Lume glow characteristics of 5513 Maxi I dial and hands

[OmegaAlpha]

Hello all, may I know what lume glow characteristics I should look out for to determine if a 5513 Maxi I dial and hands are original?

Thanks!

[Dan S]

The original lume will be pretty much dead.

[OmegaAlpha]

Thanks. Under UV, the glow of the dial and hands should be similar intensity?

[Dan S]

They really should not emit at all. Sometimes there is a glow from UV illumination that you might interpret as emission, but it is really just scattering, and that can look slightly different between hands and dial, but it's a negligible difference compared to actual emission, e.g. of ZnS lume. It can be hard if you don't have a lot of experience or another watch to put side-by-side.

Here's a photo I've posted before of a MF 5513 with ZnS lume at left and a Pre-Comex Sub at right. If you looked at the Pre-Comex by itself, maybe you would be noticing some small amount of white glow, and maybe you would see a slight difference between hands and dial, or different lume plots. But when you compare it to the true emission from ZnS, you see that those differences are trivial. It's all about calibrating things properly.

[ciceroyeah]

I have a 5513 from 1984 with a maxi V dial. The dial and hands still glow incredibly faintly in absolute darkness, and the glow is only very slightly visible when I wake up at night with zero lights on, and my eyes fully-adjusted to total darkness.

[OmegaAlpha]

Thanks for the replies! As such, to determine if a Maxi I dial and hands are original, I should not expect any real glow at all.

If there an easy way to tell if the hands are original?

[Dan S]

Originally Posted by OmegaAlpha

Thanks for the replies! As such, to determine if a Maxi I dial and hands are original, I should not expect any real glow at all.

If there an easy way to tell if the hands are original?

You can study the length and shape of hands on photos of good examples.

[springer]

For me, the first Maxi Dial from the late 1970s will have whitish dial markers, hands and pearl when excited by the UV light - as seen below:

[OmegaAlpha]

Originally Posted by springer

For me, the first Maxi Dial from the late 1970s will have whitish dial markers, hands and pearl when excited by the UV light - as seen below:

Great! I will keep this in mind 👍

[swish77]

Similar to Springer's example above, this is what you want to see under UV from original tritium in '70s and early '80s Subs. And dead when you remove the UV.

[OmegaAlpha]

Originally Posted by swish77

Similar to Springer's example above, this is what you want to see under UV from original tritium in '70s and early '80s Subs. And dead when you remove the UV.

Got it thanks!