WatchUSeek Watch Forums banner

Lume Test ... 8 watches, 4.5 hours

8.8K views 48 replies 42 participants last post by  bcbcbck  
#1 · (Edited)
So a few weeks ago I decided I was going to see how the lume on all my watches compares. And I thought some folks here might find the images interesting.

Here's what I did :

-- I put all of my watches together in a dark room.
-- I left them in the room with the light on, and a pretty wide beam LED flashlight setup to cover them all for a couple of hours
-- I setup my camera and tripod to take a photo every 10 minutes, and let it take images for about 4.5 hours

After that, I took the images and adjusted the set so that the brightest one looked approximately as bright as it did to my naked eye. I did not stay in the dark to let my eyes adjust - I just wanted some kind of standard to try to equalize the photos too. I also had a few frames that got very noisy due to the low light and length of time the camera was on. I could correct it some without affecting the lume, but couldn't fix it all, so some of the images look a little off or there's a bit of flicker. The lume brightness is pretty accurate though.

After that I assembled into an animated GIF, so it could be viewed as an animation. I'm pretty surprised how quickly lume fades. Basically, it all stinks compared to what I'd like it to do. But some obviously faded a lot faster than others.

The watches are, from left to right :

TopCitizen B0000-04hEpos Emotion 3390Steinhart Ocean 2 PremiumGlashutte Original PanoMaticLunar
BottomSeiko 1977 VintageHamilton Khaki FieldSeiko 5 SNKK27Seiko SBQK085



Some things I expected... The vintage Seiko pretty much dissappears right away, and the GO has very little lume and fades quickly as expected.

The Seiko 5 does well, and the Steinhart maybe not as well as I expected (the hands are good... the markers and bezel not as much).

The Epos did surprisingly well I think. And the Citizen was probably best overall, IMO, which also makes sense to me.
 
#2 ·
Cool! Thanks for sharing!
 
#41 ·
What model of Hamilton Khaki is that ? An older one ?
It's a model from the early 2000s. I picked it up used with box, but no papers, so I don't have the exact model number.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Horologic
#9 ·
That is great!
Thanks for a very interesting and fun post.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to dig into my Colorado Chronic, turn out the lights, and watch that a few more times.






















Oh WOW,dude!
 
#11 ·
The minute hand on the Steinhart seems to last the longest. This is probably desirable on a dive watch, but I don't know anyone that dives for 8 hrs straight. Not to mention, if it's that dark they're probably diving with a light source :).

That Citizen lume duration is indeed impressive.
 
#15 ·
So a few weeks ago I decided I was going to see how the lume on all my watches compares. And I thought some folks here might find the images interesting.

Here's what I did :

-- I put all of my watches together in a dark room.
-- I left them in the room with the light on, and a pretty wide beam LED flashlight setup to cover them all for a couple of hours
-- I setup my camera and tripod to take a photo every 10 minutes, and let it take images for about 4.5 hours

After that, I took the images and adjusted the set so that the brightest one looked approximately as bright as it did to my naked eye. I did not stay in the dark to let my eyes adjust - I just wanted some kind of standard to try to equalize the photos too. I also had a few frames that got very noisy due to the low light and length of time the camera was on. I could correct it some without affecting the lume, but couldn't fix it all, so some of the images look a little off or there's a bit of flicker. The lume brightness is pretty accurate though.

After that I assembled into an animated GIF, so it could be viewed as an animation. I'm pretty surprised how quickly lume fades. Basically, it all stinks compared to what I'd like it to do. But some obviously faded a lot faster than others.

The watches are, from left to right :

TopCitizen B0000-04hEpos Emotion 3390Steinhart Ocean 2 PremiumGlashutte Original PanoMaticLunar
BottomSeiko 1977 VintageHamilton Khaki FieldSeiko 5 SNKK27Seiko SBQK085

View attachment 6343770

Some things I expected... The vintage Seiko pretty much dissappears right away, and the GO has very little lume and fades quickly as expected.

The Seiko 5 does well, and the Steinhart maybe not as well as I expected (the hands are good... the markers and bezel not as much).

The Epos did surprisingly well I think. And the Citizen was probably best overall, IMO, which also makes sense to me.
Good job
 
#18 ·
There are services to get watches re-lumed. It's been discussed on here before, but I don't remember where folks have had it done. A little searching might turn it up.

You could also buy the material and do it yourself if you are a DIY kind of person.
 
#25 ·
I couldn't find it just now, but I think it was a couple years ago was a great thread on lume duration. Several watches were used and shots were taken at logical intervals like right after charging, then 5 minutes, then 20, then 45, then 2 hrs then 6 then 10. It was a great series of shots that said a lot. If anyone can find that thread it would be great to post the link in this thread.
 
#27 ·
I love seeing this types of posts. Thanks for sharing!
 
#29 ·
Very, very Cool!. Thanks for that.
Interesting how Citizen starts out brightest, but Steinhart lasts longest. Except for tritium, it has been my experience that even very good lume fades fast. My Seiko Monster is superbright when lights go out, but after few hours all gone. Omega SMP lasts a bit longer but not as bright.