# determining age of vintage Timex- and whether its got radium on the dial



## edvard3

Today while puttering around town on my bike I stopped at a yard sale. There was a box of watches and I found this Timex self-winding watch for $1. I figured- what the heck? A cool old watch I can wear on weekends and not worry about because after all- it was a dollar.

The watch works amazingly well and tells perfect time. However... and probably because I tend to be paranoid about these things I noticed it has luminescent paint on the dial and hands. I've read about radium before and after doing about an hour of research, not to mention countless forum posts on watch forums, I've no clue as to even where to start to determine if mine has radium. There were more opinions than you could shake a stick at. One article I read said you can determine if a watch has radium by seeing if the letters "RA" were printed at the bottom of the dial in tiny letters. That or its tritium it would be "TT". Still other sites said there's no way to determine this without a Geiger counter... which I don't have. Still other posts claimed these things are extremely dangerous while others claimed they were harmless. Others said that by the late 50's, early 60's most watch makers had stopped using Radium. A few even said it was mostly discontinued after WW2.

Anyway, as you can imagine its pretty confusing to me.

But- for starters, I have no clue how old the watch is. By the looks of it it seems to be from the 60's. Then again- Timex seems to have retained the same styling for sometimes decades so who knows? Could be from the 70's? It has a set of numbers: 4057 and 3170 at the bottom of the dial. I looked up those numbers online and came up with nothing. The case back simply says its water resistant and dust resistant.

Lastly- even if the thing has radium on the face, what is the danger? Best I could tell it was really if you inhaled the dust. If its sealed you're ok. That said, the crystal has a small crack. Not a big one, but one just the same. The cost of having this replace would grossly outweigh how much I would want to spend.

Anyway, if anyone could shed some light on this or provide some feedback, I would be really grateful.


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## RonD.

Ed I moderated a Timex Forum for years. I had so many questions on radium that tested a cross section of watches from different years. I noticed that the Timex watches from the mid 1950s were very "hot" but the ones from the 1960s and 1970s didn't register anything on the Geiger counter.

Timex before 1962 will have the date stamped on the inside back. If there is a serial number on the front, the date is the last two digits. Your watch would be from 1970, and harmless. Buy a crystal lift and some round crystals and start replacing them yourself. This is how the hobby starts for most of us... 

BTW, I tested all types of watches and wrote down what I got. If I can find the post I will re-post it here.

Ron


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## TheJohnP

And the first two number in 3170 represent the movement.
The Timex M31 movement info from the Ranfft guide:
bidfun-db Archive: Watch Movements: Timex M31


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## edvard3

Thanks folks,
Yeah, after a short amount of research on this site I also determined the watch was from 1970 per the last set of numbers or- "70". It seems well documented that by the end of the 60's radium was not used. Thus the watch is fine. I've worn the watch all day out in the yard, washed the cars, and other stuff. The watch works fine, is accurate, and is a nice, lightweight piece. I own a new Seiko Premiere to work. Its also an automatic. I have an affinity for automatic watches and thus this one will be a nice one to wear when I'm not at work. One thing I've noticed is that the mech on this one is very loud. You can hear it distinctly winding all day long. Not that it bothers me, but compared to the Seiko its a whole lot louder. Then again Timex were cheap watches. I grew up with a couple of Timex watches thus I have a bit of a soft spot.

Anyway, I took some headlight polishing compound used to de-haze plastic lenses and used this on the watch. the watch now looks like new.


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## AbslomRob

I believe that in general, Radium was still used in some military applications after the war, but was mostly replaced with tritium in non-essential and commercial applications. Divers still use tritium based lume, but nowadays they use factory-sealed tritium tubes instead of paint. Military spec watches will sometimes have markings indicating the radioactivity, and swiss watches started doing something similar, but it seems hit and miss sometimes.


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## edvard3

Thanks again folks. After a full weekend of wearing the watch I'm happy to report that it (amazingly) keeps perfect time. Amazing because I believe the watch sat around for years. My only tiny complaint ( and its not really an issue at all) is that its LOUD- as in it sounds like ball bearings are rolling around in there. Almost sounds like I'm wearing a wind-up toy. But I'm perfectly fine with that. I can't deny I am sort of addicted to these now. Cheap old Timex watches. I'll be on the lookout for more at flea markets.


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## baronrojo

It's really impressive how well these Timex watches were made. I have a few vintage Timex watches myself...highly doubt they have ever been serviced...and they are spot on. I'm not into timing my watches to the accuracy of seconds...but when I wear one of these old Timexes I set it to one of my quartz...at the end of the day they remain in synch. 

I know there are a lot of vintage watches that keep time and work well without being serviced...but I've experienced it and have heard of it multiple times with Timex. Why is this? Are they robust? A few lucky guys got really good ones?


