and get someone who can make a close approximation of the colour but I don't like doing this and suspect most people don't as it's very hard to get it to look the same under all lighting conditions.

By the way, I'm pretty sure that Tritium has been banned everywhere for years so no watchmaker should be using it although I know some people say they do. It's hazardous to health and the effects can take years to come out.

Cheers, Chris

 

I would leave it as is and wear it and enjoy it.

 

I would relume.

I am no expert but the hour hand lume looks to have leaked onto the hands themselves - does that indicate it has been relumed previously?

Hands with flaked lume & unintended skeletonisation are not attractive to me.

 

I would relume as well. It depends a lot on what you want to do with the watch. If you're going to sell it down the line, I would keep it as is...

 

Thanks for the comments. I’m definitely keeping the watch - at least for the time being anyway.
Regards
Chris

 

Thanks for your comments. The lume looks original to me, so I don’t think it’s been relumed before.
Regards
Chris

 

In an un-relumed 30T2 cased before the early 60s the lume would be radium rather than tritium. Which means that it would still be radioactive, and a potential health danger if it were to crumble and be inhaled by someone. I would check the date of the watch to be safe.

 

I would leave the dial and relume the hands. But not just anyone, use one of the relume artists around that does REALLY good work, so you can reasonably sure that while it may not be an 100% match, it will be close.