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Definitely worthwhile, if you are working with old watches - just be sure it's an actual Geiger counter, not one of the vast range of scam/fake "Radiation detectors" on ebay & amazon etc. that detect RF or static electricity... In the mean time, I'd put the dial and hands in zip bags & wipe down the work area with a damp cloth to pick up any dust, then discard the cloth. The emitted radiation from radium lume is not normally harmful - but inhaling or ingesting a single particle of the material can cause serious long term harm, so do take care with it.

Sometimes you can see a burn mark on the dial from hands that have stayed in one place for decades, which is a clincher, but I don't really see that here. An inexpensive detector could let you know for sure, but considering the dial/hand style and the darkened condition of the dots on the dial in the absence of any clear water damage, I'd give 90% likelihood that there is radium there. Tritium is usually marked out on the dial, and although it moves to yellow and tan as it ages, it doesn't get as "toasty" as those dial spots based on what I've seen.

The Borea is cleaned and ready for re-assembly, but after mentioning the radium lume on the Cyma to the owner, he's decided he wants to sell is as it is, so I'm not doing anything to that one. It would have been interesting, but also probably pushing my skill level.

Hi, a friend has just left these with me to see if I can get them going; they were his Father's and they have sentimental value. He apparently tried to get them serviced a few years ago and was told they were too old. (No idea where he tried). The first one is a Borea, which I've started disassembling. The movement has a number BF158 - searching for that brought me back to this site! An entry in the 404 Club topic for a Shelton watch. This one has the same basic movement, but in a 17 jewel version - though still with a pin pallet ?? This looks to be generally OK, just gummed up with old lubricants. It's in a well worn and tarnished gold plated brass case. The other is really strange; a Cyma, what seems to be a "Cymaflex triple date" from what @ve found on google? There are two flush pushers in the side, presumably for date setting? This one had radium lume, and it's giving the highest count of any watch I've ever had; near enough one millirad per hour at the crystal. The speckles on the dial appear to be lume particles, as the hands don't have much left in place... I'm not really sure how to safely proceed with this one, to avoid contaminating anything? It does have a separate bezel with a knife groove. It tries to run with a gentle rotation, but only 10 - 15 seconds at a go.

Welcome to the forum. Be careful with that one. Seems to have some luminous compound on dial and hands. A watch of that era may contain radium.

The natural lume is seen on the dial and it has green color. It doesn't seem to have radium, also they stopped using radium in the 50's and this clock is made later. Do the dots on the dial still shine for some time in the dark right after ehposed to bright light? Good work with the hands! The factory existed untill mid 90's and then was closed. In the 80's they started to put plastic wheels under dial and plastic barrel for the alarm spring. When the factory was closed, the movement looked like this and only 2 jewejs left from 11 in the original

Do you think that the original lume had radium? I'm sure it did. They were not concerned about safety.

Hi Neven, Thank you for the history of this clock. There was a "2017" molded into the bakelite base of the clock. I thought it was the production date. The lume on the hands of this clock were replaced with black paint but I see from photos on eBay that the hands were originally lumed. I was thinking of restoring it back to the original look. Do you think that the original lume had radium?

the back looks rough tbh, this is my record with a recall for radium dial and hands decommission, replaced with nato stores equivalent. Any www back i have seen is or was polished, i would bet money the back is not original. The dial could be old stock but something is niggling me. It was niggling me just looked at half a dozen examples and the 12 numerals are too close together. Its posible that after over 25,000 produced there could be some discrepancy on the dial. There should be lots of engraving on the backside of the caseback ? I think there should also be a letter code on the case itself, on one of the lugs.

Lovely watch. I have a 267 - similar movement with sweep seconds. (Wish it wasn't radium dial!) If you know you can source a new part* (where from?), then I guess have a go flattening the rivet. As you say, it's going to be tricky supporting it. *I know parts are hard to find for these movements. I managed to trash the hairspring on mine whilst adjusting the overcoil. I waited a long time before I found a replacement.

Merry Christmas to all! Glad to see some got watchmaking related gifts. I got a watch storage box. Much nicer than just tossing them all in a drawer. I also got an Amazon gift card, which I will apply to maybe a Geiger counter, to check for radium, and a copy of Henry Fried's The Watch Repairer's Manual.

Another 404 club prospective member is on its way. This one is an automobile style long stem "pocket watch", with radium lume dial and hands. The seller claims that it ticks, so that's always a bonus. It is missing the seconds hand, and the crystal is somewhat yellowed. There were a couple of enamel dials in the lot too.

