Tritium watch mod?

Roadrunner

Roadrunner

Joined
Jun 9, 1999
Messages
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OK, here's the question for you watch fiends. I just got a nice titianium Seiko that is nice and light, fits my wrist well, and that I think looks pretty classy. The problem? You can't read the time when it's dark! I didn't notice until after I bought the damn thing. :grumpy: I like everything else about it, so the question ;is there is any way I could get it retrofitted with tritium hands and markers, and what does something like that cost? Or am I stuck with it the way it is? Thanks for any suggestions.
 
Jack at International Watch Works has done this transplant before, but it is normally a pretty expensive project because you can't just buy the hands but have to raid them out of a Marathon donor.

A better option is to have Jack, or Kent Parks of Everest Everest Watch Works supercharge the lume on the existing dail and hands. This can normally be done for around $70 or so, and they will paint a very thick layer of superlumanova over the exisiting lume. Charge it with a flashlight or lightbulb or whatever and it will glow MUCH brighter than the Luminox/Marathon at first, and then dim gradually through the course of the night until it is a little dimmer than the tritium vials.
 
Wait; tritium has to be charged? The thing is that I dont' think this has tritium in the first place. It doesn't glow at ALL, not even a little bit in complete darkness.
 
Tritium does not need to be charged. Luminova does. You can't get it painted with tritium because tritium paint is somewhat dangerous to work with and you need special permits from the Atomic Energy Commission and nobody who has the permits is doing custom work like that -- but you can get it painted with Luminova.
 
Revolvergeek said:
Jack at International Watch Works has done this transplant before, but it is normally a pretty expensive project because you can't just buy the hands but have to raid them out of a Marathon donor.
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Not to high jack the thread, but are there any watches that are better suited for the transpalnt then others, as far as brand?
 
I bought the same watch a couple of months ago. For a light modification I just use the Surefire I always EDC.
 
Most anything that uses a ETA 2824 or Ronda 715 movements would be better, because the Marathon hands and face will drop right in with no adapting required. O&W divers, higher end Invictas, Aristos, most of the modern Hamilton automatics and several of their quartz models, all kinds of things.

Danny
 
There is one watch company that uses little vials filled with tritium gas. There are many more that use paint that contains tritium.
 
Cougar Allen said:
There is one watch company that uses little vials filled with tritium gas. There are many more that use paint that contains tritium.
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Someone might know better than me, but I think there's one company, using several names. I've seen Luminox and Marathon. Some models have looked nearly identical and the luminescent markers are identical (see the Marathon Navigator and the Luminox Navy SEAL Dive watch). I thought I'd seen at least one other brand name on this technology watch.
 
skunked said:
You can't paint on tritium as it is a gas that is sealed in tiny glass vials.
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Skunked,

Not sure if you are directing this about my comment on painting the watch faces with superluminova or not, but I would clarify two things. First, superluminova is a strontium-aluminate mixture (I think that there is some europium in there too maybe) that is photluminescent. No tritium in it. It will glow like crazy when exposed to a strong light source though.

Also, tritium can be made into a paint. Quoting from the www.NRC.gov website:

"Tritium, a radioactive material, interacts with various radioluminescent materials incorporated in hands, numbers or other parts of timepieces to make the dials and hands visible in the dark. The tritium may be either in the form of a gas contained in tiny sealed tubes -- or in a luminescent paint. "

The NRC press release about tritium in watches.

Another article about Tritium paint vs tritium vials.

An article about radioluminescent paint in general. Quoted from this article " When incorporated into radioluminescent paint, much lower activities (2 mCi) are employed. The tritium, which is really hydrogen, is incorporated into a polymer that also contains the luminescent material (usually ZnS). "

That said, tritium paint pretty much sucks compared to tritium vials on a watch. I have an O&W MP2824 watch with tritium painted hands, and they will glow very very dimly without having to be charged, but they are very very much dimmer than my Luminox watch with vials.

Danny
 
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