# Lume Experiences And Preferences



## TraserH3 (Feb 22, 2009)

My reasoning behind starting this thread is to ge people experineces and thoughts on watch lume. I started off wearing a Traser military watch and found it to be robust and fantastic to read at night due to the Tritium tubes it uses for lume. I wore this watch for 5 years before I was able to open my horizons to other watches. This in part has been my downfall with watches as i'm a complete lume snob.

I thought I should make this post slightly more interesting than just my feelings on lume so i've added some pretty pictures and info on different lume types that you may (or may not ) find interesting/useful.

To show what I'm taking about 1 shows a Ball EMII Diver utilising tritum tubes as lume. This doesn't have smooth look of Superluminova that can be seen in 4 but the longevity of it has won me over as I don't find lume to live up to my expectations in terms of brightness over time (Both over the course of a night and over a couple of years).

I understand that the Omega Seamaster/Planet Ocean and Breitling Superocean steelfish (#4 is only a standard SOP) have some of the best lume and that also the the Seiko range has pretty fantastic lume.

I was just wondering what experiences any of you may have had with different watch types and lume varients and how you have found them to last.

References:

Tritium tubes

1










Superluminova

2










3










4










Non of these photos/graphs were made or taken by me, if anyone is adverse to me posting them up then i'm happy to take them down.


----------



## mrteatime (Oct 25, 2006)

i prefer superluminova myself....i tend to find tubes a little on the weak side.......some of the aftermarket stuff i have on some of my mods is as bright as anything ive had......prefer c1 to c3....


----------



## TraserH3 (Feb 22, 2009)

mrteatime said:


> i prefer superluminova myself....i tend to find tubes a little on the weak side.......some of the aftermarket stuff i have on some of my mods is as bright as anything ive had......prefer c1 to c3....


How long have you found C1 half life is after the lights go out? Do you have o coer your watch while your out assassinating people ;P


----------



## Roger (May 17, 2003)

Trasers are by far the best, no ifs-ands or buts if you want permanent long lasting lume.

I have had many, many examples of other methods in my 40 years of collecting watches and whilst some are good for 3 or 4 hours, none come close to trasers.

recently parted with this Ball...you could read newsprint by it.

Roger


----------



## TraserH3 (Feb 22, 2009)

Roger said:


> Trasers are by far the best, no ifs-ands or buts if you want permanent long lasting lume.
> 
> I have had many, many examples of other methods in my 40 years of collecting watches and whilst some are good for 3 or 4 hours, none come close to trasers.
> 
> ...


Agreed, I realy like Ball watches but the silver hands realy detract from the look of the watch in my opinion and don't reflect the quality of the make.

I'm currently breaking new strap in on my Traser. I'm very tempted to get a Doxa SUB 800Ti as it has tritium hands but the bracelet isn't their signtaure 'beads of rice' band so i'm realy not sure.

Have you found any other autos using Tritium tubes?


----------



## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

I`m not too keen on super bright lume so although I haven`t actually seen one I doubt I`d get on with something like the Ball. The thing is my eyes adjust to the low light fairly quickly & I tend to find very bright lume hampers that giving me an after image. On the other hand I find that less bright lume dosen`t tend to effect my night vision or leave after images & even if it does lose it`s charge over a few hours the dial can still be read.


----------



## Flashharry (Feb 20, 2007)

Here's my Stowa


----------



## ollyhock (Feb 9, 2009)

ive just sold a tmt limited edition ball hydrocarbon,an i must say the best thing about the watch was the trillium tubes, they work a treat all night long, thereas no lume that can keep up with this. id definately buy another watch with h3 illumination


----------



## Regal325 (Aug 5, 2005)

thereas no lume that can keep up with this+1

No argument


----------



## Gonville Bromhead (Jul 1, 2013)

Splendid though tritium tubes are (for that moment when you wake up at 4.05 and *need* to know the time), they have a limited life.

That life is about ten years.

Now if you are paying for a Traser, a cheaper Nite, Luminox, Smith & Wesson, Uzi or possibly a Marathon, this might make sense given the price range.

However, in terms of price, Ball are in a different league. Do you really want to pay that much for a watch that will glow for a but a decade? Remember also that it is not just a matter of replacing the hands. You would have to replace the face and possibly the bezel as well.

