Aged chromalight

[Mackonomics]

So it’s been about 14 years Since the chromalight series dropped…

I’m really curious what it looks like worn down and if it patinas.. Does anyone have pictures of it aged?

[dpt.calvin]

My 1989 16710 tritium doesn’t show patina yet lol

[Mackonomics]

Originally Posted by dpt.calvin

My 1989 16710 tritium doesn’t show patina yet lol

[img] <div class="tenor-gif-embed" data-postid="15674136" data-share-method="host" data-aspect-ratio="0.9875" data-width="100%"><a href="https://tenor.com/view/ew-gross-steve-carell-yuck-disgusting-gif-15674136">Ew Gross GIF</a>from <a href="https://tenor.com/search/ew-gifs">Ew GIFs</a></div> <script type="text/javascript" async src="https://tenor.com/embed.js"></script>[/img]

[Lamontsanders]

My 114060 is about 10 years old and the lume looks good as new.

[Solo118]

My 18 year old Daytona has SL and looks good as new, I doubt Chromalight will show patina for many many years.

[eonflux]

The lume on my GMT 116710 from 2008 still looks fine.

No discoloration as I had seen on previous watches with tritium.

[OTE200]

My 2010 116610LN seems like it's starting to lose its bright blue colour and is very subtly looking more green.

[Bryan81]

My 2005 16610 with SL shows no patina at this point. I’m sure anything with Chromalight is far from the point of patina.


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[dpt.calvin]

Originally Posted by Mackonomics

[img] <div class="tenor-gif-embed" data-postid="15674136" data-share-method="host" data-aspect-ratio="0.9875" data-width="100%"><a href="https://tenor.com/view/ew-gross-steve-carell-yuck-disgusting-gif-15674136">Ew Gross GIF</a>from <a href="https://tenor.com/search/ew-gifs">Ew GIFs</a></div> <script type="text/javascript" async src="https://tenor.com/embed.js"></script>[/img]

Huh

[Gab27]

FWIW, I've observed the factory 'patina' is more pronounced than anything else, where it is common for the different lots to have a very slightly different tint. Sometimes you can see even on a new watch a different tint between the color of the lume on the dial and on the hands, although it is usually pretty minor. I imagine when they assemble any higher end watch that ensuring this matches is a QC step.

It doesn't seem to change very much once it comes out of the factory, and that seems to hold for most major brands that use any of the strontium aluminate compounds, including Luminova/SL, Chromalight, and LumiBrite to name a few.

My oldest watches with strontium aluminate lume look more or less the same comparing them to older photos. However, they haven't seen intense UV exposure over their lifespan.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Mackonomics

So it’s been about 14 years Since the chromalight series dropped…

I’m really curious what it looks like worn down and if it patinas.. Does anyone have pictures of it aged?

Up till 1960 Rolex used the word SWISS then dials were Radioactive Radium now these dials were more of a cream white when new with various shades of patination over the years of age. From around early 1960 on Rolex used T.Swiss.T less than 277 MBq (7.5mCi) and Swiss <T25 less than 925 MBq (25mCi)on there dials depending on how much Tritium radioactivity they had, again various shades of patination. Now some of these Tritium types of dial show more patination then others, and many are artificially aged to increase the value to those who think more patination is better. From 1998 Swiss only dials were then used with Luminova from 1998 to 2000, then after 2000 back to Swiss Made with Superluminovra or a few years later the new blue Chromalight its very very doubtful if any of the modern day lume will show any patination over the years.