While tritium also emits radioactive particles (which are required to activate a phosphor to glow), it is drastically less radioactive and therefore less dangerous than radium. Some examples include the vintage Rolex GMT-Master 6542, vintage Explorer 6610, and vintage Panerai Radiomir (fun fact: the Radiomir name was patented by Panerai for a radium-based luminous paint in the 1930s). If you come across a vintage watch with an original lumed-dial made anywhere between the 1910s and the 1960s, it was likely painted with radium-based luminescence. Radium on watch dials was finally banned in 1968, and tritium took over. Radium was still being used to create watch lume after the revelation but in significantly smaller quantities. However, it wasn’t long before the toxic effects of radium – brought to light thanks in large part to the tragic stories of the Radium Girls in the 1920s and 1930s – became apparent. In the early 1900s, a self-luminous paint composed of a mixture of zinc sulfide (a phosphor) and radium (which emits radioactive particles) was frequently used on watch dials.
Radioluminescence describes the light that occurs when a phosphor gets its energy from radioactive particles. A phosphor is a substance that absorbs energy from another source and then emits that energy into visible light.
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