A Gorgeous 1940's Omega Vintage Watch Restoration
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- Опубліковано 25 січ 2022
- In this video I attempt to repair and restore this non working Omega Automatic bumper watch from the 1940s and bring it back to life for another 30+ years. Will I succeed? watch to find out!
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I bought an old watch recently, to take apart and rebuild. I was amazed how many parts were left over, and oddly enough it didn't work
That little trick about leaving the click in is really helpful, thank you so much for saying that.
Most welcome
I really enjoy your videos and I learn much from each one! Thank you! I prefer vintage watches so getting to see the pieces you work on is a real treat.
Thats a pretty watch
Nothing to worry about, Mike.
Fatal doses of radioactivity are usually measured in sieverts, and the geiger counter was reading in microsieverts (1/1000000 of a sievert).
For a bit of real-world relevance, microsievert exposure to radiation occurs in everyday life just by walking around, both from cosmic, natural, and man-made sources, usually in the 30-60 microsievert range.
Precautions are always wise, however, since you wouldn't want to breathe in powdered radium.
Thank you for the reassurance! I can get anxious quite easily sometimes. I don’t trust the reading on the phone app but it’s enough to tell me it’s a hot dial. Thanks for watching
@@MyRetroWatches On a plane the reading goes casualy to ~4.0 and more µSv/h and studies show that there are no increase in cancer diagnostic for on board personal. But here as Markus said you ought to be really careful about the powdered radium which can go into your lungs and stay there. Other than that, you won't get anything from these readings. Smokers get way more radiation than that on a daily basis.
Zero risk. It's like the people that worry about a tiny amount of lead pain or asbestos, or the ones who wear a respirator to spray paint something for 15 seconds. All completely unnecessary. Absolutely zero risk, even with a brand new radium dial, unless you scrape it off and snort a line of it.... And then do it with about 1000 more dials. They're called "OCCUPATIONAL hazards," because they are hazards to those who work with the substance as an OCCUPATION.
I own 3 similar Omegas. Thank you, Mike!!! I know it will be years before I have the courage to attempt to service one, but I will save this video for that day.
Really pleased for you Mike. Great work. Thanks for videos. We love you
Nice video Michael. Many thanks.
I love the movement in this watch. I've been slowly getting in to repair myself and this is one that I would absolutely love to work on.
Good for you. Yes this movement was actually quite a simple one especially by Omega standards as in my experience they seem to like over complicating things on other models.
Great watch, well done for taking it on. Stay safe buddy
Thanks for sharing this one Mike. Great work as usual, good tips as well.
Thank you Dee
Really pleased for you Mike. Great work. You're not alone, my wife also doesn't get it :)
Great video Mike, thank you.
Fascinating to watch, Mike!
This is perfect timing because I have an Omega with a automatic bumper movement which is in need of a service. Thanks for the video showing how to get into it, Mike!
Thanks. Inside the watch looks much better. Very enjoyable.
Thanks for watching!
Great work Mike, really enjoyed video 👍
Hi Mike. Thanks again for this video. I’ve just acquired a 1949 Eterna Matic which undoubtedly has remnants of radium on the hands so I’m going to be ultra careful. For your further edification, an alpha particle is essentially a helium nucleus: 2 neutrons and 2 protons.
It's one of the best videos you have done so far! Really entertaining even for me who doesn't have the steady hand for watch movements but really like watches!
Wow thanks for the high praise
Nice production!
Card “reflector “ painted with matte black paint is what I use. Good video keep em coming.
for the reflection on the mainplate? I just have poor lighting that is in the wrong place and too bright at times for filming. I am hampered by lack of room on this rolltop bench I use to lay things out better.
Love the microscope images! That really takes it to the next level. Fascinating to see things at that high level of magnification!
Thank you
Really enjoyed this video, I was particularly interested in the dial lume as I knew nothing about the radioactive lume, and have cleaned old dials by licking a bud and rubbing over the dial several times, won't be doing that again and will definitely take more care next time I open an old watch.
No licking dials mate!
Beautiful👍
The Harris tweed strap from Vario is real fun and an eye-catcher.
They sure are. I need to get a few more.
Another great restoaration with a "magnifique Omega" !
Good job M8 !
Thank you! Cheers!
