# Luminosity in Hamilton Watches



## Sir_Sam_ (Jul 10, 2013)

I'm curious, can people please input their experiences with the luminosity on Hamilton watches? I have one that uses super luminova to light it at night, and I find that it lasts less than an hour after its been charged by light all day. The watch is really new and shouldn't be losing lume yet. Is it the sun itself that has to charge it and no other light source? It's a khaki field automatic, pictured below. Thanks for any advice.


----------



## watchmego3000 (Jul 12, 2012)

In my experience Hamilton doesn't have the best lume, in fact my Seiko is better, but it is respectable. Kind of bright at first but quickly fades. I'm able to read the time several hours later though its not easy.


----------



## jimdgreat1 (Mar 31, 2013)

Mine don't last an hour.


----------



## Sir_Sam_ (Jul 10, 2013)

Does your seiko use tritium?


----------



## cprrckwlf (Aug 18, 2012)

Right, so this is probably better than hijacking the "Let's See 'Em" thread.

As I said over there it depends on which of my Hammys I'm looking at. . . none of them are the best lume, but they do vary based on lume type, lume color (Superluminova is a brand name that covers a number of pigments which have different profiles for brightness/duration/whatever), and overall coverage. Lume is a pretty common gripe with Hamiltons, one that has never much mattered to me personally.

They will charge off whatever light source: grab a really strong flashlight and test it, but it seems that the faster you dump energy into it the faster it dumps it back out. A good 100+ lumen LED light will get it glowing superbright for almost no time at all.

I don't know of any Seikos using tritum. Old military watches sometimes used Tritium based paint -- Tritium mixed with a phosphor and binder. The Tritium is a hydrogen isotope that is mildly radioactive, as it decays it basically charges the phosphor that was also mixed into the paint, it isn't the Tritium itself that is glowing. Modern tritium watches use tiny little tubes that give the watch a fairly distinctive look and you'll basically be able to tell instantly. For examples see most Marathons and Balls. Tritium doesn't necessarily glow all that bright, it just self charges so it glows all the time.

Most of the Hamilton line has a least a little lume on it (even my thin-o-matic has a tiny little bit of Superluminova on the hour and minute hands). Not all Hamiltons use Superluminova for the lume. In fact, I've never done an exhaustive survey but I think most are using some other compound. This includes the Field Autos, at least according to the Hamilton website. . . if you go to the shopping area and expand the features section on the left you'll see they say "Superluminova No" for those models. Link is here: Khaki Field Auto-H70455533


----------



## Eeeb (Jul 12, 2007)

For some reason which I do not understand Swiss watches in general do not have long lasting lume. I can assume this is an aesthetic value as they certainly can produce good lume when they want. I have a TAGHeuer Aquagraph which has amazing lume - but it is their super diver and I assume they decided divers needed good lume.

I wear watches at night and find only my Mondaine Night Vision with tritium gas tubes allows me to easily tell the time in the true middle of the night. Even Seikos (which generally have the best lume) are difficult at such a time. And normally lumed Swiss watches are next to impossible.

Such is life in the big city...


----------



## Drop of a Hat (Dec 16, 2011)

Have to disagree Eeeb, two of the biggest names in Swiss watches have solid lume, Omega and Rolex. Its just about price point. Once you get low enough, things need to be sacrificed.

Seiko sacrifices movement finishing and capability (by capability, I mean handwinding and hacking) for lume and Hamilton sacrifices lume for nicer cases and bracelets as an example (my opinion of course). Its a very general example with some holes, but I hope it proves my point adequately.


----------



## cprrckwlf (Aug 18, 2012)

Drop of a Hat said:


> Hamilton sacrifices lume (and, often, AR coating) for nicer cases and bracelets . . .


Fixed. Just didn't think we should leave that out of the conversation.


----------



## Sir_Sam_ (Jul 10, 2013)

Wow very enlightening. I simply assumed that Hamilton used super luminova because it didn't use tritium but I should have paid better attention to their website specs about the khaki. Thanks for all the info. It makes sense.


----------



## ChuckW (Mar 15, 2011)

I've owned numerous Hamilton watches and as much as I like the brand, lume is not something they're known for. The Hammy of mine that I found had the best lume was the BelowZero and while it was pretty good, it was hardly stellar. I've found pretty much the same thing with Glycine, except for the Combat Sub.


