![]() (Tritium-based paint, on the other hand, is ‘perpetually’ glowing, though often not as brightly as Super-LumiNova.)Ĭertain companies such as Rolex and Seiko use their own patented versions of this technology. They glow in the dark by absorbing and re-emitting light, but unlike radioactive materials, they don’t glow for a particularly long time without being ‘charged’ in light. As these are non-radioactive, they can be handled with ease and painted onto dials, hands, and indices. Since the early 2000s, products such as LumiNova, which use photoluminescent pigments such as strontium aluminate, have been used to illuminate watch dials. Tritium can be harmful if inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through open skin. NOTE: Tritium watches are perfectly safe to wear so long as they’re closed and intact. (Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen with one proton and two neutrons.) Some, such as those of military watches, feature an ‘H3’ enclosed in a circle. Dials containing tritium - which was used on watches from the 1960s through the early 2000s - often have small ‘T’ marks flanking 6 o’clock. This low-level beta radiation is much safer than radium’s gamma radiation, as it can’t penetrate human skin, and also has the added benefit of not degrading the phosphor in the paint, which will eventually cause it to stop glowing. As tritium decays, it emits beta radiation, which causes zinc sulfide in the paint to glow. So, if you’ve got a cool watch from the 1910s-1960s, wear it in good health! (Maybe don’t lick the hands, though…) Tritium and Promethiumīeginning in the 1960s, watch companies began using a paint containing tritium or promethium as alternatives to radium. They should NOT, however, be taken apart and handled by the wearer. EPA advises that radium-painted watches do not pose a significant health risk to the wearer so long as they are intact. NOTE: Though there has been much debate on the subject over the years, the U.S. In 1968, use of the material was banned in favor of significantly less dangerous materials. ![]() Though radium continued to be used (in vastly diminished quantities) on watch and clock dials through the 1960s, workers were given adequate protection, and the practice of licking paint brushes was stopped. In the mid-1920s, a group of women - who subsequently became known as the “Radium Girls” - successfully sued the United States Radium Corporation based in New Jersey, establishing a precedent for strict labor laws in the United States. Of course, this was ludicrously hazardous, and many quickly began suffering the adverse effects of working with radium, including necrosis of the jaw, bone cancer, and more. (Women were specifically employed under the belief that their smaller hands and deft touch would allow for a better, more even application on small parts such as watch indices.) During this time, though the adverse effects of radioactive radium were beginning to be known to these companies’ executives, precautions weren’t taken to protect the workers, who were even instructed to lick their paint brushes to straighten the bristles. Beginning around the time of the First World War (1914-1918), watch and clock companies had employees apply luminous radium paint mixed with zinc sulfide to timepiece dials and hands. Radium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. But the watches of yesteryear? Those things are (cue Imagine Dragons) radioactive. Contemporary watches use completely safe forms of photoluminescence or electroluminescence. There are several types of lume, and it’s worth knowing about and understanding each type. And for good reason! What good is a watch dial that can’t be seen in the dark, after all? But tool watches such as divers, chronographs, pilot’s watches, etc? Those things are lumed. It might not - dress watches, for example, often lack some sort of luminescent material. ![]() Chances are high that the watch you’re currently wearing glows in the dark.
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