Try a UV flashlight. They work really well.

 

Afaik, direct sun light is best. Followed by short wave light as in UV lamps (normal black light bulbs or LEDs), followed by fluorescent light, with incandescent light at the bottom.

I also think that fully charged is fully charged. So from there on it can only go downwards. The difference is in how fast you get the full charge not in how long it lasts.

How long it lasts, given that you started with a full charge, will depend on the luminous material, the binder used, and how much is used. Indirectly also on the background color because that will make it seem brighter, too.

From pics and charts I've seen the greenish Superluminova C3 is the strongest. Apparently Seiko's Lumibright is the same thing as C3. I'd like to know what Citizen uses because frankly, I find Citizen jade blue-green lume to be even stronger than Seiko's. And longer lasting, too.

I don't know what Rolex's new lume is made of. It's blueish, too.

If you want lume that really does last all night long, you need to use tritium gas tubes or tritium paint (haven't seen that in modern watches lately).

It's really also a question of ambient light and of how your eyes are adjusted. If it's totally dark I can even see the very faint tritium lume of a 20 year old Rolex. But in the movie theater it's practically useless.

What also works very well are very highly polished silver hands on a matt black background especially if the hands have an edge where the light can reflect. If there is the slightest amount of light left, you can read the time.

 

NocNoc,

Thanks so much for your outstanding response. I learned a lot from your post. I figured tritium tubes was going to be my best bet but I didn't know how to best utilize what I already have. I have a Citizen Aquaracer that I wear as my beater and the lume (green), when fully charged, is crazy bright but it doesn't last as long as I would like it to. I'm going to head to Walmart to try to find a UV flashlight just for the heck of it.

Thanks again.

 

+1 for T-tubes.

 

Yeah, if you absolutely need lume to last all night, I'd find a cheap Luminox or Traser to wear at night.

 

Charge lume with Pfizer's little blue pill. Will last all night and be slightly blue! :-d Best used on dive watches.

 

charge lume with pfizer's little blue pill. Will last all night and be slightly blue! :-d best used on dive watches.

lol!

 

I used to use a UV-flashlight, but I found out that this beast (> half a meter long) works even better:

 

Several uses, beside being a Flas light, for that baby!!
1: Crutch
2: baseball
3: Lethal weapon

 

Most of the new boutique brands with C3 Superluminova properly applied or any Seiko wacthes would last all night (6-8 hours) after a charge of about 30 sec with LED light.

 

For a really fast, good charge take out and old electronic flash unit, turn it on until the "ready light" comes on, hold it 4 to 6 inches from your watch and punch the flash button. Even a little shoe mount unit will have her lighting up at max brightness!

PS use caution with this technique on an Omega 2254 - you can read by the sucker afterwards!

 

I got to try this one

For a really fast, good charge take out and old electronic flash unit, turn it on until the "ready light" comes on, hold it 4 to 6 inches from your watch and punch the flash button. Even a little shoe mount unit will have her lighting up at max brightness!

PS use caution with this technique on an Omega 2254 - you can read by the sucker afterwards!

 

I have a cheap uv key ring light I got off the internet that I use to give a quick charge before going to to the movies. Sunlight is the best, but if you have that, you don't really need lume.

 

I have a cheap uv key ring light I got off the internet that I use to give a quick charge before going to to the movies. Sunlight is the best, but if you have that, you don't really need lume.

If I feel I need to see the time while watching a movie, I usually walk out. And do not return.
Of course, with the said key ring light, you do not need any lume on the watch, and second best, you can be really nasty to the other movie watchers!!!

 

2 Aspirins and a tall Stella Beer!!! Always works for me... Oh yeah, Those cheap plant light bulbs at Wal-Mart are absolutley the best way to charge up the 'ol Lume!!

 

I use one of my dslr camera external flashguns, these things do wonders triggered at 1/16 or something like that

 

Shoot! I pulled out my old camera flash yesterday to give it a swing. Well, I hadn't used it in 15 years or so. I'm sure it would still work well IF only I had taken out the batteries back then.

I couldn't even get the battery door open. It's a paper weight now. Too bad. If you are using a flash as rarely as I do, be smarter and take the batteries out for storage. Duh!

 

a halogen lamp seems to work pretty good for me.

 

I do just what Raza suggests - a UV flashlight exposure for just a few seconds before bed will really brighten things up, and you can use it to see if there are any scorpions under the bed, as they emit a blue glow when exposed to UV light.

One of my favorite watches is a Bernhardt Officer's watch. Great watch, except it has no lume (at least the vintage cream dialed version doesn't), so I keep a Luminox by the bed....I also take the Luminox with me on vacations so I can see at night. I'm very nearsighted, and can't see the time on those digital alarms in the middle of the night.

 

I have an Officer in the railroad style, and it has really intense lume...for a short while. In minutes, it's virtually unnoticeable.

 

These blacklight bulbs work great, >$10 at hardware store:

 

I use a Surefire LX2 .

 

I just use a regular CFL bulb seems to work ok. I'm not really a lume person though.

 

+1. A minute under a CFL will do the same job as a minute under an incandescant in my experience. More time and brighter lights don't seem to make any difference.

 

interesting. time to sun tan

 

Although I agree that the best ways of charging the lume are Sun, LED lights, Light bulbs etc... I find it more convenient to charge by mobile phone's flash light. Because wherever I go, I always bring my mobile phone with me, not the light bulbs. And the sun is already set, by the time I need the lume.
I just charged it this Saturday, when l was in nightclub's toilet. When I was back, my friends noticed how nice the lume dial was glowing

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What is this "lume charging" of which you speak? LOL

But seriously - when I NEED lume (aka - every time I travel) I wear a GTLS watch.

 

Lol, indeed tritium lume is more convenient, but I only paid around $50 each, for these humble Alba watches, and it only takes 30seconds to charge them.
Let the pictures talk as well.

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How do you charge lume on a dark 15+ hour plane flight or the pitch dark hotel room after?

 

Mobile phone's torch function, while the phone is on airplane mode

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This:

or this:

 

stick your hand out the window, lol!!!!






i know, i know, the joke doesn't work at night.