----------



## Kingsley83 (Apr 3, 2013)

Lume? What lume? My khaki king quartz lume shines bright enough to light up the entire watch face but I believe that has more to do with the color of the dial and how it reflects the lume. My king scuba is almost nonexistent.


----------



## Blue bird (Feb 11, 2009)

Hamilton does not use generous amounts of Superluminova like some of your well known boutique brands do or more expensive Swiss brands do.
I always assumed it was one way Hamilton kept the costs down. Although I'd wish they would use more on their divers.
As for Seiko, they have their own version called Lumibrite which will light up a room for hours on end.


----------



## samer0214 (Aug 11, 2013)

ChuckW said:


> The Hammy of mine that I found had the best lume was the BelowZero and while it was pretty good, it was hardly stellar.


I wish I could say the same for mine, but then again mine is the all black BZ, and lume is practically non-existent. I can only assume that yours has a brighter dial?


----------



## ChuckW (Mar 15, 2011)

The one I owned was the 42mm stainless steel.


----------



## EvoRich (Jan 30, 2013)

I'm not impressed with Hamilton's lume. I'm spoiled by my Seiko's. But I didn't buy my Hamilton's for their lume. My Monster, Sumo, Tuna and SKX007 with cast shadows in a pitch black room, if I shine an LED light on them first. Even without an LED, and just ambient light through out the day, the lume will last for a long time through the night.


----------



## DreamWeaver1 (May 15, 2013)

I have a Khaki King Auto and the Lume isn't that great. If I charge it with a bright led then it's actually really amazing but it doesn't last very long. I'd say not even an hour.


----------



## Mike_Dowling (May 4, 2013)

I have an X-Wind and the lume lasts about five minutes, it's awful.


----------



## Mike_Dowling (May 4, 2013)

EvoRich said:


> I'm not impressed with Hamilton's lume. I'm spoiled by my Seiko's. But I didn't buy my Hamilton's for their lume. My Monster, Sumo, Tuna and SKX007 with cast shadows in a pitch black room, if I shine an LED light on them first. Even without an LED, and just ambient light through out the day, the lume will last for a long time through the night.


Ditto, I can sleep with my Tuna, wake up at 4:00 AM and the lume is still glowing bright, lasts all night long. Seiko's lume is very impressive. But like you I bought the x-wind knowing the lume was terrible.


----------



## CristiT (Dec 30, 2012)




----------



## ppl4golf (Oct 26, 2011)

Non-existent in my Jazzy


----------



## //Napoleon// (Mar 22, 2012)

Hamilton lume sucks. But i still love them


----------



## Neeko (Nov 21, 2012)

I have the Hamilton Khaki Field auto chrono day date and when I charge the lume while reading in bed for about 30 min it lasts for at least 4-6 hours. I know this as I usually wake up during the night and by habit just check it. My Seiko Solar Dive Chrono lume last's for about 8+ hours easy.


----------



## JSI (Dec 12, 2012)

Mine glows pretty good:


----------



## Perseus (Mar 25, 2010)

Hamilton is known for weak lume. How much can it costs to use the good stuff?


----------



## cprrckwlf (Aug 18, 2012)

Perseus said:


> Hamilton is known for weak lume. How much can it costs to use the good stuff?


Who knows, Hamilton uses mostly lousy loom and sapphire. Seiko is known for great lume but uses mineral crystal instead of sapphire.

I've got pieces from both and appreciate both and the price points they are at. If that's what they need to do to stay positioned where they are, so be it.

Curious, though. If I jump over to the Tissot section or look in on Longines conversations will there be the same complaint? Anyone know what the Swatch brands up and down from hammy are doing?


----------



## jigelow (Jan 14, 2014)

Don't know if its true, but I'd read somewhere that Seiko's lume is proprietary. In fact, the produce Superluminova, but purposely not as strong as is used on their watches so theirs are brighter. Again, not sure how true that is, but it sounded interesting and could be true. 

My understanding of tritium is that it doesn't need to charge like lume does. Its will glow as long as its half-life continues. The watches that I've seen with Tritium don't glow as bright, but they're perfectly consistent and realiable with their glow.


----------



## cprrckwlf (Aug 18, 2012)

jigelow said:


> Don't know if its true, but I'd read somewhere that Seiko's lume is proprietary. In fact, the produce Superluminova, but purposely not as strong as is used on their watches so theirs are brighter. Again, not sure how true that is, but it sounded interesting and could be true.
> 
> My understanding of tritium is that it doesn't need to charge like lume does. Its will glow as long as its half-life continues. The watches that I've seen with Tritium don't glow as bright, but they're perfectly consistent and realiable with their glow.