Hi, my watch is from the same era. Number that starts with 10 000 000 is exactly from 1947,the year that Omega introduced automatic movement cal 344, 351 etc. Best wishes you doing great job, Many,many regards. igor😊
thank you
Great video Mike! I'm still wading through your older vids, but watch the current ones as they come up! I'm still yet to actually tackle a watch, but am currently working on a vintage swiss alarm clock for my channel 😊
Thanks for watching. I’ve not dared to do a clock. Those mainsprings scare me!
@@MyRetroWatches Ha! Yeah, they can pack a punch!!😱😆
Top Mike! Finally an Omega ... ;-) Great Watches. I have also a Seamaster from the 70';
Thanks
Catching up on your past videos. I really enjoy your candor and the commentary. I was thinking of another contest in which the winner allows you to service/restore their watch on camera. I imagine your viewers would spring for the postage/parts. I know I would. I have a small collection of Gruens, some of which need a good service and no restoration.
Something I may consider in the future. thanks for the idea.
a great watch to die for...or from, radium
When you are looking at the gunk on the pallet fork, the gunk on the banking pin is preventing it from moving all the way over so the escape wheel isn’t able to get past the pallet fork jewel. Pretty sure that was the original problem.
Hi Mike, you’re right to be cautious. Radium is an alpha emitter, which is a large, relatively heavy but slow moving particle. It can be stopped by the crystal and even your own skin. It should not be inhaled, ingested or allowed to enter a wound as it can cause damage to a healthy cell. Tritium is a low energy beta emitter which is a light but very fast moving particle. Again, the crystal provides protection but if you do gat a small dose then, being an isotope of hydrogen with a strong affinity for water, the dose will essentially be to the whole body, and you will very soon pee it away.
Thank you Martin for your detailed explanation. I knew you guys in the comments would help me!
Great video Mike. Because you take your time it is really helpful for the learner. Concerning radium and tritium dials which are less radioactive unless one has dozens of dials it is not a problem but with numerous dials it is best to keep them verntilated because of the gas they give off. I have a couple of watches with tritium dials and not concerned about the risk. IWC were using IWC tritium dials until the early 2000s and when I had a black replacement for my IWC They gave me the white tritium dials as a replacement. The risk was always mainly for the workers who had to manufacture them. Although you will still hear alarm stories from some scientists. I live in a 19th century house and I am more concerned about the radioactivity from the house than the dials even though Shropshire is a low radium area
Thank you Brian for you compliment and also your explanation on the dial .
I kind of knew it’s fairly safe however I’d rather handle responsibly and then wanted to show some of this in the video also. Some newbies don’t even know about radium
Hi I'd like to see more in depth like the winder and the hair sorted
Well done. I own a bumper. I still need to service it.
Well done Mike!, great video!. Don't give it back!!! 🤣. Adrian
Wishful thinking . I have too many watches as it is though so sometimes its a relief to give them back
@@MyRetroWatches ah ya do great with them!, I am hoping to find one in a charity shop!!. Best regards. A
Great video Mike, pleased you got the watch going, always a pleasure to watch you work. I think you got the balance just right with the Geiger counter section, as some fellow subscribers have mentioned the levels of actual radiation are very small however this does not detract from the danger faced when handling a degraded dial or lumed hands as only one flake of radium injested can cause health problems. Interestingly this gadget was invented originally with help from the Japanese government to aid people living in the region surrounding the nuclear power plant disaster to test the levels of background radiation. I personally think it does enough to inform the presence of radium as it's not always obvious, and enables you to take precautions if you decide to dismantle the watch. You did a great job of showing that Mike. :)
Indeed, Neil. It is very important to avoid ingesting any radium (or it's decay products) dust.
Thanks Neil. Great comment. I didn’t know this was why the gadget was made. I also don’t think the readings are accurate at all but it can demonstrate a dial is hot and for the newbie who can’t yet spot Radium it’s a possible worthwhile tool.
@@MyRetroWatches Yes made for a fun segment, plus I get to be forever immortalised in the My Retro Watches Archive.. Nice :)
It is a 1944 Trésor. I am currently restoring one myself. More specifically, this is the precursor to the Seamaster.
Thank you
I restored a 1985 tag Aquaracer and it had an aftermarket crown on it, was pitted and didn’t screw in, a new crown cost me $75 usd. But it was worth it to me, now it’s waterproof again and looks much better. Not to mention the relume, it had gotten water in it at some point all the lume was black. Only plus was it came off really easily.
