I purchased an “L” serial number used 16570. SN dates it as a 1989 model. I love everything about the watch but noticed something strange when I checked the lume... the hour, second, minute, and GMT hand have no lume! Just the hour markers. The guy I bought it from had it fully serviced this past April so I’m guessing they relumed it and just forgot to do the hands possibly? I wouldn’t expect any lume from a 1989 watch so it must have been relumed in April. Anyway now I’m thinking something fishy may be up. I’m going to take it to my local AD tomorrow, but if anyone would like to take a look at the pics below and see if anything looks off it would be much appreciated. Would hate to have purchased a fake, but luckily the payment is stil in escrow. Oh also, the band is still just a bit too large after taking out all removal links, am I out of luck or is it possible to make it any smaller? Thanks!
https://imgur.com/a/6U1YJNM

 

New luminova dial at service, old tritium hands from 1989.

 

Thanks for your reply. So the dial is not the original from 1989, but replaced with a completely new dial? and the hands are original, but they are not able to re lume them? Thanks for your help, this is my first time encountering this.

 

Ask yourself did that watch come with a luminova dial in 1989?

Do you know how to tell the difference?

 

No I do not outside of the industry moving to luminova due to the hazards of using tritium. When you first said you think its a new dial, I was surprised because I was thinking they just added lume to the old dial, which made me question why they wouldn't do to hands as well. I obviously am not nearly as knowledgeable as you so I really do appreciate your help on what you think happened. If the dial was replaced from the original 1989 does that affect the value negatively? I just want to be sure I wasn't taken for a ride. Thanks again

 

Whew ... a lot of misconceptions there.

- There are no significant hazards to using tritium, and I think it's fair to say that safety was not a major reason for the switch to Luminova.

- Rolex does not re-lume any parts. They just replace them with service parts, or they leave the old one.

- Do some research on the L-series 16570 and I think you will find that the original dial would have been a "T<25" dial.

- Unless the seller claimed that all parts were original, then he did not misrepresent the watch.

 

Thank you! Lots of good info here that I’m glad to learn. I guess my misconception with Tritium came from my shooting days. A lot of the sights we used couldn’t be worked on in house and had to be shipped back to Trijicon because the tritium was hazardous (or they told us)

 

It’s not exactly safe to work with and apply,it’s also not really available after some international laws changed. Also modern stuff like sights tend to use Tritium tubes which are gas. Lume in watches is safe.

As noted a Rolex Tritium dial is marked T<25 or similar. The change was around 1999 or so.

Tritium also will not take a charge from a light or will take a minor charge for less then a minute. Originally it would have glowed itself with no need for a charge.

 

Did the watch have a service through RSC? If not, take it in for an estimate. That will put your mind at rest re a fake or not. They should be able to quote you a change of hands if that bothers you, and also advise what you can do with the bracelet assuming you have all the removable links out and have the clasp set at it’s smallest.

It looks ok from the pics. A nice Swiss only dial as well.

 

Here is mine from 1995. Tritium dial. As people said, most likely you have original hands and service dial. There is only one thing though, if it was serviced by rolex, why did they replace only the dial, not hands, perhaps it was damaged?