I'm really keen to add a pepsi GMT Master to my collection, looking at the older models I think my preference might be for a 16750. This is the model that ran from 1981-1988 and has tritium lume with a mostly matte dial (although the glossy dial appeared in roughly 1986). Frustratingly my birthyear is 1986 which should mean a glossy dial so I might look a bit earlier for a later matte dial.

When I look at listings it's very common to find a mismatch of lume colour between the dial and hands, where the dial has nicely aged and the hands seem much newer. I'm guessing a quick UV light test will show a stark difference and confirm suspicions that it could well be a set of service hands?

Here is an example:


Now here is an example where both the dial and hands have, seemingly, aged well together:


My question is, should the hands and dial lume age at the same rate? Or does the backing material that the lume is applied to play a role in the rate of discolouration?

On a complete aside, I really enjoy the faded bezel insert look. Are there particular models or years that it is known to happen to? The reason for the question is if a watch might be artificially aged to induce this effect when that model/year were not susceptible.