How to spot a re-lume? Information for members

[mr.chef]

Hi myself and i'm sure other members would like to learn more about spotting a re-lume in 60's/70's watches. I understand it's not always that simple and need to take a few things into consideration (i'm not in any way an expert)
1 The glow after exposure to a bright light
2 Is the lume puffy
3 The colour
4 Consistency to the hands or elsewhere there is lume
5 The quality of the job (remember this was sometimes done by hand)

Please can some of the more knowledgable members chip in?
Cheers

[kungfugerbil]

One good way is to compare with examples of the watch from the same period. A lot of early 5513s show the same type of 'cratered' lume - if there are loads and loads around that look the same, it's a strong indicator that it's original.

If you have a watch that you're not sure of, try and find some more examples.

Also check out if the model is one commonly sold on eBay by the Indian refurbish/repainters.

On a 50 year old watch it will have seen a number of services/repairers/fiddlers in its life, there's very few with full documented history so unless it's been personally owned by you during that period it's very hard to tell.

[Wallasey Runner]

If you look at the tritium on vintage Rolex, especially through a loupe the surface of the plots can appear to have a waffle like texture to it.

[Tetlee]

I don't think there's any overall rule to spotting a relume, just have to go with your instinct and have a good look at the dial and judge for yourself. Keeping in mind a relume could have been carried out at any given time I don't have any issue with it being carried out as long as a good job has been made. Naturally if we're talking a vintage watch then a relume with tritium would be preferable and not uncommon, but if the relume is more recent it will likely be colour matched luminova which is no big deal.

From my experience tritium can age quite differently from watch to watch. Take something like a Smiths W10 for example, some have a lovely butterscotch colour while others are darker brown or even greener dirtier shades, some the tritium is very thickly applied where others it's much more flush to the dial. I think butterscotch colour is generally more desirable where tritium is concerned(radium different again) but most shades look nice IMO.

Again I still don't see why it would matter to all but the serious collectors, if it looks nice and you're happy with it then it's a win in my books.