Hi guys, how vulnerable are the tritium lume? Been doing some research here and cannot find answers. I do have some couple of questions as well: Do they break and fall off in time? Up to what year omega used tritium on their lume? I read it was year 99 they changed to luminova. Anyone can shed a light? I recently acquired a 97 dynamic chrono and the lume is starting to turn brownish orange, was this model lumed with tritium? The number "12" also have a small pimple like texture on the lume so I am thinking it might be tritium but I may be wrong Hope someone can enlighten me, Thanks gents
Tritium ages based on exposure to heat, sun and moisture. There are (to my eye) two main categories of aged tritium: some dial markers have a greenish tint, while others have a yellow/brown tint. Depending on exposure, tritium can remain intact and attractive for at least 40-50 years. Speedmasters moved to luminova in 1996; I don't know about Dynamics. Pictures would help.
Tritium stopped in the speedmaster Pro in the late 90's. As for other models??? Tritium can age different ways depends on how much light it has been exposed too, Temperatures and possibly humidity. Watches from the same age can appear drastically different and different formulations from year to year can cause massive variation. Easiest way to test if it's tritium is to charge the watch with a light source if it loses most of its glow in 15 seconds its tritium and has basically no glow after a minute. If it glows strong for a few minutes and holds glow for an extended period it's luminova. Let's see your watch. Those dynamic Chronos are pretty cool.
Thanks for the reply! Appreciate it.. I was just curious because the lume looks like those of the vintage rolexes, I will take good lighting pictures later, for the moment here she is