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WatchDoctor
847
Nov 29, 2018
You know, if I were a watch designer, I’d place the tubes under the watch hands and only under the watch hands. That way, you wouldn’t see them, and would be able to have full degree of freedom in how you design the hands and the dial. But still you’d get the benefit of being able to tell the time even in absolute darkness.
james120
28
Nov 29, 2018
WatchDoctorThe one issue with that is the radius (or height for square ones), they have to be three dimensional. You would either need a huge degree of distance between the hands or grooves in the dial to accompany them. It could be doable, and would make for an interesting watch, but would require a lot of prototyping and careful designing. Mondaine did something similar, but with normal lume in their back-light series.
WatchDoctor
847
Nov 29, 2018
james120That's a good point. I wonder how thin they could be made.
james120
28
Nov 30, 2018
WatchDoctorAs far as I know, only one company still manufactures tritium tubes with a limited number of sizes. However, watches are all about overcoming engineering hurtles with self-imposed limitations. I'm sure if your idea is picked up by a watch maker they'll come up with something clever.
Cloaca
1906
Dec 1, 2018
WatchDoctorThat's a brilliant idea, although James's issue would need to be addressed. They could also use a translucent material for the hour pips and put tubes behind those (watch is getting pretty thick by this point). For a sandwich dial they could somehow tuck the tubes next to the holes to illuminate them.
c0rnelius
1060
Dec 24, 2018
WatchDoctorAccording to this 1950’s Hamilton catalog they were painting radium on the underside of hands to make what they called Silhouette Hands. The night image gives off an eery vibe. It must have been incredible. Anyway, I like the idea, just wanted to share a little history. Credit due to hamiltonchronicles.com where you learn all you ever wanted to know about vintage American/Swiss Hamilton. http://www.hamiltonchronicles.com/2014/10/1955-automatic-k-250.html?m=1
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WatchDoctor
847
Dec 24, 2018
c0rneliusThat’s amazing and thanks for sharing.
sistem_32
116
Dec 24, 2018
CloacaI know that Ball makes a watch that uses transparent numerals with tritium underneath them but I can't find the model. As I recall the numerals are rather ornate, so they couldn't be formed with tritium tubes on the dial. It's a rather striking look.
WatchDoctor
847
Dec 24, 2018
sistem_32Very interesting. I wish I could see a picture of that.
sistem_32
116
Dec 24, 2018
WatchDoctorI did some more digging, and it appears to be the Engineer Master II Moonglow. Unfortunately there aren't too many good pictures of it out there. Here's one of the better ones:
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I believe the date window is also backlit. I couldn't find a single good picture of the lume, but they used a similar technique on a moonphase (looks like there are some bits of glitter between the tritium and the window):
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I think it looks really good, and it doesn't appear to add too much thickness.
WatchDoctor
847
Dec 25, 2018
sistem_32very nice indeed. Thanks for sharing.
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