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Greetings fellow members, I am not sure how many of you who like the older style Tudors and Rolex ( or any vintage watch equipped with a dial composed of radium applied lume) work on your own watch? I see that the radium on these timepieces no longer lumens like it was designed to be, however, the radium is still as deadly as the first day it was painted on, when considering it's half life is beyond ours., Even though we have all been warned to be careful not to breathe the radium dust that falls off the numerals or indices, when dismantling these tickers, but how do you deal with any dust that we cannot see that falls into the movement and then into our cleaning machine and anywhere else for that matter?. I have also read that some even spray a lacquer of clear over the dials to trap in the radium, yet radium will burn through it just the same! It is often argued on many other webpages that as long as the radium dial is covered with the front crystal etc etc, you are safe. I do not necessarily agree with this as dust will always be present and falling off the dial as the numerals deteriorates. For example dust can still fall out when pulling out the crown stem which although microscopic, this is still an issue as any amount is always hazardous. Maybe I am being somewhat nutty here, but I do feel for those professional watchmakers who have dealt with this in the past and those that continue to do so, especially with those very very expensive timepieces that still fetch over the 5 digit premiums.

Yeah I pushed too hard and smashed that hours hand down so far it wouldn't turn then I had to get it back off. Tweezers? Nope. Hemostats? Not on your life. Pick it up with an xacto knife? Dream on. Give me the damn channel-locks. It came off. And I broke the weak-ass pansy fricken cheap wussy miniature godforsaken stinking stem inside the crown. Next time I need to take a Seiko apart I'm using a different set of tools. I'm done "persuading" things to come apart.

Nice, welcome aboard! We're here to archive and share information, and enjoy watches of all kinds. Lots of folks show up, ask the obligatory "Who has the best Sub?" and buy it and disappear. You did it right ... read, read, read and read some more, make your choice, then show us your new piece in some photos.