Now of course, if Ball were happy to perform this service and the price was reasonable, it might not be a bad proposition (just think, half-a-new-watch every ten years!).

However, if they do not carry out such a service, it seems a high price to pay for built in obsolescence just for the benefit of a little night reading.

PS. One thing that has puzzled me is why some Nite watches has a NATO issue number. Are members of HM forces seriously going to wear Blackpool illuminations on their wrist on night exercises or, worst still, a military operation? If you add to the equation the fact that the 'enemy' will have night vision equipment it seems designed for trouble. Just a thought.


----------



## luckywatch (Feb 2, 2013)

With a Traser H3 you are spoilt, the lume is as good as it gets. Saying that the lume on my Divex is awesome but would not have the staying power of the T tubes.

Thinking about what Gonville said I reckon 99% of â€˜military watchesâ€™ crowâ€™s feet nato numbers etc will see no more action than the average 4X4 driver will see. In other words these watches are built for people like us (enthusiasts) and thatâ€™s not a problem.

Interesting post.

Cheers Scott. :yes:










My H3.


----------



## luckywatch (Feb 2, 2013)

And this is a H3 I want. :yes:


----------



## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

I had a Luminox, and the tubes were rubbish...a very faint glow that was hardly visible, and that was on a year old watch. My favourite is Seiko's superluminova...this stuff is awesome

Seiko SKX 251



Seiko 'Spork'


----------



## saxon46 (Mar 7, 2013)

good topic......looking for a good lume watch myself.....


----------



## Rotundus (May 7, 2012)

I have avoided tritium tubes as I heard thy are poor in low light (even if they are good in complete darkness) and just plain ugly in daylight. Seiko lume is the mutts nuts,. and for lume free all round hi vis then try mondaine black hands on white dial, shooper dooper!


----------



## bill love (Mar 14, 2006)

Having a problem with lume at the moment, can anyone point me in the direction of someone who does re-lume?

cheers

b


----------



## Dr_Niss (Jan 4, 2011)

Gonville Bromhead said:


> Splendid though tritium tubes are (for that moment when you wake up at 4.05 and *need* to know the time), they have a limited life.
> 
> That life is about ten years.
> 
> ...


Tritium has a half life of about 12.5 years so will still be working well after 10 years and are likely to be usable for 20+

The tubes will be relatively easy to replace compared to reluming

None of my 20-50 year old watches without tritium tubes have much lume left whatever sort it is

Can anyone say what superluminova will be like in another 20 years?


----------



## DaveOS (May 9, 2010)

Agree on the Seiko Lume


----------



## Gonville Bromhead (Jul 1, 2013)

Firstly, Scott is unquestionably correct. The vast majority of service personnel never go anywhere near the â€˜pointy endâ€™. If memory services me correctly, the ratio of service-to-front line troops in the British armed forces is 3:1 (in the US it is 7:1).

Even amongst the â€˜teethâ€™ arms, the vast majority of the military would, to use an illustration, be far more likely to use a commando knife for opening letters than for giving a wake-up call to the Taliban (â€œThey donâ€™t like it up â€˜em!!).

Still, when I talked from an old Malaya hand, he informed me that Special Forces in the jungle would either purchase watches without luminous paint or have the paint removed.

We have it from authority of Mr. Ryan that wristwatches are removed as the shine is likely to attract attention. I have heard that US Special forces remove them on jungle training because they (specifically) attract the attention of the monkeys (â€œHere the come/Walkinâ€™ down the street").

Where to the watches go? The answer seems to be that their watch is attached to a loop of paracord around their necks and under their shirt. If you need to consult it, you can draw it out from under your shirt. This seems to be what Lofty Large did when he was serving in the jungle. The trooper would also keep his morphine supply on the same piece of cord. Of, this information is probably years out of date by now.

For securing to the paracord, you can appreciate the value of the NATO strap.

Re: Super Luminova.

We have the War to thank for this:

http://www.nemoto.co.jp/en/column/01_watch.html

It was almost certainly first used on the Seikosha pilots watch supplied to the Japanese Navy circa 1941. The chemical formula SrAl2Qa + Eu + Dy is clearly the same as for Seikoâ€™s LumiBrite.

