Omega

I have an old WWW Omega with radium hands and hour markers and although I don't feel threatened by the prospect of having radioactive elements in the watch, I just wondered what you guys thought about the health hazard represented by radium lume in old wa... 

I own several radium watches, and I'm still here able to write these lines. And I wear them a lot! Just don't touch the radium parts of your watch, and it will be ok. Best, Nicolas.

to one of of my friends, who was showing me the 1930s vintage Omega he had inherited from his father. It also displayed the same "burn" marks from where the hands had remained stopped for years. This message has been edited by mrsnak on 2011-02-06 18:43:5...  

From my point of view the danger associated with the handling of watches with radium dials is heavily underestimated by laymen. Therefore your answer may be sending out the wrong message. Many watch makers refuse servicing or repairing these watches in ou... 

but bad for the watchmaker. The main problem with radium isn't the radioactivity, Ra is an Alpha emitter, but that it is taken up by the body and incorporated into bones (to cells, it "looks" like Calcium. Any sort of ingestion or inhalation is therefore ...