Fabulous stuff Mike! You've not been beaten yet..I'll have to do better. I'm loving that tweed strap too mate I might have to grab one for it.
Cheers matey
Was a pleasure to work on one of your watches that was not so challenging to fix mate.
great vintage timepiece, amazing quality. I admire your courage to start on this one as it is tricky...If you take out the spring before the yoke, there is less chance of damaging it with the tweezers...Thanks again for sharing mate.
I normally do that actually so I don’t know why I did it differently in this video!
Good video and nice watch! 😊👍
Thanks for the visit
@@MyRetroWatches Visit! Im a keen follower! And very regular on the fb forum. But under my real name 😊
I ”blame” you and Lovic for getting in to watchmaking after many years of ”want to do that” 😊👌👍
So TY for exellent videos!
@@RocketSailing thank you. I never remember names in the comments and analytics tells me that only about 1/3 views on videos are from subscribers ☹️
@@MyRetroWatches Not easy, as you have plenty of viewers! 😊👌
excellent travail ! je possède une universal geneve polerouter avec le même mouvement 138s !!! Enfin il lui ressemble beaucoup !!👍
I admit, I enjoyed your video, but it was like watching Mr. Magoo repair a watch. You must admit, bridges were never set on properly on camera and in the end showed still photos of a "running" watch! Jolly good show!
Bridges were set… you saw the train all spin before I screwed it on. The barrel bridge just drops right in.
What you fail to understand that with an overhead shot for filming I can’t see how I would normally if working on it without filming. You try it.
You have to build a watch from a slight angle which does make bridges hard to place. It’s easy to criticise when your not actually doing it.
You saw the watch running on the timegrapher which is proof enough is it not.
@@MyRetroWatches It wasn't meant as a severe criticism. I could never do what you do. All I was saying was that you didn't show us the bridge being set on camera. You dropped it from 2 MM high and moved on. I'm sure you got it set. Sorry.
Forgot to mention Mike, if you do have to relume some radium hands, you're welcome to do the scrape off etc in my fume cupboard (got it for an absolute steal off eBay) I'm not too far from Coventry 😉
Humm those black fingers add some "film noir" vibe to the video.
According to Ranfft 30.10RA PC was made from 1942-1949 when changed to 330. 1944 would seem right. Always look forward to your videos.
Mike, the iconic "rose gold" hue of the Omega movement s imparted by copper.
I see that now. I never script my videos so I say it now I see it so brass gold colour copper thingy …😂
Very nice looking Omega Mike, hope it's the same on the inside and it just needs a service but that's wishful thinking. 🤞 bumper movements are ok i think first auto but i could be wrong, they're nice, unless parts are needed, full rotors are better but newer technology for their time they're the dog's you know whats, cheers Mike thank you.
Wow comment 2
Yes my understanding is bumper are early autos. The mechanism is simple too which is allot easier to fit than some auto works on other Omega I have worked on which can seem well over complicated. Probably why I like Seiko so much as they just simplify things to make it more practical and cost efficient.
Great film. Glad to see you taking precautions with the dial and hands. Can I ask what main spring winder you were using?
I have a vintage set of Bergeon winders although I must confess I had to buy a new Number 6 handle to wind this spring as my old one had worn too much to hook the start of the spring into the winder.
Lovely piece & cracking results on a movement that age ,well done Sir i reckon you deserve a drink & a pat on the back especially putting the Omega demons to rest , i must confess i did miss the "montage" maybe i should get out more 😊.
Thanks. The montage will be back in the next video! I seem to have broken the Omega curse on this one but for how long that is the question....!
Welcome back :)
Not sure if it would help but in photography, if the light is too harsh or we need to soften it a bit, we use a Diffuser. You can easily make one from plain white paper and wrap it around the light. Or form it into a box shape and put the light inside.
Thanks for the tip.
When de-magnetizing, a cheap compass will always tell if the job was done properly. The needle must not move when parts are held next to it. Even springbars have been known to be magnetized.
Great job Mike, I really like your videos.
I'm laughing with myself now. I realized that UA-cam is playing out of sync.
At 43:05 we can hear click and train wheel before you touch the watch. :-D :-D
I hope it was YT out of phase and not my video itself
This Omega movement is indeed interesting but I am surprised at the intricacy for such a basic watch. Particularly those screws and strange looking springs. It is a rare bird.
