Blue is probably the worst colour for getting the eye to focus in low light.
I thought green was the new red
The_Central_Scrutiniser wrote:
What wasn’t mentioned above is the fact that blue luminescence is de rigueur for use by pilots and cabin crew at night; the reasons for this being so as not to affect the cabin crew’s night vision and also as the eye takes less time to recover when looking back in the cabin or through the cockpit glass.
My FI used the very same reasoning to explain to me why the cockpit lighting was red. So shouldn’t red also work?
What wasn’t mentioned above is the fact that blue luminescence is de rigueur for use by pilots and cabin crew at night; the reasons for this being so as not to affect the cabin crew’s night vision and also as the eye takes less time to recover when looking back in the cabin or through the cockpit glass.
I can report that the Fortis watch is just about readable at night. Just about. It would be unusable in a dark cockpit if there is any peripheral light around.
I bought a used one and will probably get a watch repairer to glue a couple of tritium tubes onto the two hands 
I use a watch winder box for my automatics
Gosh I never even knew these things existed… being a simple bloke whose knuckles only just stop short of dragging on the ground I thought one just wore a watch on one’s hand. But looking at the Amazon adverts for these winders, apparently a proper gentleman will have a collection of watches, which he wears on different occasions. Clearly I have not been revolving (no pun intended) in the right circles
I use a watch winder box for my automatics, it was not so expensive, it came from Amazon
I managed to find a “cheap” used Fortis 597.22.141.3 (mail order) and will report in due course on how readable it is.
Very nice watch! The ETA 7750 movement has almost 2 days of power reserve so you won’t have to set date and day every time you wear it (other than my “even cheaper” Fortis that lasts barely more than a day).
Great pics
I’ve been to Zadar too and it is a super place to visit. Come to think of it, we could just do every EuroGA fly-in down in that part of the world and every one would be a great success 
And sorry for the late reply, I have been away for four days in a row, including two layover days at Zadar, not the worst place to spend “paid holidays” :-) I even attended a concert there of “Seve nacionale” or Severina Vuckovic, one of the most famous pop singers in Croatia and all over the Balkans. Great show, wonderful atmosphere on the seashore under the stars and about the most wonderful audience I have ever encountered in such a concert – they knew every word of every song and sometimes the artist would let the audience sing an entire song alone (which were her only breaks during almost three hours of uniterrupted performance that lasted until two in the morning). I’ve been to quite a few expensive shows of world stars who would barely perform for an hour… If only she would sing a few songs in English or Italian she could extend her popularity all over Europe.
Having seen a “concert” like that at Brac a couple of years ago, I can completely relate to that. It was really nice to see everybody participating – even small kids. Such a difference from the scene we have here in N Europe where there is so much less cohesion.
In essence, he writes that the usual “Superluminova” dials are brighter than tritium lights (which must satisfy the ISO norm of 36 nano Candela (nCd) per square millimerer for dials and 10nCd for pointers) for about two hours and thereafter drop to 7nCd within 6 hours, the threshold for the dark-adapted human eye being 3.2nCd.
In that case, 6hrs+ ought to be possible if your eyes are dark adapted. If they are not, you have no cause to complain…
I managed to find a “cheap” used Fortis 597.22.141.3 (mail order) and will report in due course on how readable it is.
Hello Peter,
I reply to your mail in public because it might be of interest to some other watch afficionados
And sorry for the late reply, I have been away for four days in a row, including two layover days at Zadar, not the worst place to spend “paid holidays” :-) I even attended a concert there of “Seve nacionale” or Severina Vuckovic, one of the most famous pop singers in Croatia and all over the Balkans. Great show, wonderful atmosphere on the seashore under the stars and about the most wonderful audience I have ever encountered in such a concert – they knew every word of every song and sometimes the artist would let the audience sing an entire song alone (which were her only breaks during almost three hours of uniterrupted performance that lasted until two in the morning). I’ve been to quite a few expensive shows of world stars who would barely perform for an hour… If only she would sing a few songs in English or Italian she could extend her popularity all over Europe.
But back on topic: I did a little research regarding the possible complaints you mention because – like most pilots – I am also interested in everything that is watch related and also have a modest little collection – but nothing really expensive as my budget for toys is very limited.
At least here in Germany, in order to complain, there must be some kind of norm or standard that must be satisfied. If not, you can not legally complain. As it looks, there is only one such norm: ISO 3157 “Radioluminescence for time measurement instruments — Specification” (http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=8330). Unfortunately ISO charges 38 Swiss Franks for downloading the full text. But anyway, it only applies to radioactively lit watch dials such as tritium compounds, tritium gas light sources and the (now rare or even nonexisting radium and promethium based lighting). For non-radioactive watch dials there seems to be no norm or regulation, ergo no possible complaints.
In a German watch forum I found a good reply to a similar question by a representative of the German manufacturer “Sinn” (http://www.sinn-uhrenforum.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=2698). In essence, he writes that the usual “Superluminova” dials are brighter than tritium lights (which must satisfy the ISO norm of 36 nano Candela (nCd) per square millimerer for dials and 10nCd for pointers) for about two hours and thereafter drop to 7nCd within 6 hours, the threshold for the dark-adapted human eye being 3.2nCd.
Some of my better watches are stored in a watch box with a glass lid in my bedroom. When I go to bed several hours after sunset without turning on the light, I usually only see the tritium lighted Traser watch glowing. Only when looking very closely the other dials are faintly visible which corresponds well with the answer given in the link above. By some strange coinicidence, my second brightest – or long-glowing – watch is a fake, or “replica” as we are on a public forum, divers watch of a well known Swiss brand (the same that supplied the watches for the Apollo mission) which I once bought at the bazar at Istanbul. I have no idea what the Chinese who made this thing use for lighting. But what they were not able to do is waterproofing this would-be diver’s watch ;-)
One more technique for watch illumination that I have come across is “Indiglo” patented by Timex. But this is electrically powered and requires the press of a button in order to turn on the electroluminescent dial. I don’t have such a watch so can’t comment on the brightness, but I think it must be similar to the older Garmin handheld GPS units (like the Garmin 92 that I still have in some drawer) which use a similar technology. Quite power consuming for a tiny watch battery I suppose.
Regards
Max
Zadar on departure (the airport LDZD already out of sight behind). On the way in I couldn’t take pictures because I was busy doing my visual approach between some large buildups:
And here, Severina at work in the middle of the night. The concert was sold out, so I sneaked in together with some local youths (used to do that when I was their age and have not lost the skill yet ) under the fence and found a good viewing place between some bushes in an embankment right next to the stage – business aviators are used to improvise …
