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Vintage Tritium lume


Akira

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I've been around luming for a bit now and a few things always bothered me a little...
Luming needs a lot of practice - so it's natural that the first relumes will look like...
However,
 
1. I often see topics, sales thread with watches advertised as "puffy lume mod"
- more often than not, it's just clumsy applied lume!
How many of those old vintages really have that style of lume?
Many just have flat, sometimes slightly raised lume dots.
 
2. Real Rolex Tritium lume binder is 100% matte
- that's something that's very hard to archive as you need a good binder
Many people use clear vanish that still has a light gloss to it - an instant tell for me
 
3. The binder has completely dried out, without looking hard
- too often the relume looks like dried paint
 
4.  Original Rolex lume has an unique texture
 
 
I found all these points/faults within my own lume/binder mixture at some stage of my learning curve.
 
So, I decided to try out new stuff...change is good! Luckily I have a genuine 5513 matte dial and genuine 1675 matte dial with
original Tritium at my place at the moment, to take as much inspiration as possible.
 
A few gen pics for reference
 
198_copy.jpg
 
 
BS_Rolex_W_19_5513_114_09_copy.jpg
 
 
comex_a_copy.jpg
 
 
After various mixtures, try-outs after try-out, I have found a mix I feel comfortable to relume my own watches with.
I probably won't come closer to the look of the real thing...
 
 
DSC04042_copy.jpg
 
 
 
6x lense
 
DSC04043_copy.jpg
 
DSC04044_copy.jpg
 
 
20x lense
 
DSC04045_copy.jpg
 
DSC04047_copy.jpg
 
DSC04049_copy.jpg
 
DSC04054_copy.jpg
 
 
DSC04066_copy.jpg
 
 
 
I'd appreciate your input!
Does it look good? Better? Worse?
 
Looking forward to your replies!
 
A
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I think its really good. Great colour, but texture just slightly off. Looks a bit "dry" and chalky. I'd thicken it up just a touch. To me it has to look like sponge toffee. Or the cross section of a slab of cake before you put the frosting on.

Close up of my pre Comex tritium dial:

e3eju3ym.jpg

+1

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Very very impressive Akira! You've come a very long way. As others have pointed out, color is spot on. There's quite some variation I'd say regarding how the degradation has affected texture, some spongy - some not and more dry/matte.

Regarding shape, my understanding is that gilt dials and earlier matte dials had more rounded shapes, later ones having flat appearance.

Bart dial:

Frothy_lume.jpg

 

Malteser plots matte:

100_1286.jpg

Spongy:

IMGP6940SwissCrop.jpg

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Akira - I agree with most of your comments, but I think you need to sharpen the edges of your relume & swap some of the (convex) bumps for (concave) dimples. Also, make sure that whatever you use does not glow, or, if it glows, it glows VERY dimly & fades quickly (within seconds). Otherwise, although there are a small number of notable exceptions, a bright glow on a 50+ year old dial is always a dead give-away of man-made 'dabbling'.

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Thanks for the comments.
 
I appreciate the input and suggestions!
 
I'm well aware how it's still different to original Tritium lume, but after hours and hours of trying I wouldn't know
how to replicate the look at 100%. 
Do you? Who does? 
I've yet to come by a relume job that is undistinguishable to the real deal - the closest I've seen is probably from The Zigmeister 
(which I have not seen through a 20x lense though)
But who knows what he uses/used?
 
Btw, Freddy - it's not glowing at all.
 
Cheers,
A
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I've started working on trying to get this effect more accurately. I think I've found a way of doing the very fine pin holes. Problem is I have no good dials to try it on and I dont have a 20X loupe to take good photos :S

 

Had a go at a 12 marker (a bit thick but was only a test) and also spread a bit on a blank dial to show the effect better. What do you guys think? Probably cant see it clearly enough though

post-24551-0-09774600-1391188515_thumb.j

post-24551-0-79640200-1391188523_thumb.j

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I've started working on trying to get this effect more accurately. I think I've found a way of doing the very fine pin holes. Problem is I have no good dials to try it on and I dont have a 20X loupe to take good photos :S

 

Had a go at a 12 marker (a bit thick but was only a test) and also spread a bit on a blank dial to show the effect better. What do you guys think? Probably cant see it clearly enough though

 

Looks pretty good too from that resolution.

Definitely an improvement!

 

 

Does it glow?

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Really like it, would say that you're just about as close as it gets if we're talking "lume" mixture (color, texture). Lovely picture of the hands too! When it comes to the dial, I'd say what remains for perfection is just practice and more practice to get the indice shape 100% (circles, rectangles and triangle). Just my uneducated 5 cents :)

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Really like it, would say that you're just about as close as it gets if we're talking "lume" mixture (color, texture). Lovely picture of the hands too! When it comes to the dial, I'd say what remains for perfection is just practice and more practice to get the indice shape 100% (circles, rectangles and triangle). Just my uneducated 5 cents :)

 

Thats true...100 relumes from now they might be totally accurate in shape, but looking on my wrist I have to say they look pretty, pretty sharp.

I might have terrible eyesight though :rofl:

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Here's a thought - is there any way to aerate/whip the lume mixture and make it frothy while you are mixing it? In theory, once it dries you might have the same tiny air bubbles and pores from the bubbles popping during the drying process.

I've never worked with lume before so I have absolutely no idea what the consistency is, or if this is even possible, but it's just a thought.

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cc33,

Your "dial guy" has it down,his work is superb! It may be the only rival to RolexAddict's work which I hold in very high regard. He is a treasure, treat him as such!....thanks for showing off his work...best, mcotter

I own a fair amount of 40 yr old lume, it's glow is all long past....

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  • 3 years later...

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