To be honest I found this the least complicated Omega I have ever worked on.
@@MyRetroWatches I'm glad someone isn't intimidated by it! Hopefully some day I won't be!
This is awesome. I have only one question about the lume.. does it glow at all. I got negative comments about watches from my family that I'm not going into detail about but it is defiantly a personal interest lol. I will someday get my first Omega. Maybe the thread/hair/string was wrapped around one of the wheels before cleaning and the cleaning loosened it. Gold movements are awesome and Omega is more awesome.
It does not glow. I believe it degrades and will only glow properly for something like 5 years.
Hi Mike, no problem, but what happened to the cleaning montage? I miss and love the music you put to it.😁. Great repair! All the Best.
It will be back in the next video! for this one I did the Geiger thing instead.
The lume on seiko's is radioactive (old models 70s 80s do far that I've tested) but is a safe dose...
Still experimenting with the stuff as I've figured out-ish how to whiten lume
Could you have demagnetized the entire movement at the time you found the first magnetized part?
Well yes but in my experience its best to do the parts as you cant always reverse the magnetism as easily with the whole movement.
Love your work, can you tell me if you're just supposed to just push crown and stem into a nh35 movement with out holding down the little button that you push down win u remove the crown and stem out.
Can’t remember I’d think you would just push it in.
The Dollop podcast has done two relevant episodes regarding clock lume. One of was the sad story of The Radium Girls, which you've mentioned before. The other was the story of David Hahn, an American teenager, who built an illegal nuclear reactor in his backyard. :D
As far as preowned cameras the Sony A5100 is a good budget option with many lenses available. The Sony A7 is a higher quality option worth looking at.
Thanks. I had also been looking at a Canon M50 as I had been told this is also a good camera. Now I have options so will hit UA-cam for reviews.
From where you mention looks-like-battery-acid at around 16 minutes, there is a long hair or fibre which appears to be trapped on top of the pallet fork that won't "tick" both ways. You actually touch it with your tweezers at 16:16
Well spotted!! I completely missed that. Could well have been the main culprit.
Thanks for pointing it out.
Great job Mike, as usual ! Why you didn't replace the crown with an original one? (it's too big in my opinion) The owner didn't like it?
Budget.
Do you have a mido 917p project on the corner? I cant find assemb/dissasemb videos or sheets anywhere ; /
Can you show us your recording equipment too? :D
Keep up the good work man.
❤️❤️❤️❤️
An Omega automatic from the 40s? 🤔 Until 1948 Rolex had a patent here... However, lovely old watch.
Well it’s from that era, it’s a bumper rather than a full 360 rotor . They clearly didn’t patient that as you can google 1940s bumpers and find plenty for sale. First bumper watch was in the 1920s.
This Omega accurately dates to 1944 from the serial number on the movement.
Rolex patient I believe was for a fully automatic 360 rotor.
Its just a little more radioactive than a banana. You are safe👍
haha brilliant. Thanks
It may be prudent to open the watch outdoors, so the radon gas can escape that has been building up inside over the years. Radon is a decay product of radium. You don't want to inhale radon gas.
Very true. Fortunately this one arrived with the caseback off
Great job, but after you put the spring in (before putting the rotor bridge back on) the rotor teeth jumped out of alignment with it's counter part... see 59:55
That's why the rotor didn't make it to the other spring when you moved it around. Easy to remove the rotor bridge and re-align the teeth.
I will look into that. when wearing I can hear it knocking on each spring but wont be happy if its out of alignment. Like you say its an easy fix so thanks for this.
@@MyRetroWatches It will help the rotor wind the mainspring better.. I think the rotor only winds it in one direction.
Pallet fork Bridge looked. Like it had a crack?
It's a shame that they don't use Radium anymore. The paint and lume chemistry and technology has come a long way. I am certain that they could use radium more safely. In a past life, I was curator for a small air museum. We had two planes that where chock full of radium dialed instruments. We had to have the planes surveyed periodically to make sure they were still safe to enter. What a hassle. Nothing was glowing. All the lume that the radium was supposed to charge was deteriorated.
