Reply With Quoteleave it as it is, for me this would be the only option.
so what would you do ??
i like this the watch alot, i wear it almost everyday but the lume is past it. It does not work what so ever and has turned a dark crusty brown.
now it does not effect the dial in anyway as you can see in the photo, infact it looks quit nice still and gives it a nice aged look,
this mite sound silly but im asking as i dont know, now that the lume is dead im guessing the radioactive part is also dead and not damaging the dial anymore, would i be right thinking that
im asking as theres around 5 pin head light spots on the dial you can just make out two of them between the 6 & 7 and i dont want it to continue to deteriorate if i can do something now about it.
so i think the main two questions are
1) would you re-lume or leave it be
2) is the radiation from lume still deteriorating the dial even thought the lume is dead or is it fine now
leave it as it is, for me this would be the only option.
Leave it alone, it looks lovely as it is.
Absolutely leave it, but then I don't often have a use for lume on watches anyway.
Looks great as it is
Use your phone during the night, leave the lovely watch alone!
Relume it if you like lume. It's not the kind of watch that suits, or significantly appreciates, with crusty lume.
Gray
Leave well alone - you would expect the lume to be dead by now, so you currently have it as it should look.
Im going to echo this. Is lume important to you? If so, re-lume it. If not, and crusty lume doesn't bother you, don't.Originally Posted by gray
Other considerations present themselves - such as, are you in the camp that considers material failures in a watch to be endearing, or do you think that parts on a mechanical device should be replaced when they fail?
Personally, I don't think youre going to retire on the proceeds of selling that watch - lume or no lume - so Id just go for it - it seems rolex designed the watch to have luminous hands...
Personally, I think the watch "should look" as it was intended - with hands that are clearly visible in the dark - rolex didn't lume those hands with the intention that they turn to sh*te - they just didn't have access to the stuff they do now. If they had have, they would have used it.
That's not to say Id be worried enough to do anything about it, but Id be pleased if it came back from a service with those manky old hands replaced!
I would agree that changing this watch would not really enhance or damage the value too much, but I would disagree with your logic in the case of valuable vintage watches, such as Red Subs etc. The tritium is known to only last 15 years or so and on a 30 to 40 year old watch will be well dead and as a large chunk of the value is in the dial - I would not recommend anyone ever consider reluming one of those.
If the hands are tarnished I`d fit new ones. However, this will probably need the help of a Rolex accredited repairer to obtain the correct hands.
The alternative is to relume the hands; personally I think scruffy lume spoils a watch like this.
Paul
I`d leave it as it is, looks fine to me. Looks like a sigma dial, near the 6 it says T swiss T, can you see what appears to be a small circle outside of each T ? I think that identifies it as having gold indices and hands.
thanks for all the advice, i dont care much for lume to be honest and i think the watch looks really good for its age and that fresh bright colored lume effect would look out of place,
my main concern was could the lume still be causing the dial to deteriorate even after 50 odd years. it has a really nice clean bright dial and i would like it to stay that way for as long as possible,
in the event it was causing damage i mite have had it removed but as it not ill just leave her be
Leave it as is...if the dial ends up deteriorating further address it then.
If you miss the functionality of operational lume but don't want to affect value how about a replacement dial?
Get it done properly and keep the original then it can always be restored to it's former "glory" if required.
If you really want a cleaner look you could get NOS dial & hands off one of the Rolex forums, otherwise best not to chance a botched job. I got a vintage diver dial relumed and it looked like some drunks with poor aim had thorn muddy snowballs at a wall.
Id say my logic stands - as I said, monetary value is not a big consideration in the case of the OP's "to relume or not" question.
The kind of person who collects watches such as red subs etc generally get off on them having original parts, so Id definitely say, if value and rarity is all that matters, leave as is - though, seeing as they pay increasing amounts of money for examples the better the condition theyre in, I often think that many (despite protests to the contrary) would be happier with their old watches if the manufacturer had originally made them with less perishable components.
Apologies in advance to genuine members of the "creamy lume" brigade.
Leave it original. It's not the sort of watch where lume is an important factor anyway.
Beatles said it all "Let it Be" IMHO
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