![]() This has been my observation measuring every project I have gotten using a geiger counter. How prevalent is this problem in vintage watches?Īs a restorer and collector, this is my unscientific assessment: Any watch made before 1960 has a 1 in 5 chance of having radium, with the greatest propensity being in sportier military-inspired watches (small size, round faces, wide numbers) from the late 40s to early 50s. All you want to do is minimize the chance of radioactive dust spreading that you might inhale. ![]() But even if you do touch the dial, just wash it off. And the way you deal with that situation is to immediately bag it up in a ziploc bag, wipe down immediate surfaces with a wet paper towel, toss it, and wash your hands. (and some good came out of this dark chapter, as workplace safety laws came into existence as a result.)īecause inhalation or ingestation is a concern, you should only worry if your watch dial is exposed from having the case broken. Essentially through repeated direct ingestation of radium over the years sickened many and some developed necrosis in the jaw, bone cancer, and death. In a time with absolutely no industrial regulation 4,000 of these women were taught to sharpen their radium paint brushes by licking them (a technique known as lippointing). This was the tragic case of the Radium Girls. Concentrations depend on a variety of factors, obviously probably best not to surround yourself with too many radium dials if this is concerning.Īnd even then your death from direct exposure is still not a statistical certainty. Several readers pointed out the decomposition of radium to radon gas, which is cause for concern as it fills up the entire room regardless of being cased. In a word, Not likely but there are some concerns to be aware of. In many cases, an old watch forgotten in a drawer will still show the hour and minute it last ran, because the hands burned marks into the plastic from being in the same position for years. If you see a halo around the numbers, that means radium did its job bombarding the vicinity of the paint for decades until it left a shadow. The trick is to look for blotchy marks on the dial that look like rust. The Phosphorous is disintegrated but the radium is still factory fresh!Though to look at the dial you may not even guess it ever was meant to glow. And the half-life on radium is 1600 years. Today all of these watches no longer glow (you can see some faint sparks under a jewelers loupe for some still). The life on Phoshorous for all these watches was never intended for more than 20 years. ![]() Manufacturers ceased using Radium in the 1960s. Does this mean it’s radium free?Ībsolutely not and this is the crazy part: Phosphorous burns out over the years. The breakdown of Radioactive substances releases energetic particles into the air. Where do these electrons come from? Not your wall outlet as in the case of your television, but from the element Radium. The principle is identical: Phosphor is illuminated by electrons. This technology was inspired in no small part by radium dial watches. That is the magic of early Television in a nutshell: An electron beam shoots out from a magnetically controlled yoke and hits the phosphor screen in the front, causing it to glow bright. The inside of that TV is coated with phosphor, and phosphor glows when it is hit with electrons. (Not your flat screen TV, but your clunker fishbowl TV you relocated in front of the treadmill in the basement). Why was this? Think of your old CRT television set. That’s how bright and long-lasting they were. Verily, soldiers during WWII were instructed to tape over their glow-in-the-dark watches at night as not to give away their position. It continued to glow for long amounts of time. And unlike modern compounds, the old stuff did not “go out”. The luminous stuff we have today in glowsticks and watch dials is fairly wimpy compared to what was. The very first glow-in-the-dark substances really did glow. How Radium in Vintage Watches Came to Be: Whether you are a collector or a restorer of vintage watches, it’s good to have a baseline understanding of the facts and risks of dealing with vintage watches that used radium. Radiation is everywhere, and there are different forms of it, but radium is indubitably a risky substance that requires some caution. Radiation comes from surprising sources: Your granite countertops, your smoke detector. This is not to say that all radioactive materials are imminently dangerous and that radiation is not present everywhere. In the old days, people did not appreciate the risks of radioactive material as we do today, as this crazy old TV commercial will clearly show you. Youtube Video I took of me measuring a vintage Lord Elgin watch using a Civil Defense Geiger Counter
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