Sadly it would be almost impossible to use radium more safely. It's very 'hot' and is a strong gamma source(one reason why the lume in the old stuff is dead. It's burnt out). Unlike say tritium which is mostly beta radiation which won't go through the skin, gamma goes right through. Radium also decays into radon and other nasties and has a half life of 1600 years so is still as deadly today as when it was first produced. At one stage in the 50's strontium was used for a short time, but fears over that stopped its use. Then Promethium was tried, but mostly in military issued watches that were constantly serviced as the glow only lasted a couple of years. Tritium came next and is the safest and you can still get encapuslated tritium hands and dials today. Some of the Swiss brands and others started to label dials in the 50's. -R- for radium, -P- for Promethium, -T- for Tritium. If you see a tiny horizontal line near the 6 on the dial that's to state no strontium used, but likely still radium or tritium.
Why do you not oil the pallet fork?
Sitting here reprofiling a spring bar hole in my second weirdly shaped Lorus Fusion Kinetic's, this one is more the starfleet shaped logo and in black whilst the other is silver and has a more Blakes 7 shaped case, both YT57 Kinetic's and just so crazy looking hehe One of my subscribers has sent me a Go Pro because the camera on me fone is just bad so am doing a comeback special and got a whole shoebox full of new acquisitions to show off.
If it were Tritium it has to be encapsulated in a glass tube with fluorescence coating and the gas makes them glow like a fluorescent bulb. Radium’s a different kind of radiation then tritium which is so weak paper will block it also tritium quits glowing 12-25 years depending on the tubes that are used. Both my tritium watches have the T100 tubes that are suppose to last for 25 years.
Do a test on the concrete and bricks of your cellar.... those are usually radioactive if there is any granit in it.. just to scare you ;)
Haha! You know I will try that now!
The radium paint from an old watch dial is only dangerous if ingested Unless you're in the habit of licking watch dials, or scraping off the radium paint and snorting it, you have nothing to worry about. For example, the story of the 'Radium Girls' took place at the US Radium Corporation factory located in Orange, New Jersey, about 25 miles from where I currently reside. During the 1920s the factory employed hundreds of girls in the task of painting watch dials and other instruments with radium based luminescent paints. They girls, who painted on average 200 watch dials per day, pointed their brush tips by twirling the brushes between their lips. They ingested large amounts of radium in this manner, which their employer KNEW was dangerous. Negative health effects of radiation depends on how much radiation one is exposed to, or how much radioactive material is ingested. My neighbor did occupation duty in Japan after WWII, and he visited Nagasaki in 1946. I've scene a photo of him standing at ground zero Nagasaki from that time. My neighbor is still alive and nearing 100 years of age.
Strange number 2"s on dial.
Look for lenses secondhand you don't need new ones. Generally, if you buy second hand of a Pro photographer, the gear will be in excellent condition. From what I have found.
I am actively looking. might be a Canon M50 with a 24-105 lens but we will see. Everything is not cheap and then I have to figure out how to mount it given there is no room on my bench for a tripod.
I've been experimenting with various cameras over the past few months and am quite pleased with some of the results from the Sony ZV-E10 Aps-c mirrorless beasties with various macro lenses. As for mounting cameras, have you considered bolting a pole to the ceiling to suspend it above your bench? I have also been experimenting with this as well. It also helps with providing an additional mountings for lighting and preview monitors etc. I have yet to perfect this but it definitely seems the way to go. I won't go into the approach of using a Sony A6400 with genuine Sony macro lenses as this gets really expensive really quickly lol
Forgot to mention, you can also get some reasonable results with 4k USB webcams off of Amazon on angle-poise type arm to get your preferred view angle. Only downside being that they do tend to wobble a fair bit if you knock them whilst filming hehe
Also one question if you don't mind: why do some watches have so many weights on their balance wheels like this Omega, while others in watches just as good have so few?
Its how the balance wheel is balanced and adjusted. I do not know the in's and out's of the whole setup but you see it more in older watches. If you are changing hairprings then the spring needs to be harmonically balanced to the wheel, if not it will not run properly. These screws allow for that kind of adjustment. On other movements where you see a plain wheel, often on the underside there are 1-2 small drill holes where they have been balanced by the manufacturer.
@@MyRetroWatches Thank you that makes a lot of sense. Harmonic balancing is a major engineering pursuit. Bridges, driveshafts, engines, and it only makes sense that watchmakers are concerned with it as well.
