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Use of Radium stopped in the 1960s. Here’s my vintage re-lumed, non radioactive, WWW Timor. During a professional service I asked the watchmaker to remove all the old lume. I then re-lumed it myself. Still wore a mask and gloves while doing so though just in case.

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.

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This is a Chicken Little answer but I simply stopped taking them apart. I still have a few radium lume watches and I doubt many of of them are worth very much now. There are exceptions of course but since I do not wear them I figure they are just fine stored out in the garage and if someone wants one as/is they can have it for a 'hot' price. I bought a cheap 'GMC 320 Plus' Geiger counter a while back and it took off ticking a lot more than normal around the work area where I keep a lot of watchjunk so I started zeroing in on the source. It was an old Tip Top Jr. pin lever wristwatch from the late 1920s/early 1930s and it was still Hot! It had been about 3 feet from where I work for 20+ years in a shadowbox with some old character watches. Now it is on another wall in the same room and the counter is showing a normal reading where I work but if I move the counter close to the Tip Top it still goes off. If I was cleaning a movement from a watch with radium hands that had been shedding lume material I would throw the cleaner and rinse away when it was done. The question is how do you dispose the cleaner/rinse from the movement and the dust from a radium dial and where do you take it? I do not know. Tritium is bad enough but radium would (legally) be a problem to dispose of. Radium is serious stuff. Nuff said. Otoh here's what really keeps me up at night: You can bet there are Forty Four Fat Feds in extra, extra large shielded hazmat suits riding around eating donuts (and coffee) in lead lined black SUVs just waiting to quarantine your property, beat you down, lock you up, and fine you $214 million if they can find just one loose nanoparticle of radium. But it's your lucky day! Here is what they found instead: Non radioactive! Gluten free! Meanwhile Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Bezerkley CA and the Nuke Weapons Design Lab at Los Alamos NM glow happily in the dark and none of the 44 Fat Feds noticed 'cause their pointy heads are always buried in Dunkin' donut boxes. It's a strange world out there, I'll give you that, but you will be Ok if you just follow the Official US Gummit Rules. (They changed it from US Government to US Gummit because everything is always Gummed Up in Red Tape...GURT for short.) Official Rule # 1...Always Heed Words Of Caution. Of course some Fed Fool pressed it anyway. Now there ain't no need for Official Rule # 2. So...we made up some new rules: 1...Remember the Alamos. (in NM, not the one in TX, it's still there) 2...Vote for Super Luminova in 2020. No Radical Radium. 3...You can no longer believe it all but you can believe: A...One half of what you see with your own two eyeballs. B...One third of what you hear with your own two ears. C...One fourth of what you feel with your own two hands (depending on lights ON or lights OFF). Disclaimer for A and B: If it is on CNN, it drops to 10%. Over and Out. Pin lever Pocket Bens and Tip Tops were 'poor boy' watches. Here is what a Tip Top Jr. looks like: Gluten free! Radium dial Tip Top Jr. from Etsy. No Calories! Radium dial Westclox Pocket Ben from Etsy.

Did trade with him on RG back in April. I sent my watch via EMS and then sent the tracking number to him. To date, I have received NO watch and NO tracking number. What I have received are ignored PMs and a few replies stating "I thought I sent it already" or "I will get that number to you"... But so far...crickets. He is temp banned on RG...he used to be here but not active. I am also in contact with the mods at RWI and they have now asked him to complete the deal as it seam he is now active and selling there. Just to pass on to the members here. Thanks