Omega lume hazard ?

[atimegoneby]

Hi all,

A neighbour of mine brought this Omega to me to look at, he's worn it for work and it looks like it's suffered some heavy shocks.

On first examination it looks like the stem is bent as when you turn the crown the whole movement waves backwards and forwards in the case, also the minute hand has moved up the shaft and is fouling the second hand stopping the watch, it will restart if you move the hand out of the way, I also noticed some of the luminous markers are flaking away and lying around on the dial.

As it is marked  '' Swiss T ''  I'm assuming this is tritium and my question is ; will this be a hazard if I open the watch & are there special procedures for cleaning it up ?

many thanks, Phil.

[Alastair]

T Swiss Made T is often on the dials of watches, and I doubt it means Tritium, as Tritium is actually a Gas, normally contained in small glass tubes, and is a fairly recent innovation, brought out Long after this Omega was made....

I doubt your lume has any major hazard but I wouldn't sniff at the dust!

Edited August 31, 2016 by Alastair

[Ray]

It is indeed Tritium, which is radioactive but only very slightly, so unless you lick the dial or inhale the lume you'll be fine! It's no where near as dangerous as Radium used on very early dials. 

[oldhippy]

Don't worry you won't glow in the dark.

[rodabod]

These have a split stem which you pull to remove. Obviously use a crystal lift to remove the crystal as it's a front-loader. There's a trick to popping the movement out; you may need to carefully rotate the movement to a certain spot to let it pop out.

Edited September 2, 2016 by rodabod

[atimegoneby]

On ‎02‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 10:35 AM, rodabod said:

These have a split stem which you pull to remove. Obviously use a crystal lift to remove the crystal as it's a front-loader. There's a trick to popping the movement out; you may need to carefully rotate the movement to a certain spot to let it pop out.

Thanks rodabod that's really helpful as I've not worked on one of these before,

& thanks to all others for your replies.

As I don't yet have a crystal lift I've had look on Cousins site, they have two, the Bergeon at £65 or the Indian version £11.95.

I just wondered if the cheap one is a waste of time or if anyone has used one with success.

[StuartBaker104]

I have a chinese crystal lift. I had to deburr all of the arms when new but it works fine. If you can wait though, look out for a used bergeon or vigor on ebay

 

S

[StuartBaker104]

Here you go, this just popped up in one of my regular searches...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bergeon-6400-Crystal-Lift-Watch-Crystal-Fitting-Tool-with-base-plate-/201663753381?hash=item2ef418aca5:g:er4AAOSw-itXqGDh

S

[StuartBaker104]

Ooh, they're everywhere. Have bought from this guy before

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USEFUL-BERGEON-VIGOR-NO-4266-CRYSTAL-LIFTER-TOOL-FOR-THE-WATCH-MAKER-/391552842649?hash=item5b2a5e3b99:g:9-8AAOSwdIFXzsDc

[Tcarpilot]

You should ask the seller if the elastic is still in good shape on these.  I have ordered two off Ebay recently that the arms flop around uselessly on.  I have yet to find a good replacement and rubber bands don't seem to last very long.