Can you see any lettering under the balance? (BTW There looks to be a lot of flaking radium from the dial and hands. So read the postings about the precautions you need to take before removing the movement)

They would have to pay me to take it away (and then I'd bin it) Cheap pin pallet movement, radium dial, lots of entertainment. You could put a lot of time and effort it, and it still might not run very well. I'd go for something Swiss with at least 15 jewels, that way there's a fair chance of it running pretty well after all your effort. It's amazing what you can find for £10-£30. I recently bought two great quality ladies watches (Movado and Longines) for less than £30.

You probably don't really want the radiation detector. Ill just cause undue stress especially if you start acquiring a vintage stuff. Somewhere but it's hiding in the attic I believe in a metal box I have an actual kit for reapplying your radium luminescence material. But then I also have some of the wax stuff that they used to sell. used to have is really little tiny tins that had wax with the luminescence material dissolved in seed heated up and put it underneath the hand in to fill in the hand and that's what the Steelers. I was never really impressed with it. But I discovered with my Geiger counter that some of the ones I have actually have radium in their which has really surprised about because but the radium was supposed to be phased out by? On the other hand I have a whole bunch of cards that have radium hands even without the Geiger counter you can tell because if you push the hand decide you can see the burnt paper from the radium. So do I get really excited to get some military hands are dials then you monitor gets very excited Here's what the powder we think it is it's available from cousins https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/diamantine-bergeon

I haven’t worked on a Swiza yet- some inventive designs, certainly, but I’m not a fan of pin levers or the alarm/movement running off a single spring. I prefer CYMA, Looping (particularly the cal. 50-55) and Imhof from the 50s-70s period as they are more like pocket watches than clocks. They are usually very cheap to buy- I recently bought the smaller version of the Sonomatic, with calendar, for £6. I avoid the prewar alarm clocks and 8 day timepieces having read the Horological Journal articles on the dangers of radium dials! For lubrication I tend to use HP1300, 9020 and 941 for the escape wheel/pallets with a thick grease like DX or 8300 on the barrel arbor pivots. I’ll get some Windles though as I do occasionally work on larger clocks.

White powder I don’t know- radium lume? The first bit of kit looks like the chips and wand for bluing screws and hands and such. what hold and control the heat perhaps…wand for holding over the flame How about borax flux for the powder?

Oh your dial looks vintage vintage military and depending upon who you ask on the group possibly a cause of concern as the florescent material that's on there now is probably radium. So ideally you'd like to leave that alone.

Do you mean mass? The weight of the escapement, the whole watch and indeed yourself is constantly changing. An interesting thought, any watch undergoing radioactive decay, radium/ tritium etc will be slightly less massive for eternity.

I looked hard with the microscope but couldn't see any sign of a a 'DxxxxH' stamping and given the original look of the case I don't think it was polished away... ...and yes - radium hands. Bad stuff and you can see the missing piece inside the crystal in the before photo. I take precautions but am not frightened of it, though I will pass on anything where its all turned to dust...

Lovely watch. Have a look here https://www.watchprosite.com/girard-perregaux/mimo-wwii-dienstuhr--a-closer-look/6.1004143.7068013/ Are there faint markings on the back? Could it be German military and the marks have been erased? Looks like the radium is flaking.

I have a can (may be empty now) of One-Dip in my desk drawer, and I was never impressed with its effectiveness. I only used it a few times because it just didn't get the job done as well as the L&R solutions in my usual US process. Last I checked, that was the consensus. It sounds great on paper to be able to clean a balance with little or no agitation, but that's just not how it plays out in practice with the stuff. I, for one, will not be mourning its loss. I'll probably hold onto the can for giggles so I can show my grandchildren how crazy people were (I was) way back when keeping such dangerous chemicals in my desk drawer like radium tablets and heroin cough syrups.

"High level. Closely watch the reading, find out why." Why is a radium dialed watch. It isn't going to change its output (at least not in a positive direction). If you were Homer Simpsoning (working as a safety officer in a nuclear power plant for those not hip to American pop culture from the last... holy crap... 34 years!), you should be frantically trying to figure out why the readings spiked. If it's an old wrist watch, I wouldn't be all that concerned. Eat fewer bananas on the days you wear it.

Very interesting reading, especially about the radon danger. This is important reading for those who have collections of radium dialled watches. Is there a way it can be posted at a higher level to make those people aware?

That was an interesting study. I never thought I'd see the word "gonadol" in print, but there it is: "Robinson (1968) estimated the average gonadol dose-equivalent rate was 3 339 mrem/y (0.03 mSv/y) for each of the 10 million people in the USA who wore such watches . . . ." I guess the upshot of the study is to take precautions not only with the radium but also with the radon gas.