I've never heard that about seiko producing superluminova, I'll have to find time to look into it. Wouldn't surprise me at all if there mix is proprietary, though. Even if I've always just figured it was qualit mixed with application -- a monster, for example flat out has a lot of lumed surface.

Tritium actually doesn't glow at all. Tritium is actually another name for hydrogen-3, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

"Normal" hydrogen or hydrogen-1 or protium has a nucleus of 1 proton and no neutrons. Tritium has 1 proton, 2 neutrons. It has a very low energy decay into beta particles so it is relatively harmless (unless ingested or inhaled) and a short half life of roughly 12.5 years (little shorter as I recall). It has various industrial uses including the making of what once were called "beta lights" (from the beta particle decay). Basically this is a self charging light -- the beta particle charges a luminescent substance, that substance than glows. They used to mix it straight into the paint (actual I think they put a layer of tritium down, followed by the lume) but over time it flakes and is dangerous to inhale. Nowadays you see the little tubes -- these are a glass vial with the inner wall coated with the lume and then filled with tritium gas.


----------



## El Gato (Nov 24, 2013)

I am a nut about lume myself. I have never had a watch where the lume stayed super bright (aside from a tritium) throughout an extended period. But I do find that many of them do have enough glow to read them in the middle of the night with your eyes adjusted to the dark. And the wider / bigger the lumed areas are, the better. I think if you want very bright lume that lasts at the same intensity all night, you need the tritium tubes. IMO.


----------



## BDIC (Jan 6, 2014)

samer0214 said:


> I wish I could say the same for mine, but then again mine is the all black BZ, and lume is practically non-existent. I can only assume that yours has a brighter dial?


Funny thing mine is the same. Bought the all black and the lume is non existent. Like there's no dial in the dark non existent.


----------



## minty mushroom (Dec 15, 2013)

I have been really pleased with my hamilton lume. The few times I wake up at night it's always been there so I can read the time, but I usually put my watch right next to a light for about ten seconds before I go to sleep to charge up the lume. Not as good as my seikos but IMO really really close for what it is.

Close up of hamilton lume









Comparison 
Shogun, hamilton, snzf17, snk809









After 1 min in sun








After ten minutes









Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## BarracksSi (Feb 13, 2013)

Color me (ha!) disappointed. I've put Hamilton on my list for a potential middle-ground watch. I've become accustomed to being able to read my Citizen when I wake up around 5 AM, so not having the same performance from a Hamilton would bum me out.


----------



## Robotaz (Jan 18, 2012)

Swatch could easily bump up the lume on Hamiltons with minimal cost, but for the brand in general, it just doesn't match the styling to have green or blue lume glaring out of the dial. I've learned to accept it as a design trait.


----------



## BarracksSi (Feb 13, 2013)

Hmm. Yeah, true. They probably would have to bump up the surface area of the lume, sacrificing the thin markings, or increase the volume of the lumed areas and make them lumpy.


----------



## ChuckW (Mar 15, 2011)

I've owned 11 Hamiltons and all them had mediocre lume, save one, the BelowZero 42mm, not that it was on a par with most Seiko or Citizens in that respect. It's simply not a feature to buy the brand for.


----------



## cmaytobin (Mar 25, 2015)

So, I'll ask the naive question: Is there anything one can do about the lackluster glow? Can you have your local watch repair guy slap a little more (and better) paint on the hands and dials to improve the luminosity?


----------



## cprrckwlf (Aug 18, 2012)

cmaytobin said:


> So, I'll ask the naive question: Is there anything one can do about the lackluster glow? Can you have your local watch repair guy slap a little more (and better) paint on the hands and dials to improve the luminosity?


Yeah, you could, but I'd probably poke around the boards and find one of the modders (try watchmakers, and the seiko forum). And I steer clear of anything that touches the dial -- that is the watch.

Honestly, I've slowly become convinced this is a non-issue. Wake up in the middle of the night? the alarm clock is normally right there, otherwise my phone probably is. Diving? I dive to see things, if it's that dark it defeats the idea. Out camping or hiking? Probably not a Hamilton that's coming with me, Sunnto has to do something more than sit in the box and look pretty. I think the ONLY time I've wanted lume that i didn't have was a movie theatre. Lume is a bonus, sure, but I don't much need it.


