New ways in which fine watches are looking to make an impression in the dark.
For some horology enthusiasts, it’s not enough for a watch to look stunning in broad daylight – it has to look exceptional in the dark too. Typically used in dive or other tool watches designed for maximum legibility even in low lighting conditions, the glow-in-the-dark substance known as lume often goes beyond mere function to give timepieces a unique character.
Usually applied to the hour and minute markers as well as hands, lume highlights various forms of typography and hand shapes. You’ll also see it used on other interesting dial details such as the stars and moon on lunar displays, or representations of globes on world timers. It has come a long way not just in form but substance as well.
The earliest lume took the form of radioactive, radium-based paints, which killed or made ill many women in the 1920s who were employed to apply them to watch dials. Today, most watch brands use some form of Super-Luminova, a non-hazardous, strontium aluminate-based substance rooted in Luminova pigments invented by Japanese company Nemoto & Co in 1993.
Here are the latest ways in which watch brands are taking lume to the next level.
SCREEN TIME
It’s no secret that all things military serve as a fount of creative fodder for watch brands. the latest army-based inspiration for Bell & Ross is the heads-up display (HUD), a transparent glass screen that presents essential data – such as speed and altitude – directly within a pilot’s visual field.
The self-winding BR 03-92 HUD plays with lume and colour on multiple levels to achieve the appearance of a digital screen. At the top, a green-tinted sapphire glass sets the stage for that onboard-instrument look. Four brackets are printed in Super-Luminova on the underside of the glass. At the next level, the minute and second hands have been lumed, with the centre kept black, so the hands look like they’re floating.
Beneath that lies the dial and a disc bearing a lumed triangle indicating the hours. these are all encased in a 42mm matte black ceramic case – in Bell & Ross’ signature circle within a square form – that lets the bright green do the talking.
SOLID SHINE
How do you make lume pop? You could make it brighter or more long-lasting. Or you could make it 3-D so it literally stands out. enter Globolight, a solid, ceramic-based material containing Super-Luminova.
In its recently launched Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Automatic, independent Swiss brand H. Moser used Globolight to create glowing hour and minute hands. It’s a small detail but gives dimensionality to the minimalist chronograph.
While this is the first time Globolight has been applied to watch hands, H. Moser has also used it in a couple of other recent releases. For instance, it was used in the trio of hour-display discs in the endeavour Flying Hours.
H. Moser is not the only watch brand to use solid lume. Black Badger, started by industrial designer James Thompson, used its own solid lume, AGt Ultra, on timepieces by independent watchmakers including MB&F and Sarpaneva.
LIGHT STRUCTURE
Similar to its Richemont-owned sibling brand Panerai, Roger Dubuis has chosen to generously outline one of its 2020 novelties, the Excalibur Twofold, with lume. While it did not expressly state so, it appears that it is also using the x1 Super-Luminova – based on the 60 per cent performance increase cited in its press notes.
The unique part of Roger Dubuis’ take is the fact that it has illuminated part of its skeletonised movement instead of the usual dial elements. As with the 45mm case, part of the skeletonised upper plate is made of a proprietary mineral composite fibre that comprises 99.5 per cent silica and has an ultra-white colour the brand says will not yellow. It also says lume was applied to the edges of these elements using a specially developed “patented process”.
Continuing its penchant for unwieldy names that somehow still sound prosaic, Roger Dubuis has also adopted a new technology called LumiSuperBiwiNova for the Excalibur Twofold’s strap. Lume is supposedly infused into the strap made from FKM or fluorocarbon rubber.
GLOWING UP
Legibility in all conditions, enabled by the use of lume, plays such a key role in Panerai’s identity that the brand’s marquee watch models, Luminor and Radiomir, were named after the luminescent tritium-and radium-based materials that originally lit up their hour markers and hands. This year marks the 70th anniversary of Luminor, named for a tritium-based substance that replaced highly radioactive radium-based paints in the mid-20th century. While Panerai has used Super-Luminova since 2009, it is not letting that get in the way of celebrating that milestone in a big – or should we say bright – way.
Three of the seven recently launched Luminor models are illuminated by Super-Luminova x1, the latest generation of the phosphorescent material. According to its manufacturer, this X1-grade lume has a performance increase of up to 60 per cent after two hours as compared to the standard version.
This essentially means that it stays brighter for longer. And gives you more time to show off the incredible amount of lume on the trio of special-edition Luminors, including the Luminor Marina PAM 117 shown here. Aside from the markers and hands, it has also been used for the emblem on the dial and the flange as well as on the crown guard, the crown itself and the strap. If you’re heading to the cineplex, you may want to strap on a different watch.
TEXT LYNETTE KOH
