Hello All,
I have noticed that some vintage IWC watches from the 60s have T SWISS T dials lack lume--on both the hands and markers. Does the presence of T SWISS T mean a watch must have tritiun, or was there a period where IWC made these dials without any lume?
Thank you all.
John
The half life of Tritium is about 12 years. So, yes, it will lose it's luminance and obtain the beautiful,to me, yellowish patina. If the dial indicates T Swiss T, the markers and hands were orginally coated with Tritium. If after service the hands, e.g. were replaced, they may have been replaced with Luninova coated material.
Some such dials were used on models without lume, as you can find other examples.
Regards,
Tony C.
The patina on my 3711 T Swiss T dial. Love it.
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Thank you all for the response.
I am specifically referring to models that never had any lume despite having T SWISS T on the dial. Did such watches exist or are they service/replacements? For example I have come across several Ref. 810As with T SWISS T dials yet have hands and indexes without lume. I am not talking about lume that has fallen off over time, I am referring to hands and indices that never had them in the first place. Here is an example:
Again, the answer is yes. They were occasionally used on such watches, almost certainly because there were temporary shortages of the desired dial style without the "T"s.
Great information, thank you Tony.
Thank you for the clarification Tony!