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27 February 2020, 02:41 AM | #1 |
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Disappointed with my new watches Lume
This is my first Rolex but it's certainly not my first nice watch. Overtime the luminescent material certainly loses its punch, but they usually work great in the early few years.
Not the case with my new SkyDweller. I see that the newer Rolex's use a material that is not radioactive and needs to be "charged" with light first in order for them to work. That's fine. But the glow from my watch, even after being in a bright room, is almost useless unless you are maybe in pitch black closet. Even then, it's dim. Sure if I hit it directly with a flash light for 30 seconds it definitely glows green even in a low light room. But that glow fades in about a minute. Basically useless in any practical sense. So here's the question for those with more experience with this newer "Superluminova" material. Are my expectations too high with this material? Does it simply not perform upto the older materials from the past or could there be something wrong with my particular watch? As always, thanks in advance for thoughts and insights. |
27 February 2020, 03:41 AM | #2 |
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Problem might be the type of light. Bright light might not have the right 'frequencies' to truly 'light' the glow. Before bed i use this special 'flashlight' for only a few seconds and the watch is bright as F%^& initially, and still glows enough at 4am if i need to read the time :)
https://amzn.to/3a1jtJ0
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27 February 2020, 03:43 AM | #3 |
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Mike,
As a Lume lover, I can say that I definitely wish my Tritium Dialed Watches had Superluminova on them. Remember that Lume is designed to supply light for hours and hours after there is NO light available. Do a test for me. Tonight, when you go to bed, charge the watch next to a lamp or some light source, set it down. Go to sleep in a DARK room (This won't work if you have a bunch of light pollution) when you wake up, can you see the watch? Read the time? I've found that all of my GOOD watches, and even my cheaper Seiko Divers have the ability to be read 10 hours after they last saw the light. Are they Torches at that time? No. They are legible and usable. The thing about Superluminova is that it will have the same effect for decades, where as Tritium dies and will never be active again.
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27 February 2020, 04:18 AM | #4 | |
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27 February 2020, 04:28 AM | #5 | |
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Quote:
If this is normal then I am definitely a bit disappointed because there is that classic situation where the light in the room is too low to read the watch hands, but it's not low enough for the luminescence to actually stand out. In a pitch black Room yeah I guess I can read it. But I'm really never in a pitch black Room. Thats when I might just have to use my phone to tell the time lol Mike |
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27 February 2020, 04:31 AM | #6 |
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Agreed Mike, if your SkyD does not stay aglow for long there could be a defect. Will check mine today and report back later today/tomorrow. What i HAVE found is that some modern Rolex pieces seem to glow longer than others.
BTW, hit it with typical LED light and the SkyD blue glowed ok. When i used the other flashlight (see below link) she glowed about 30% brighter. https://amzn.to/3abObzn
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27 February 2020, 04:38 AM | #7 |
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I don't think there's anything wrong with your watch. I have a Sky Dweller and the lume is not terribly good - it lights up for a few minutes and then dims very quickly. Not an issue for me.
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27 February 2020, 04:59 AM | #8 | |
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27 February 2020, 05:02 AM | #9 |
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Perhaps you chose the wrong watch for lume.
If this is that important should have bought a Sub or GMT. Some other brands are even a lot better in this respect. The SkyD has so many other nice features, just accept it and enjoy those. Personally I don't care much about lume or legibility. Rolex is jewellery for me and I like staring at the dial and figuring out what time it is
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27 February 2020, 05:10 AM | #10 | |
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27 February 2020, 05:26 AM | #11 |
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It's only been one hour after 'lighting up' the SkyD blue and the lume is weak sauce. This is not good news as my Polar stays lit all night long. Even my cheap $600 Seiko blue dial Alpinist has 'better' lume. Wonder if Rolex knows how bad the lume is on the SkyD?
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27 February 2020, 06:23 AM | #12 | |
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27 February 2020, 06:25 AM | #13 |
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It's one of the first batches (i think after they fixed the date or ???? problem first-release models had), as one of my friends got it, he didn't fall in love and so punted it to me.
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27 February 2020, 08:07 AM | #14 |
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OK. So that eliminates any recent changes. I guess this is just how the Superluminova works. Glows longer and doesn' wear out in a few years. But doesn't glow very well
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27 February 2020, 08:46 AM | #15 | |
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We are lucky to have them. :) |
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27 February 2020, 08:51 AM | #16 |
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10000% agree the SkyD is an amazing movement! Mine is +7 seconds a month. Pure brilliance in using the bezel instead of old school side case pushers.
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27 February 2020, 12:26 PM | #17 | |
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27 February 2020, 03:19 PM | #18 |
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Try self regulating it Mike....
Mine ran about 2 seconds a day slow. I leave it dial up overnight and it's now incredibly accurate. I haven't adjusted it in months and it's precisely the right time. |
27 February 2020, 09:24 PM | #19 | |
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27 February 2020, 09:49 PM | #20 |
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I didn’t think positional change made a much if any difference on modern movements.
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27 February 2020, 10:28 PM | #21 | |
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27 February 2020, 10:28 PM | #22 | |
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27 February 2020, 10:33 PM | #23 |
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There's not much room on the hands for lume so it's not great.
I find the same with my OP39. The lume on the hour markers is..ok, but it's poor on the hands - where you need it! I can live with it. When I NEED lume (working nights as a firefighter) I'll be wearing a G-Shock with the Auto EL function. |
27 February 2020, 11:28 PM | #24 | |
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28 February 2020, 01:11 AM | #25 | |
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For my daily use, i rely on lume as sleep about four hours/day, and so at night dislike having to look up at the backlit clock (verus slightly moving my arm to see the time). By not needing to move much to see the time, the odds of falling back asleep, for me, is higher. Think that's part of why out of all the timepieces here, the Polar has been my mainstay nowadays. Going to try the Panerai being delivered here today (large dial, easy to read) and see how that goes. Again, huge thanks for historical info, much appreciated.
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28 February 2020, 03:43 AM | #26 | |
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As others have said, perhaps every watch is slightly different - but self regulating definitely works on my Sky Dweller. |
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28 February 2020, 05:59 AM | #27 |
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Luminova is primarily activated by UV light. Unless you use a special light source, the sun is the most effective source of UV.
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28 February 2020, 08:03 AM | #28 | |
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- Rolex (and I assume most watch makers) have moved away from the older materials that glowed without light but were slightly radioactive . The reason might be obvious, even if the risk was theoretical rather than practical. - This new material works by temporarily storing light energy and then emanating it back out over a period of 8~hours. Sounds good in theory but from my testing it's great at first but then rapidly drops (within 30mins~) to a level that is almost unusable unless you're in pitch blackness - To make it worse, like others have mentioned, only light sources that provide UV rays, like the sun, UV flashlights. etc, can charge this "SuperLuminova" material. Artificial light in a house etc, does very little. Based on all of this I have come to the conclusion that this new luminescence material is practically useless on any watch that uses it. The only scenario I think it would help is for a diver out on the ocean on a sunny day who then goes diving deep and needs the glow to read the time. For all the rest of us, forget it and just enjoy your beautiful rolex knowing that in a dimly lit room you're going to need to reach into your pocket and pull out your phone, lol. Mike |
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28 February 2020, 08:28 AM | #29 | |
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Mike, the SkyD has the less-than long-lasting lume. The Polar, on the other hand, has lume that will stay aglow all night long (and is friggen bright as heck when first charged too!).
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28 February 2020, 09:07 AM | #30 | |
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