Rolex

Normally so should it be Tritium when it says T<25 at the dial but there

is some replacement dials from the late 90's and early 20's that have this

marking at a Luminova dial. The easiest way to check what you got is to

put the watch for a minute below a strong light and if it glow strongly green

so did you have a Luminova dial. I never seen a T<25 dial with WG borders

that have Luminova, I believe it's only at the first matte replacement dials.

Today they says SWISS.

I hope it helps.

Jocke

I will store this in the reference section, thanks Jocke !

           Cheers

                 Jeff

So will the Luminova index & hands turn yellowish after many yeras?

Thanks

Heng.

I'm pretty sure that Luminova doesn't turn yellowish with time.

At the contrary of Radium or Tritium.

Best,

Nicolas This message has been edited by amanico on 2009-07-05 08:04:49

But we haven't seen something that indicate it will change color.

Tritium and Radium is another story.

I use to repaint my Tritium dials, some say it's dangerous but I haven't noticed something
that proof it is.





Jocke

Excellent!

Yep, if you pay attention to 1998 Lumi dials, you won't notice any modification of color from the Luminova.

Best,

Nicolas

This message has been edited by amanico on 2009-07-05 14:03:08

No message body

I really learn alot from this forum.

Best Regards

Heng.

I read that Rolex switched from radium to tritium in the early 1960’s. How were the radium dials marked?

 

Was radium ever used in conjunction with tritium or was there a sudden and complete change over? Do we know exactly when this occurred?

 

I assume the radium (half-life 1620 years) dials will still glow when tritium (half-life 12.3 years) has lost its luminescence? At least that’s longer than the poor workers who licked their brushes.

 

Regards

 

Andrew

so gruesome that if I posted a pic, I would definitely be ban for life! I can't let that happen. Sorry

Up to 1997, indices used Tritium, on both matte dials and glossy dials with WG surround indices (during the mid to late '80s was the switch from matte to glossy dials). Service dials replacing old matte dials will have luminova after 1997. There was a variant to the Swiss dial (luminova) after 1997 that had the SWISS T<25 (with luminova) on some watches (ex. 16700).

Since the half life of Tritium is 12.5 years, those original dials no longer glow (had a Tritium on my '93 TAG and stop glowing a few years ago), but are still sought after as more collectable than watches with service dials.

I have read that if you want a service dial to have the patina of the original, you should soak it in coffee or tea!??? Have not try it on my 1680 service dial.