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## edvard3

I've had a few old Times watches. Almost all of them came from the bottom of drawers, shoe boxes, and yard sales. ALL of them- including the one I got this weekend- have been worn and worn HARD. The watch above was caked in filth, scratched up, and so on. It- just like the others I've owned work fine. The more I wear it the more I like it. That brings up a question: how hard is it to get crystals for these, how hard are they to replace, and if you're not used to working on watches, is it a good starter job? I repair old radios from the 20's-50's so I have some mechanical knowledge.


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## RonD.

Any round crystal will work on any round vintage Timex. I think the reason they run so well is the way they were designed. The "v-conic" balance instead of a regular balance staff makes them very difficult to break if dropped. I must have worked on a thousand of them, and have seen some really in bad shape. But most times you can still bring them back to life or at least swap out the movement with one from a donor watch.


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## PHIL HART

The little BLACK FACED TIMEX IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BOX....WOW !! AND A AUTOMATIC TOO OH MAN !!! NO NUMBERS,WATER RESISENT,SHOWS DATE,PLASTIC CRYSTAL, MADE IN TAIWAN (on dial) MADE IN ENGLAND(inside) BACK. HOW OLD ?? DO I CARE LOL !! HOW MUCH ?? KIDDING YOU FELLAS WOULD COME AFTER ME. BUT SERIOUS ITS A TIMEX THATS ALL A MAN NEEDS. THANKS PHIL HART.


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## Eeeb

PHIL HART said:


> The little BLACK FACED TIMEX IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BOX....WOW !! AND A AUTOMATIC TOO OH MAN !!! NO NUMBERS,WATER RESISENT,SHOWS DATE,PLASTIC CRYSTAL, MADE IN TAIWAN (on dial) MADE IN ENGLAND(inside) BACK. HOW OLD ?? DO I CARE LOL !! HOW MUCH ?? KIDDING YOU FELLAS WOULD COME AFTER ME. BUT SERIOUS ITS A TIMEX THATS ALL A MAN NEEDS. THANKS PHIL HART.


Mommy will take away your cellphone if you're not careful...


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## Scared1236

I have a Timex diver.. the last 2 numbers at the 6 o’clock are 75 or 76.. I really can’t tell bcs of how small it is.. I’m really scared it’s radium... when I shine my light on the dials they light up and then die down after a few minutes... could this be radium or am I just paranoid?


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## ManOnTime

Scared1236 said:


> I have a Timex diver.. the last 2 numbers at the 6 o'clock are 75 or 76.. I really can't tell bcs of how small it is.. I'm really scared it's radium... when I shine my light on the dials they light up and then die down after a few minutes... could this be radium or am I just paranoid?


There is zero chance a Timex made in '75 or '76 will have Radium.


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## buss2851

edvard3 said:


> Today while puttering around town on my bike I stopped at a yard sale. There was a box of watches and I found this Timex self-winding watch for $1. I figured- what the heck? A cool old watch I can wear on weekends and not worry about because after all- it was a dollar. The watch works amazingly well and tells perfect time. However... and probably because I tend to be paranoid about these things I noticed it has luminescent paint on the dial and hands. I've read about radium before and after doing about an hour of research, not to mention countless forum posts on watch forums, I've no clue as to even where to start to determine if mine has radium. There were more opinions than you could shake a stick at. One article I read said you can determine if a watch has radium by seeing if the letters "RA" were printed at the bottom of the dial in tiny letters. That or its tritium it would be "TT". Still other sites said there's no way to determine this without a Geiger counter... which I don't have. Still other posts claimed these things are extremely dangerous while others claimed they were harmless. Others said that by the late 50's, early 60's most watch makers had stopped using Radium. A few even said it was mostly discontinued after WW2. Anyway, as you can imagine its pretty confusing to me. But- for starters, I have no clue how old the watch is. By the looks of it it seems to be from the 60's. Then again- Timex seems to have retained the same styling for sometimes decades so who knows? Could be from the 70's? It has a set of numbers: 4057 and 3170 at the bottom of the dial. I looked up those numbers online and came up with nothing. The case back simply says its water resistant and dust resistant. Lastly- even if the thing has radium on the face, what is the danger? Best I could tell it was really if you inhaled the dust. If its sealed you're ok. That said, the crystal has a small crack. Not a big one, but one just the same. The cost of having this replace would grossly outweigh how much I would want to spend. Anyway, if anyone could shed some light on this or provide some feedback, I would be really grateful.
> View attachment 473379
> View attachment 473380


 If you can find a good Jeweler and be able to watch him for her take off the back while watching, see if there's any literature or any numbers, or by moving parts see what year it was made.


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