Repaint Lume on a Vintage Omega
Hi,
I picked up an old '69 Omega Geneve in great condition. But on my watch the Tritium Lume has vanished over the years. Is there any great way to restore it with paint or would I have to find a new luminescent dial and hands?
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Daniel
New collecter who got carried into the hobby by his boyfriend
Perg
Member since
Last active: 29 min ago
Doooooon't! Keep that delicious patina! ALSO WHERE ARE PICS?!
My husband has recently repainted the lume on some of his cheaper watches with lume he bought from AliExpress or Amazon - just to test and see how easy it would be. They've come out OK-ish (i.e. looks OK at a distance but pretty "blobby" if you look too closely. I think his general verdict is that you do need an extremely steady hand - there's no way I'd recommend doing it on anything like your vintage Omega!
That watch looks great as it is. I wouldn’t take the risk of trying to „restore“ it.
From looking at the dial & hands on this they aren't lumed & never were. It's a dress watch & not all had luminous material on the dial & hands
From looking at the dial & hands on this they aren't lumed & never were. It's a dress watch & not all had luminous material on the dial & hands
Oh, I thought the black is the paint after being exposed to light for such a long light. Also the dials says "T SWISS MADE T", which as far as i am aware is for Tritium-Lumed dials only
That watch looks great as it is. I wouldn’t take the risk of trying to „restore“ it.
It looks great as it is. Wouldn‘t change anything.
This looks fantastic! Can’t beat old watches that have aged well!
My advice is to not bother. Repainting lume takes a lot of practice and is also a turnoff for potential buyers if you choose to sell it later. If a potential buyer sees a restored dial, they may think that other, even worse things have had to be replaced/restored. Don't fret it, all my vintage watches have virtually nonexistent lume. It's a sign of the watch aging, or rather... maturing.
In theory you can have the dial removed and sent off to some re-lumer that will paint modern goo on there (possibly after removing the old stuff). It won't be cheap. Or you can buy some paint (also not cheap) and expect lackluster results as @FeebleWrists accurately described.
I have a vintage watch with basically dead lume and I've given up on that aspect. Safer and cheaper to keep it original. The number of times I've missed having the lume is, of course, zero.
I think this has no lumen on the dial or hands, the black is paint. It looks really nice, leave it and wear it!
Speaking from experience on an 80s dive watch bezel lume pip I tried to replace - painting lume is HARD.
It also ends up looking like you just painted lume on a beautiful old piece..
Leave it OR if you have to; step away from the lume paint, find an excellent watchmaker (who will hate you for asking to do it!), and pay her more than the watch is worth to do it. :P
It's pretty clear that the absolute first step is to verify that this was ever meant to be luminescent, which means taking a flashlight into a dark closet and seeing if you get any glow. The watch I mentioned is at least a decade older and it will go from full glow to nothing in a second or two. It degrades, but doesn't go totally dead in a single lifetime.
The smart money is on leaving as it is. Or you can refurbish it and blow away a chunk of its value, not to mention make the watch non-original for those after you when, to date, its owners haven't done so.
Why is lume even important on a watch like this? You won't be doing any 3am raids on a Taliban HQ, or some deep sea diving in it. Just leave it be. Having lume on a watch like this is extremely unimportant.
Keep it original!
Looks awesome! Congrats! Out of curiosity, what is the case diameter on that?
Before you do anything all crazy make sure that particular model was ever Lumed - I own two omegas - a Seamaster De’Ville and a Cosmic from the same time period - and neither were lumed.
the thing is that it says "T SWISS MADE T" on the dial, which accoring to an arcticle I found is tritium lume
There are old, factory original “no lume” Rolex dials that were still printed with T Swiss T so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Omega did the same. I’ve seen plenty of black enamel-filled hour markers on other Omega dress watches.
Either way, don’t lume that dial.
Really handsome watch
What a beaut! I wouldn't alter it in any way. It looks fantastic the way it is, in my opinion. Doing that would also reduce it's resale value.
Love it, I wouldn't touch it.
Damn this is funny!! You’re a well educated man Lord Dappintonshire!!
On a watch from 1969, that tritium paint will have already gone through at least 4.32 half-lives. As such, there's probably only around 6% of the original radioactivity remaining -- which, by the way, is likely why it no longer glows -- that and the phosphors are probably burnt out. The is far less of an issue with tritium paint than radium paint, because radium has a half life of 1600 years -- which means that even on dials from the 1920s, the paint is pretty much just as radioactive today as it was a hundred years ago, but since the phosphors have long been burnt out, there's no warning without a geiger counter.
That's about what i thought seeing a half file of 12 yrs.
Whack it with a UV light and you'll see if it had lume.
Isn't tritium a radioactive isotope?
Do you really want to do DIY project involving RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS?
I probably would not use tritium but more modern paint. But given the feedback, I'll just leave the watch as is.
I honestly asked out of curiosity.
If l might ask what did u pay l don't want to over pay if one comes along
If l might ask what did u pay l don't want to over pay if one comes along
I paid 525€ with shipping from Italy. The watchmaker I had it taken to for a small check gave me a 400-600€ estimate.
The smart money is on leaving as it is. Or you can refurbish it and blow away a chunk of its value, not to mention make the watch non-original for those after you when, to date, its owners haven't done so.
Why is lume even important on a watch like this? You won't be doing any 3am raids on a Taliban HQ, or some deep sea diving in it. Just leave it be. Having lume on a watch like this is extremely unimportant.
Yeah, I got a Military Industries 1982 Pattern for 90€ for that looks nice when being lumed and my feel was a bit that this is what's missing from the watch to being in a complettly as was state. But now reading from you guys, the clear directcion and view I should go after is to look at it "as it is today, after half a century" instead of what it might or might not was in 1969.
Yeah, I got a Military Industries 1982 Pattern for 90€ for that looks nice when being lumed and my feel was a bit that this is what's missing from the watch to being in a complettly as was state. But now reading from you guys, the clear directcion and view I should go after is to look at it "as it is today, after half a century" instead of what it might or might not was in 1969.
Yes, much better off leaving it as it is. When it comes to that cheaper watch you re-lumed, the key there is it’s price. No one’s going to care if you re-lume a cheap watch. But the Omega? Different story.