[Lamentia]

Hello,

I recently acquired a Seiko SRP707K1, it has lume on the hour markers and the hands. It works and all, but at very poor time. I tried charging with LED flashlight from my iPhone. Tried using a lamp, and also sun light. For about 15-20 mins.

Lume lights for about 30 mins and completely dies, before I do the same thing. I've read that usually lume stays all night, because I need to see the time during nights, and well, iPhone lights can hurt eyes good. My question is this normal? Or do I need to light it for more time? Or use any other source of light?

First time posting here, couldn't find info regarding my own question.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sticky]

I have found LED lights to be a rather poor way of charging lume. Even my UV LED torch makes the lume glow like mad but is only fairly short lived. Natural sunshine is a great way to charge lume but because of the ambient lighting conditions (high) it is not always the best situation to see the lume.
The lume on my watches seems to love the bright quartz halogen lights that I have in my bathroom as a few minutes under them is enough the keep the lume glowing all night.

 

[Lamentia]

Thought that it might be my watches are poor ones... gonna try that also

Thanks

 

[M1K3Z0R]

I'm not familiar with that watch, but even the best lumed divers tend to rapidly die off within an hour. They are still visible in the dark for the first few hours and only with dark-adapted eyes up to the end. Looking at pictures of the 707 it appears to have very little lume and use white lume ( likely C1), so your description sounds correct: you get something better than that on a Seiko 5 but nowhere near that of a diver. The lume on divers tends to be thick with a large surface area, so you end up with much more light output for a longer duration.

It really depends on your expectations, you won't get nuclear glow for a full 8 hours no matter how good the lume is. People need to remember that on dive watches the lume is only really meant to be visible for about 20 minutes or so, anything more is just icing on the cake. If you need to see the time clearly at any time of night you can't beat something with a battery-powered EL or LED backlight.

 

[Xeticus]

I have the SRP713K1 from the same Neo Sports Series. And the lume on mine is very weak. Nowhere near as bright as I had heard Seiko watches to be. The SRP707K1 that is the blue one right? I would love to see some pics. I'm seriously considering that one or the black SRP715k1. Great watches though. I love mine a lot.

 

[mpalmer]

Welcome to the forums!

 

[timetellinnoob]

It's important to remember that lume is really meant to be viewed in NO LIGHT situations. you can charge your lume all day every day in the bright light and it'll look cool for a couple minutes.... note that if you took that then into a dark room, the lume would be visible for hours and hours -- moreso if your eyes are adjusted to the dark as well, as in looking at your watch in pitch black in the middle of the night. people seem to judge lume too harshly on how much it glows in the light -- the whole point is how it works without light. =)

and how often are we all REALLY hanging out in pitch black? =)

 

[Xeticus]

Lume shot of my SRP713.

 

[hantms]

Not all Seiko watches have great lume. The divers mostly do, but for other lines it's hit and miss.

When I charge my 007 or Orient Ray for half a minute with my phone led, I can read it all night.

But on Seiko 5s especially it's a bit of a joke really.

I realize this is not in the 5 range, but it's entirely possible that the lume just sucks.

Time for a SARG011 ?

 

[timetellinnoob]

I just wanna know why people are waking up in pitch black just to look at the time? =) like 'oop, i better wake up, gotta know if it's 4am or 5am!' lol

 

[journeyforce]

Not all watches in the Seiko line up have great lume. My Seiko 5's and a few Seiko Quartz watches(even one I just got) have Pi$$ poor lume. my Seiko divers have great lume.

 

[timetellinnoob]

5's have markedly less lume but i wouldn't call it 'piss poor'. it's just not up to the same task. and my SNDA quartz chrono has pretty good lume, good surface area. obviously the 5's with the tiny dots won't match up =)