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Vintage Orient - Radium or not

836 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Stephen2525
Hello everyone,
I have this beautiful Orient Automatic Calendar Day Date watch. But I am apprehensive about it having some amount of radium on the hands. The dial does not have any markings of ‘R’ or ‘T’ to indicate the nature of luminous material used. I am attaching a photograph of the dial with the markings at the bottom.. can someone throw some light on the matter?
Help..
Watch Light Gauge Speedometer Measuring instrument
Watch Light Gauge Speedometer Measuring instrument
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Radium was phased out and not used in watches after 1968. You should be safe with this watch.
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Had you Googled ''radium watch dials'', you would have learned that production of radium-painted watches ceased in the mid-1960s. If your watch was made after that time, your fears are groundless.
Radium was phased out and not used in watches after 1968. You should be safe with this watch.
It’s made in the mid 70s. Thanks man..
Had you Googled ''radium watch dials'', you would have learned that production of radium-painted watches ceased in the mid-1960s. If your watch was made after that time, your fears are groundless.
Thanks. I did, but nothing came up for this watch..
as an aside / is tritium less of a worry than radium? one of my older watches had tritium and it’s got almost zero glow to it
The consensus in the scientific community says the very low usage level of Tritium in watches poses zero health hazard to humans.
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About the only way Tritium could be considered harmful is if you actually took the trouble to ingest the substance directly into the body (by either eating or inhaling it) ! You could live in a room for 25 years with literally 10,000 Ball watches covering the wallpaper and not be harmed. Except by relatives because you just spent 35 to 40 million dollars on Ball watches to decorate your room.... but that subject is best left for an entirely different thread.
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Radium was banned in Swiss watches in 1968, but other counties would vary, like 1970 in Italy, so first research would be when was it banned in Japan?
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