----------



## tinknocker (Dec 29, 2009)

I have never cared about the Lum on a watch. It's no deal breaker. I have a couple T-25's for that.


----------



## DocJekl (May 19, 2014)

I'm usually in the Omega Forum most of the time, but I've been subscribed to the "Show us your Hamiltons" thread for a while.

I find that some watch's lume may be bright but not last long, and others not as bright but lasts longer, and even others that are bright and last long through the night (i.e. till dawn). But unfortunately my 2 Hamiltons are neither super bright nor long lasting. 

My Khaki Field watch with date can be super bright but only the first few minutes with a 200 lumen flashlight. But it doesn't glow in indoor light after being in the sunlight, as some of my better watches do. It does last a few hours, but not through the entire night like my better watches. Same with my Harrison Ford Conservation Chronograph, which only the hands have lume (for the price the lume should have been better, but who spends $1500 on a Hamilton anymore?)

My Seiko SKX173 will look likes it's electrified when I'm outside and come indoors, and I can wake up at 5-6AM and still read the time, but my eyes are adjusted to the dark by then. In a 10 o'clock movie at the theater I can just barely read the time, because my eyes are not fully acclimated to the dark. But the Seiko lume is on par with my best Swiss watches.

Same thing with my Omega Planet Ocean and Omega GMT Great White, or my early 2000's Rolex GMT II and Explorer II - they're lit up like a torch after coming inside from the sunlight, and they last all night, but at some point the light fades and your eyes need to acclimated to the dark to read them after 8-12 hours. Interestingly, the newer Bond Seamasters with skeletonized hands can't compete with the Omega divers with sword or arrow hands, but the "not as bright" lume still glows for a very long time.

My Luminox watches with Tritium gas tubes are not as bright at first, but they are of course steady and by the end of the night they're brighter than the Superluminova watches. And when my eyes are not fully acclimated to the dark, such as while driving at night or in a movie theater, they are a little easier to read.

My three best Superluminova watches, in terms of brightness at the start and through the end of the night, are my two Planet Oceans and my Seiko SKx173. While my newer Rolex Explorer II 216570 is not as bright at the start of the night, it's still as bright as the other three by the end of the night, so it's #4.

And while my older Rolexes may glow like a torch in a lit room after exposure to sunlight, by the end of the night they are not as bright as the others and only "just readable", like the Seamaster Pros.

I'll add a photo of the Hamilton lume vs Seiko or Omega later, when it's dark. ATTACHED are several watches whose lume still glows in a partially lit room.


----------



## paj20 (Jan 6, 2010)

This is interesting, that gives an idea of the ratio price of the watch / lume quality (duration/brightness) !

I am also used to SEIKO and CITIZEN's bright lume and I was curious to see how it would be on my new Khaki Field Mechanical. It is not that bad actually, but I came up with the same conclusion as cprrckwlf, that is it's probably not an issue.
It's a cool feature though, specially when walking in a dark room (call me crazy, but I like to check my lume when going to the restrooms), or when staying with my young kid until he falls asleep.. but I can live without it.


----------



## arogle1stus (May 23, 2013)

Luminosity in Hamilton watch

Firstly I've been around the block (watches block i.e.) many times in my 77 years.
Back in the 60's Hamilton released their RR Grade model 505. Not a lick of luminosity period.
But then neither did their pocket watch RR Grade models. RR crew were required to carry RR
approved models both pocket and wrist models. I suppose Hamilton never gave a thought having
lume on dials.

X traindriver Art

40 years service as locomotive engineer on 3 RRs. St Louis & San Francisco RR, Union Pacific RR
and Chicago Rock Island & Pacific RR.


----------



## morrison2951 (Apr 14, 2008)

I wear my Hamilton Ventura during the day and my tritium tubed Ball Fireman at night- it's like a light show! 

I'm a lume junkie so that's how I get my fix at night.


----------



## Robotaz (Jan 18, 2012)

ChuckW said:


> I've owned 11 Hamiltons and all them had mediocre lume, save one, the BelowZero 42mm, not that it was on a par with most Seiko or Citizens in that respect. It's simply not a feature to buy the brand for.


I've owned three BelowZeros and none were in the same galaxy as a Seiko. My newest Hamilton, the Sub Auto, is considerably better than any BZ, but still nowhere near a Seiko.


----------

