BDLJ
4653
Tritium
I wish I could get my hands on some, so I could do some experiments to see what the main influences are on colour change.
I suspect that the composition of the lume is what causes the colour change over time. Whether this is the Tritium itself, the phospor composition or the various binding agents is the thing to be worked out. Tritium activates Phosphor which emits the light, but the colour depends on other compounds (Zinc Sulphates compounds) that the phospor is mixed with. These compounds may oxidise to form the various coloured patina the lume takes on. Does anyone know what colour these Speedies glowed when new?
Interestingly [or maybe not=) ], the tritium tubes on my 1991 S&Y P490 are going grey. No warmth or orangeness at all. Hence my suspicion that it is oxidation of some sort.
Just a moon-watch ...
Hi ! Just a few pics and some questions. Enjoy the pics and please tell me what do you think. And the questions part 1. What do you think about the condition of the dial and hands ? What I mean is that I have never seen before a 145.012 with such a nice p...
Well, Eddie, my knowledge is very limited on Speeds, no to say
That I know nothing about Speeds... But I wouldn't touch the dial, as the Patina is maginficient. It gives a lot of warnth and charm to this Speed, IMO, and I don't see why it would not be authentic. But my knowledge is very limited on Speeds. Best, Nicol...
Thanks a lot Nicolas fo the kind words and
I wait for the others to comment on it. Allow me to say that I'm not worried about it's authenticity (is very clear to me that is authentic), I'm not worried about anything, but I'm very curious about what I have asked.
Edi, i know a bit about moonwatches so i'll do my bit to help
the dial is nicely patinated and looks original, very well looked after. i would leave it exactly as it is. it is possible its a replacement early on in the watches life so that its patinated, but in such good condition. something you;'ll never know. the ...
Well...
Thanks a lot Graham ! That's a very complete point of view and is of great help. I was thinking about the same, except the light polish and the replaced hands. The hands must have been replaced very early, as they are showing some patina. About the number...
i would say those hands are quite new uness flash distorts the colour
they look very white. i cant upload pics at the moment or i would show you my 64 speedy which is only 3 years older. the good thing is that the hands didnt change from your model all the way through to today so even if they are newish they are correct. be...
here's a pic of a 1964 to give you an idea of what original hands look like
you can see that the white is darkened and the lume inside it is much darker. original or replacements, your hands are correct for the model which is by far the most important thing. best Graham...
Thanks for the pic ...
I see a very interesting thing here. I see the difference between the color of the lume material on the seconds counter hand and the color of the lume material on the dial. The same difference appear on mine, only that it's in a lighter tone (please excus...
Eddie, thats a very...
Eddie, thats a very interesting question. it is possible that the tritium absorbs colour from the dial, i dont know and i dont think anyone will know the answer to that. the hands and dial lume on others i've seen patinate at about the same rate. the ques...
Thanks again ...
Graham and please allow me to say that I'm enjoying this dialog almost as much as I'm enjoying the watch. But once the problem solved ... anyhow, your answers are of great help. Many thanks ! I'll soon send a request to Omega SA regarding the history of t...
Tritium
I wish I could get my hands on some, so I could do some experiments to see what the main influences are on colour change. I suspect that the composition of the lume is what causes the colour change over time. Whether this is the Tritium itself, the phospo...
Ben, i've never seen...
Ben, i've never seen a new speedie at night so cant help you overly much. my 98 broad arrow hands dont glow much at all so thats no help either. in fact, as is traditional, i'm being totally useless :) cant you buy some broken watches and scrape the triti...
Good idea...(but!)
Hey Graham, I will rummage through my old watches for traces of the "T Swiss T". Though, most of the ones I would be willing to attack are 40s/50s watches (Old Timors, Piermonts, Rotary, Enicars, that I don't count amongst my collection), so they're likel...
on the basis of current...
on the basis of current knowledge, would you agree that the tritium in the hands and on dial should patinate equally or is there a difference to how they are applied which makes a difference to the way they age? 3 questions in 1. my soon to be teacher wif...
Difficult question...
It really depends on the mechanism of the colour degradation. In general (and I stand to be corrected here), on the old watches I've seen, the dial lume seems to be more susceptible to colour change than the hands. As you suggested, it may be that the pai...
I can't belive ...
what an interesting debate we have started here ! I'm back with some macro photos of my Speedy, just to put some gasoline on fire The experiments sound really interesting. Best, Eddie...
Great macro pics Eddie.
the hands close up look virtually the same as the dial, but my brain cant take in that they are in such good condition after 42 years which begs the question about whether the dial has been replaced at some time. its not unusual as Omega like to change th...
Just an idea
Hi together, that's really an extremely interesting discussion going on here. Because my interest in vintage or aged watches has not been very deep so far I did not run into the question of different aging of the lume on dials and hands so far. But I like...