Before deciding on an ‘ideal’ LUM-TEC you should learn more about the different ‘lum’ grades.
For instance on the M39 & M41 the ‘blue’ minute indicators look good, but they last or stay blue for a very short time.
You make a good point.
There has been some conversation about Lum-Tec dial-component (both hands and numerals/markers) brightness, recently, (e.g., discussion about hands vs. markers and initial brightness vs. longevity) that has me wondering if I've just been very lucky with my watch selections. Both my M-28 and SuperCombat B2 have terrific lume that's good from the time it's charged into the wee hours of the morning. Both are also, for instance, very easy to read in movie theaters (we sit in back!).
I know there's, someplace -- on Lum-Tec's website?? -- a ranking of the relative brightness value associated with different colored lume applications. I've always just picked the LT watch by what it looks like -- and its function -- during normal, daylight hours. I've been lucky, I guess, because my watches have been fantastic, and I think the new V1 is supposed to be a great lume-performer, too. But, there's probably some variation, watch-style to watch-style, between the nighttime lume performance, just owing to dial design, font design, etc., even when comparing different Lum-Tec watches that employ the exact same color of lume.
It must be tough for Chris to make definitive statements (for fear of disappointing a customer) about something that's, by definition, so subjective. Saying, for example, "The SuperCombat B2 is one of our best nighttime brightness performers!" sort of puts the company out on the end of a limb, if -- for whatever reason -- a customer disagrees or has another LT that he thinks is brighter. It's like a restaurant customer arguing with the chef, if he feels his steak isn't "rare enough." Who's right, then -- who makes the call?
I remember, before buying my first LT, having a discussion about this with Chris and Bes, and asking if they were familiar with the Seiko "Orange Monster," and if their LT lume was "as bright as the monster's" before I even knew that there were different lumes, and that lume-strength was both color-related and thickness-dependent. They tried to be candid, but they had to qualify their responses, too, since lume-strength is such a subjective question.
Both of my Lum-Tecs are the equal of my Seiko "Monster," IMO, but the markers are much larger on that Seiko (more lume!), so it's a tough (not "apples with apples") comparison.