You won't start to glow like Chernobyl any time soon, so relax.
I tuned 8n to this and immediately determined that I could never afford an Omega…out…
Hi, amateur watchmaker here, I watched your video about cleaning parts and I dont have propper cleaning solution, so I just used soap water with ultrasonic cleaner. Two watches later, I found out that some of the parts went black. especially screws, escape wheel, cannon pinion and some of the parts. Do you have any idea what could happen ? Idk if it the same problem, but when I'm cleaning the main spring in the same solution, after it is done and I place it on some paper, it leaks yellow brown stuff.
Too strong detergent most likely. I do not clean this way anymore as I have a proper machine .
Mainspring you should remove from the barrel for cleaning . Do not clean while in the barrel as it will not dry out properly and will rust
@@MyRetroWatches Yeah I have the mainspring out of the barrel, I'm now scared that I destroyed the watch, because the small teeth in the train of wheels are black too. I will asseble it, oil it, and see if it runs. Thanks for the info, I will buy the correct solutions before I will do another watch.
@@Freki I doubt it’s damaged the teeth. Depends on the quality of parts material. I have seen black parts before in my early days but it still performed
@@MyRetroWatches I found an interesting thing, before this watch I did cleaning of Seiko 7009-3130 Automatic and none of the parts went black, and this last one was Russian named Победа (Pobeda), I rembeber that few watches back I had one from russia too and only part that went black was pallet cock screw, so maybe the problem is that the material that they used is very sensitive to this kind of detergent.
The annual safe number of Micro Sieverts is 1000. So at 8 you'll be ok.
Thank you. I dont trust the reading on this counter but still good to know its safe as long as I don't decide to eat the dial!
It might be 50s Mike it has incabloc shock protection.
If the Omega dating chart came back with 44 it's probably right Mike,
I could not say. I ran the caseback numbers from the inside through some website to spit out the date. it was specific with 1944. I am sure the comments will light up soon enough telling me I have it wrong as there are lots of Omega fanboys out there. I have a love hate relationship with them for so many reasons. Thanks as always for tuning in Dave. always appreciated.
Worth the wait, Mike!
Yeah, radium... Don't ask internet people, you'll just perpetuate some rather ridiculous misinformation. I do encourage you to find and read some (real) science about it though. Spoiler alert: you're gonna live. 😎
haha. Always thought I would live sometimes I loose control of my anxiety which I think came over in the video! I can get OCD with how I handle these otherwise I lie in bed at night wondering if I did it correctly. reasoning then goes out of the window until I calm down or the wife slaps me!
@@MyRetroWatches Nah, you sounded appropriately and reasonably concerned as someone should be when the danger is unknown. That geiger counter attachment was cool.
Why not polish the case?
To keep the authenticity.
IS IT WORKING ???
My wife has one, that doesn't work either :( It runs for 20 sec per minute...weird..
I got sent quite a fancy geiger from a Russian chap after he agreed with me that with so many dodgy Soviet items out there that I needed to vet my incoming stock before handling, it all came about when a watch I bought from Siberia pinged up the sensors at the Moscow international parcels departure unit. Seller gave me a refund without me even asking so guessing the men in long coats and tall hats had a word in his shell like. Thing is Russia has lesser radioactive protections than most countries so it is quite easy to end up with something slightly hot just nuking yer cells and certainly several of my sellers wouldn't know a geiger counter from a ginger chip so is quite scary.
5-10 μSv: One set of dental radiographs....
717 Thumbs up Would have been nice to ACTUALLY see the watch running, not just stills. Would have been good to re lume the hands to get rid of most of the radium.
Yes sorry I made the mistake of stills. I’ve done stills for years on the channel and only more recently running video. I was just in a hurry to publish this one and I only see daylight at this time of year at weekends to film
A great vintage timepiece but I simply can’t help being constantly aware of how dangerous these are due to all this radium paint on the dial and hands. It's rather certain that radium was used here due to the watch production date. Unlike tritium and promethium, radium has a half life of 1600 years and retains very high bio-toxicity in all forms (α, β, Χ, and γ due to decay), both from particles and in gaseous form, for thousands of years.
