Tritium again?

Ralvari

Hello to all,

My first post in this forum although I have been reading since years ago and finally I have decided to break the shyness and start to participate.

I like vintage watches and I like some of them in the best conditions possible, being NOS, perfectly restored or if not possible, as much as possible with the original setup.

One of the things that I'm wondering is if someone knows any place where the dials or hands are restored with tritium, not luminova or similar. I fully aware that radium is very dangerous to use and to wear but tritium, even being radioactive, with some preventions is possible to be managed.

I do not enter on the lost of value of one piece restored against "unpolished" or with the patina, as I'm not collecting watches for investment proposal at all, but for my personal enjoying.

So, do you know if there is any place where is possible to restore with tritium, or, if not, if it is possible to obtain tritium to done the restoration?

Many thanks for your feedbacks

jaguar11

How about being practical and buying a replacement dial and hands that still retain their original tritium......

michael e

Check on eBay, sometimes containers with old tritium paint or powder from a watchmakers estate can be found. I have bought it before and have also bought radium too. The radium I got rid of because it was mixed with wax and had to be heated up to apply, it gave me the heebie jeebies.
To be fair I have been playing with radium dials on old pocket watches since I was around 9 years old, I was never aware that the stuff was no good for you, no ill affects as yet but watch this space.
I wouldn't recommend anyone to be too near to either if they can help it.
I wear a face mask and gloves nowadays if I have to go near radium, I am also careful with tritium too.
See! No ill affects whatsoever.

Ralvari

the Tritium is already "dead"

gbesq

As Jaguar11 noted, you can sometimes find tritium hands and dials on sites like eBay, but they are becoming more scarce and expensive. Depending on the year and model of the watch that you’re interested in, you may be able to find used examples with tritium dials and hands in very good shape. A good example is the Omega Speedmaster Professional reference 3590.50. These were produced from 1989 through 1996 if I remember correctly and are the last of the caliber 861 Speedy Pros with tritium dials and hands. They are relatively easy to find and the dials and hands are often in very good condition.

kov

this is maybe correct with Rolex but in the Omega world this is wrong. You’ve posted your thread in the omega section hence my comment.

140dave

Hello and Welcome!
Where are you located? There are a few who specialize in reluming hands and dials and most have access to Tritium. LA Watchworks is one example for the USA and there are a few others discussed in other threads for the UK and EU.

Foo2rama

Any tritium paint in a can will also be dead, it’s not made anymore.

Ralvari

I was refering that as far as I know, the tritium after 13 years of being applied

Ralvari

Thanks. If nobody is making tritium (even for other things), then no restoration with tritium make sense, as it will not be never as original.

Franco

Wrong. The point of a conservative, filological restoration is to bring it back as close as possible to the conditions the specimen should be by now. For example, a perfectly preserved dial would have lost the luminosity in keeping to the 13 yrs half-life of tritium. But it would have not crumbled away, or become very dark with dirt.

A relume with tritium would restore the original conditions , bar the original luminosity. But it would be unnatural and wrong a watch with full luminosity after 30 years.

If it is a luminous tritium watch which is bright that you want, you could get a Luminox. Tritium is still produced, certainly as a liquid, or conjugated to biological substances , as I have in my lab.