I jumped into the rack last night and did the usual “shoving-of-the-watch-into-my-eyeball-to-admire-the-glowing-lume” gig...and of course, there was no glowing lume [again] because my Longines Hour Angle [chronograph] reissue doesn’t have [and never had] any lume. I purchased the watch new in the mid 1990s from a Longines AD.

So...my question is...why doesn’t this watch have any lume?

I’m not complaining...just curious.

LATE ENTRY: If I’ve asked this question before, I apologize.

 

Recreate an enamel dial whilst forgetting to lume as the numerals are coloured?

 

He was IFR almost the entire flight so lume made no difference? ( as much as you can claim IFR back then. )

2nd it only works when you can see the sun?

 

It's a gentleman's dress watch. Never had lume. You can always add some to the hands or carry one of these

 

Someone please slap me down if I’m wrong, but I have heard that lume was much less common prior to WWII. In fact I have even heard speculation about a connection to blackouts during the war (to decrease the visibility for enemy bombers) increasing the demand for luminescent dials.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls

Radium dials started during WWI. It appears to be true: I rarely see pre WWII watches with the radium dots at the hour markers. Any radium dialed pre WWII all seem to have heavily coated hands and fully painted numbers.

Maybe the change was to reduce the wearer’s exposure to the radium, which they apparently knew was a problem by WWII.

 

Humans simply had better vision back in the day. The more prevalent use of glasses has weakened our vision. Just look at the size of ladies watches back then.

 

Perhaps with earlier editions they got sued by too many people who did the close-up lume check and developed glaring red eyes that cornered them into a career as Driver, Airframe, Rotary-wing with a moniker to match?

Just possibly

 

That watch is an enamel dial homage like this one. Would be inappropriate I think. Then there are the WW1 homages like the one below it. Super Luminova vs Radium.

 

‘Cuz no one wants Roman numerals glowing in the dark, they’re objectionable enough in daylight. With 24 hour illumination, why that’d be just gadafful...

 

This is probably pedantic, and I'm the guy that is currently wearing an Explorer II every damned place, but is that REALLY a "dress watch"?

 

Look at the size of this watch -- and it's Tazio Nuvolari wearing it! I do not think anyone would call him a softie. Times change.

I hope MotorSport magazine will forgive me for stealing their photo if I recommend their website: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/history/f1/day-motor-sport-november-16-22

 

Love that guy! Even had his own logo. There is a story of the early days of racing when a mechanic had to ride along in the car and Tazio would stand and scream while driving and the mechanic would be crouched on the floorboard (probably in fear)
I remember the documentary "Racing the Silver Arrows". Talked a lot about him driving for Auto Union. I have it on dvd somewhere.
..............but I'm getting off into the weeds.

 

Seems this may be a bizarre household over the holidays

 

Oh...not really.



Cool Frankenstein and Speedy Gonzales watches [on my wrists below] courtesy of @Darlinboy and family.

 

He is obviously saving as much weight as he can.

 

Whatever you say, boss.