It was not so long ago that I bought this 71 Speedie with that beautiful tritium dial. I love this watch, it makes me happy every day. Now (!) I think about how sensitive the luminescent material is. Of course I wear a nearly 50 years old watch with a certain caution. But how do I avoid that the tritium eventually dissolves or begins to crumble? The dial of my watch is so nice, at least in my opinion. Too good not to be carried. How do you deal with your tritium dials? What experiences have you done? Kind regards, Frank
My worry as well. I only take mine out for family events, birthdays weddings, things like that. I had to stop wearing the speedy to school plays because I'm afraid to clap with it on. Keep it dry and dark.
Nothing you can do. It's made it a near half century so far and is doing OK. And yknow what? when it does inevitabley crumble, you send it to james hyman and it comes back ready to fight another day... like mine.
Since Tritium has a half life of about 12,5 years and those watches are about 60 years old there's only 1/32 left over of the original radiation. As always the risk of inhaled tritium dust coming from an open watch is greater than that of the radiation of the tritium on the dial which cannot penetrate the skin let alone the watchcase. Radium is quite another story. From Wikipedia: While tritium has several different experimentally determined values of its half-life, the National Institute of Standards and Technology lists 4,500 ± 8 days (12.32 ± 0.02 years). Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, which allows it to readily bind to hydroxyl radicals, forming tritiated water (HTO), and to carbon atoms. Since tritium is a low energy beta emitter, it is not dangerous externally (its beta particles are unable to penetrate the skin),[21] but it can be a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food or water, or absorbed through the skin.
No. It does not worry me at all. I just have no idea if a common use will crumble the tritium faster. Maybe someone else has. The loss of luminosity does not bother me at all, not even the radiation. Returning to your suggestion: How does it look, when tritium is stabilized? And how to do? Best, Frank
Lume binder/lacquer is applied to the back side of the hands typically. This doesn't usually alter the look of the hand at all.
Ah, understand. So for the hands it would be a good solution. But how to protect the hour markers? Does matt lacquer work?
It would be the same binder. It's what the lume is mixed with, so it doesn't make a huge impact on the appearance.
Thank you for this information. As you write, it doesn‘t make a huge impact on the appearance, would you suggest to do so? Or better do nothing?
Good idea. I hope my watch and I have a few more years together before the common decay begins. What do you mean when you look at the picture of my watch in the first post of this thread?
The tritium will eventually flake and fall off anyway, so you might as well wear it and enjoy it, or sell it and buy one with SL.