Is this a relume job, or does tritium smear over time?

[HauteHippie]

What do ye vintage enthusiasts think of the tritium on the stick markers here: normal or a bad relume?

I've been eyeballing older Speedies, and am interested in this one. But if it's a relume, I'll definitely pass. Rolex tritium does not seem to smear like this, so I'm a bit skeptical.

[milesd]

It's hard to tell from that photo but here was my 60s 145-012. There was uneven lume from aging but I'm not sure I would call it smearing.

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[HauteHippie]

Smearing might not be the best word. How about "degrading"? Actually that looks like the same effect. You can see the white lume "pads" coming through on both watches. Were you the original owner of that 60s Speedy?

Edited August 13, 2012 by chieftang

[HauteHippie]

Some crops.

[lhooq]

This is not news to chieftang, but...

I'm leaning toward natural, given the color match with the hands (unless they were also relumed a long time ago), and the way the lume has migrated more on the downward slope on the dial. Maybe the Speedy was stored dial-up for an extended period?

And I have definitely seen Rolex dials that have had worse cases of "migration". Check out the down-right shift of the '3' on my 1016 franken's dial.

Of course, movement of vintage Rolex lume is nothing compared to what I've seen on some Tudors!

[HauteHippie]

Whoa, now that's some migration! Pretty interesting. I would like to know why some T dials from the same era don't exhibit this and others do. Moisture?

Edited August 13, 2012 by chieftang

[freddy333]

Looks like normal aging to me. The substrate tends to swell/bleed a bit as it takes on moisture over the years. As I understand it, this was primary reason for Rolex placing their lume within metal surrounds on modern models (keeps the lume from bleeding).

[HauteHippie]

Interesting piece of info regarding the metal surrounds, freddy. Makes sense too.

Thanks!