The reading you got from that tiny semiconductor dosimeter is very inaccurate and only reads strong γ/Χ emissions with a nominal -/+30% error, so expect at least 2-3X higher γ/Χ reading if using proper equipment with decent sensitivity, plus detecting α and β emissions; for comparison, 5-10μSv(uSv) is the average dose received from a set of dental radiographs. Unlike γ/Χ rays, α emissions (and to a large extent, β emissions) can be blocked even by a piece of paper, so readings from even a few centimeters distance or having the dial behind plastic can be misleading, especially with a toy-like geiger meter. I'd recommend getting a proper dosimeter than can read α and β rays in addition to γ/X radiation; it costs about $250-350 and it's a relatively reliable way to detect radioactivity in old watches (and other artifacts).
You seem to be aware already of some of the dangers and taking some sensible precautions, but I'd like to stress that you need to be extremely careful with radium. There is nothing in such a watch to prevent tiny particles from slipping into the mechanism and case, so unless you are ready to handle the watch as a whole as radioactive, I'd strongly recommend against servicing (or even owning more than a couple of) watches produced between 1900 and early 1970s that have radium paint on the dial or hands. Take care.
Thanks for your concern, the way I see it is to handle with care, people can be too scared of these and the reality is you don’t see watchmakers all dying in high numbers due to working on them. Even the radium girls story , sad as it was, they ingested quantities of the stuff daily.
I just use finger cots once, use only one container to keep stuff in , when messing with the dial I wear a mask but I don’t really think that matters as I’ve yet to see any lume break off and even if it does I still have to ingest it before it would do any damage. I’ve already had cancer so could be more cautious than most (it was prostate and unrelated to this stuff)
The phone app and tool is crap I know but it’s enough to be sure the watch your working on is radioactive or not.
That said it’s pretty easy to spot.
My understanding is it was banned in the 60s so I find it unlikely to be on any watches from the 70s. 70s is my era of collecting, mainly retro Japanese and none of these are hot at all.
@@MyRetroWatches Radiation poisoning does not cause immediate health effects unless receiving extremely high doses, so you won't be able to make the link and correlation clinical studies are very tricky. Even most Chernobyl liquidators (Chernobyl 1986 nuclear accident) did not see any ill effects to their health until years later. The latency period is typically very long, so it's best to avoid exposure, if possible. In relation to horology, have a read at the 2018 article 'New Report Shows Radium Dials Might Pose Serious Danger' by Jack Forster at Hodinkee. I'm not an alarmist, Radium is no small time stuff and it was still in use until the early 70s since the industry itself voluntarily stopped using it, not forced by any legal authority to my knowledge. There’s no reason to panic, don’t have an anxiety attack over this, just posting this also for your viewers benefit. Best regards.
ionised radiation is measured in milliSieverts/hour or mS/h depending on the isotope size alpha or beta. a safe level is
haha I can aluminate the night!
You should be fine, radium girls probably did thousands of watches and paint pots and brush licking.
Any interest in me posting a 1970 Bulova automatic 17 jewel that stopped running for parts? Case is very rough...?
One Sievert of exposure carries a lifetime risk of approximately +10% of developing cancer at least 10 years on. You measured a peak of 8.2 microSieverts per hour. As long as you don't eat off of it, I think you will be fine.
Thanks for the reassurance. Not confident the phone geiger is accurate but at least its not a dangerous level.
The radiation emmitted by the dial is insignificant. We are normally taking a dose of about 10uSv/day from background radiation alone. If the dial is enclosed in the watch case, the radiation readings will go even lower than 4uSv/h. Back in the 20's and 30's, there were factories that employed people to paint dials manually. Those people were instructed to "dip-lick-paint" the dials, therefore by doing this on repeat, every day, caused severe radiation sickness and tissue necrosis, which in most cases, had lead to death. Factories had been sued for this in an attempt to ban radium dials, but they won every time. Radium dials had finally been banned in the 70's. Nowadays, luminous dials are being made with synthetic superluminous compunds based on phosphorus and tritium.
Thank you for the reassurance. I do not trust the reading on the phone but all I knew is don't eat the stuff. I take precautions to make me feel better. Thanks for your explanation and thank you for watching.
Its just alpha and beta radiation, it does not have much ability to penentrate even a watch glass. Ingestion is the danger, dust gas, bits that fall off. It does have a half life which is partly why it goes brown but half life is kind of exponential. So it wll still have some active stuff in 100 years. Generally speaking dont disturb it. Dont put any debris into the environment etc..