Something Funny

[freddy333]

Every aftermarket vintage Rolex dial I have seen glows fairly brightly when activated by a direct light source. And it remains glowing for at least 10 minutes. That goes for dials from NDtrading, Phong, Yuki, Minh Quh, MY, etc. They all (incorrectly) glow. At the same time, all of my vintage gen dials -- either original or later Rolex service replacements (that are more than 30 years old) -- have either no glow or give off a (barely perceptible) faint, green hue that may be seen only in pitch black darkness & only for a minute or 2, at most.

So, with that in mind, I just noticed that the only glow emanating from my Tudor Rose Sub comes from the pearl (which came from Ofrei) & hands (which glow a different color than the new pearl). The lume on the dial gives off a (barely perceptible) faint, green hue that I can only see when there is insufficient light to charge my camera's sensors, even at its highest ISO setting & with infinite exposure time. I mean, the dial lume on this thing is just dead (like my gens). This is what it looks like immediately after being charged under direct incandescent light for about 15 minutes

The point of all this is that I am once again feeling like this watch, part of the lot scored (just in time & for a song) by a handful of very fortunate RWG members last year, is gen. Because of the dial's 't<25' marking, it is clearly not original equipment (as the watch would have left the Rolex factory saying only 'SWISS'). But it lacks the 1 thing that identifies virtually every other repaint or aftermarket dial - a mistake. Just 1. But there are none. The finish looks gen, the printing (even under my 10x loupe) looks gen, the fonts look gen, even the lume looks gen. I have been through my picture archives at least a dozen times & other than the 't<25', this dial looks like most gen dials.

Thoughts?

[FxrAndy]

Just very old freddy, tritium has a half life of 12.3 years, if this dial is old enough it will have no power left, i have 15 year old t dials here from CWCs and they are as dead as a dodo, my mates gen sub 1989 is t dial is also dead unless you have been in a dark room for 10 hours and then it glows just a touch.

[freddy333]

Just very old freddy

Exactly my point. I think it is more likely that these dials are old (gen) service replacements & not new/recent aftermarkets.

That being the case, these Rose Tudors may very well be gens, as the seller original was told & believed them to be. As it is, I have been on the fence over this since day 1. But, now, I'm leaning way over to the gen side (& losing my balance).

[FxrAndy]

Is there any evidence of tudor dials being repped 20 plus years ago at this quality?????

If not then i would agree with you

[freddy333]

I have no direct information on any, but that means nothing.

The only other (probably) non-gen dials of this level of quality that I am aware of are the infamous 'Texas' Newman Daytona dials. To this day, those dials continue to generate hot debate among top collectors. Even Rolex has been unable (or unwilling) to conclusively identify them as non-gens.

So if these Tudors are not gen, I would love to know who (& how they) made them.

[FxrAndy]

Well the only way to tell the age would be to swab them and send that off to a lap to check to see what bequels it is giving off, That should give you the age of the tritium at least

[Star69]

as i had this watch - my dial was not gen - same goes to the case ...

cheers,

Frank

[Stephane]

I bought a watch from Girards too, same as Franck.

I believe that yours is from the same source, right Freddy.

I made a Tudor SnowFlake with that one so here is a bad photo of the dial:

It doesn't show what I want to highlight though: the dial seem gen but the markers have two different colors.

I doubt that the markers on the dial could "fade" differently.

The 12,3,6,9 markers seems repainted to me.

I'll try to shoot better photos soon.

[trailboss]

Actualy Andy what kills 'em is the luminous material that is exited by the tritium breaks down under the bombardment well before the radioactive element degrades enough to preclude exitment.. Even after 20 odd years if you were to put a new layer of the correct lume over the old tritium it would have some glow again. If you have acess to a geiger counter you should still pick up radiation from a bare dial even after 30 odd years, not much but enough to comfirm tritium lume.

Col.

[FxrAndy]

Hmm i was informed on my radiation protection course that the counters that we have would not pick up tritium, we have to take yearly swabs and send them off.

But saying that the same people told me that my old radium dials would not glow, but they do after a bit of exposure to UV light.

[freddy333]

I bought a watch from Girards too, same as Franck.

I believe that yours is from the same source, right Freddy.

Yes, mine came from Girards.

It doesn't show what I want to highlight though: the dial seem gen but the markers have two different colors.

I doubt that the markers on the dial could "fade" differently.

The 12,3,6,9 markers seems repainted to me.

I'll try to shoot better photos soon.

That dial looks like 1 of MY's, which are definitely aftermarket repaints. I think the dials that came in Girard's Tudor Subs look better than MY's.