There are variations in the formula:

http://www.nemoto.co.jp/en/products/luminova/pdf/Luminova-G.pdf

However, if I may venture an opinion, the key is not the material itself but the layers or deposit. I am sure that you all know that already, but there we goâ€¦

For example: Re the Bezel of the IWC Aquatimer Automatic 2000. This is what the brochure states:

â€œNo fewer than six coatings of Super-LumiNova are applied to the underside of the sapphire-glass ring. Thanks to this highly effective luminescent material, the elapsed dive time is clearly visible even in poor light conditions.â€

I have it on good authority that it glows the whole night long.

Now I thinks that this is where Seikosha (sorry, Seiko) score so highly. The trick is in the amount.

Secondly, thanks Dr_Niss for you interesting comments. I am sure that you might be right, but I do note that most of the companies that sell the tubes only talk of ten years. Replacing the hands (I am sure that you are right) should not be a problem. Technically, neither should changing the face of the watch.

As for how long SLM will last, that is a very good question. I would like to think that it would not deteriorate in the same way that Tritium does (or at on my watchs it has done). Not only does the power fade in ten years, but the substance crumbles away.

Does this happen to our Japanese invention??


----------



## Gonville Bromhead (Jul 1, 2013)

Dooooooooooooo.

It does take time, but eventually the penny does drop.

Let us just assume that my (old,....ancient) information is correct. Just assume that you are a 'sneaky-beaky' and you do have your watch on a string of paracord.

If so, it would be languishing under your sweaty shirt all day. If so, superluminova would be above as much good as Anne Frank's drum kit. You would need a watch that was self-illuminating.

Now prior to 2002 you could rely on your issued CWC G10 (W10). The they switched from 'T' to 'L'.

So now - given that the above presumptions are correction - you would need something with Tritium tubes. This is certainly what the Septics have (see the Marathon watches).

Hence the Nite MX10 getting the nod from Sterling Lines.

You know.... I really should get out more.


----------



## Timez Own (Oct 19, 2013)

Tritium tubes, since having a traser (sadly no more) I find it hard to accept that lume fades on watches not so equipped through the periods of darkness without being recharged through exposure to another light source. I love those little tubes and look forward to having some more on a watch face again. It's the consistency I value.


----------



## bdc (Jan 15, 2008)

I can only go by my (limited) experience of watch lume and Tritium Tubes not in watches.

I find that the 'ordinary' lume is much brighter than the tubes when first put in the dark after exposure to light but that it fades over the hours of darkness whilst the tubes remain at a constant readable level. I have some tubes 1" and 2" long tubes that were bought in 1979 to mark the position of emergency switches in the event of power failures and they are still working well.

A question however: to 'charge up' your watch lume is it better to use UV light, just ordinary daylight, incandescent bulbs, or neon tubes?


----------



## saxon46 (Mar 7, 2013)

I agree the lume on my divex is the nuts........a minute charge lasts all night,but aren't these watches rebadged seiko's

but for the money well impressed


----------



## ~tc~ (Nov 1, 2013)

I have become a major lume snob also. I will not travel with anything other than GTLS lume (Ball EMII Diver Worldtime usually). I don't normally need to know the time within a few minutes of coming into a dark area after being out in the daylight... I need to know the time after my watch has been under a sleeve or blanket for 20 hours on a flight from Chicago to Hong Kong... And it seems silly to me to bring a flashlight/torch just to charge the lume!

That said, the traditional lume on my Wenger definitely makes the tritium look dim right after charging!

Being new, not sure if we are allowed to link to other fora, but there is a great thread on one of the largest ones where they did time lapse photography of various models all together, and you definitely see the difference!


----------



## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

~tc~ said:


> I have become a major lume snob also. I will not travel with anything other than GTLS lume (Ball EMII Diver Worldtime usually). I don't normally need to know the time within a few minutes of coming into a dark area after being out in the daylight... I need to know the time after my watch has been under a sleeve or blanket for 20 hours on a flight from Chicago to Hong Kong... And it seems silly to me to bring a flashlight/torch just to charge the lume!
> 
> That said, the traditional lume on my Wenger definitely makes the tritium look dim right after charging!
> 
> Being new, not sure if we are allowed to link to other fora, but there is a great thread on one of the largest ones where they did time lapse photography of various models all together, and you definitely see the difference!


You should be OK to link that, and it would be interesting to see...it's only commercial sites in competition to Roy that are frowned on...


----------

