Restoration of a Radioactive WW2 Military Watch - German Wehrmacht - Helma AS1130 

Well said 😍👌

Thanks 😊 About the scratches on the movement: I think that watch was in many watchmakers-hands in the past. Some are patient and some not 😉

@@RedDeadRestoration Do you ever sell the restorations or are they done for people who send items for you to restore?

I love the absence of music too.

This is a very extraordinary skill that requires patience and thoroughness, because the components are very small. Moreover, the parts are original and original, if one component is lost, it is very difficult to find

Add to all of these a great musical taste :)

When it comes to these sorts there are compromises but in this I agree with you. The new one does not work aesthetically.

I came to say the same thing.

Everyone beat me to it about the original crown.

I agree with you, excellent job but the original crown could have been kept.

...agree Humberto had the same thought....

Thanks 😊

@@RedDeadRestoration Absolutely! Keep em coming!!

The thing is it's not problematic if worn; the problems arise when scraping these and producing radium dust. Proper disposal is necessary for this.

Você fez uma teste de radiação?

I collect military radio gear and was given a working geiger counter. one day I ran it across the military radio instrument gauges and the counter meter went off the scales- found out that the military used a heck of a lot of radium on their equipment too.

@@jurematoh we r talking about Plutonium 239? 240? Come on!

@@leonardosena6338 how's about you give the radium girls a ring and ask how they're doing. Oh, right, you can't.

At the time nobody knew the dangers of radiation not even the watch company theres really nobody to blane as far as they knew it was harmless, this was back when radiation was thought to be able to be used to cure ailments as an over the counter pharmaceutical

Nice tip, thanks I will try that 👍🏻

I was thinking something very similar... agree 100% with you opinion on the hand restoration... but it was the lume that brought me to the comment section... it was my understanding (which could be off) that the old radium dials and hands had a paint applied that was "charged" by radioactivity and it was that reaction that caused the lume.. further that the paint (possibly after 10 to 20 years or so) would eventually burn out and that is the reason why these old radium watches no longer have luminance at night... even though they are still radioactive. And that "charging" them with a flashlight as shown in the beginning of this video would have no effect on these old radium dials as it was not light exposure that caused the lume but rather elements in the paint interacting with radioactivity. All this is to say my suspicion when I saw this video was that at some point in this watches history that the hands had been relumed with a more modern material that works off of light exposure similar to the product used in the restoration. Very long winded comment I know and I apologize for that but I wanted to end by saying that this was an amazing job showing fantastic skills.

@@justafanmarvel9669 hi there! The radium powder is mixed with phosphorus powder and then a liquid medium (shellac old school, varnish, nail polish). The radium is the radioactivity source and provides the ionizing radiation which stimulated the phosphorous atom to release a photon thus emitting light. Radium 226 half life is 1600 years so that is not really the result of the fading luminescence as it would take 1600 years to convert one half of the radium on the hands/dial lume to radon. Mostly, it is the aging of the medium that carries the concoction and cements it to the hands. It oxidizes (burns) due to the radiation emitted by the radium, not the light emitted by the phosphorous. This is why you can see the dial lacquer or paint ‘burnt’ by a radium set of hands that have sat in the same position (non working) for many years while the watch was in storage. This tends to mask the glow as it browns and provides a denser material for the photons to escape from. The radium ionizing radiation is not harmful to the user as the watch case/crystal offer protection. It is however harmful if the crystal is removed and the powdered aged lume becomes airborne and is inhaled. Radium was replaced with Tritium, Promethium which have half lives of 12.3 years and 17.7 years respectively. So many vintage watches circa 1955 and newer with H3 and Pm have approximately 1/32 of the stimulating ionizing radiation available as only 1/32 of the radioactive element remains. However, H3, Pm and Ra painted dials and hands can still be stimulated by light radiation which is not ionizing. However the glow is almost over very quickly as indicated in the video. Luminova is a highly concentrated phosphorous paste that is stimulated by UV and white light. I don’t know much about the chemical composition of luminova and like products outside of the phosphorous concentrations being very high. As a science experiment, (gross and stinky, maybe but still interesting) urinate into a pot with fine sand in the bottom of it and boil away the urine. Repeat many many times. Once the many many times of urinating / boiling / urinating / boiling has been completed. You are left with a sandy dry solution of phosphorous which is an end product of cell metabolism and carried out of the body in urine. Shine a light on the sandy mixture and watch it glow! No radiation involved other then light radiation which is a non ionizing portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum Cheers, Geoff

@@geoffquickfall I follow and agree with most of what you wrote... however that further illustrates the point... the dial is still radioactive as you stated the half life being over a millennium, hence the component that reacts with the radiation is what no longer functions... tritium as you mentioned doesn't require exposure to light to charge but rather is constantly glowing until its reaction depletes over the course of time( decades) however it is not radioactive... which is why it is used in firearm night sights as the exposure of a firearm to light to charge as needed would be impractical. I own a ww1 Era radiolite watch and even though the hands and dial are still painted original they no longer lume at night even though the watch is still radioactive. I own newer watches that do lume at night but respond to and require light exposure to charge the effect, these watches are not radioactive... basically as I see it we are discussing 3 different technologies each working differently to create a lume... and since each is different the reactions to light exposure as a catalyst is not effective across the different methods which is why I was puzzled initially when I so the watch in the video being charged with a flashlight and its reaction in a positive to that exposure because the original factory lume wouldn't react that way so my thinking was that the dial and hands had been updated with newer tech in the past as part of an older restoration OR that this watch was somehow newer then I thought and hence was factory made with newer tech.

@@justafanmarvel9669 i think it is terminology here that may be the problem. It isn’t Radium or Tritium that glow; it is their affect on phosphorous. Tritium is radioactive, but much less so then radium by a long shot, but still radioactive. The affect tritium has on the phosphorous will decay over decades. However, as you noted, there is a timed affect on very high ionizing radiation on the phosphorous component and the carrier of the solution. It does burn, the phosphorous depletes as it forms oxidizing components which prevent the glow of the phosphorous and the carrier also oxidizes blocking the glow over time. And yes, the reaction of the lume in the original hands may have been replaced with a weak phosphorous only plus carrier (carrier being what ever the original paste was made of to adhere the paste to the hands). To your point on tritium being non radioactive, that is incorrect as it has a half life of 12.5 years. It’s just that its form of radioactivity cannot penetrate skin let alone the crystal in a watch or on your gun sight. So yes, something in the carrier and the phosphorous on a radium watch has aged (oxidized) to the point where the phosphorous compound no longer emits photons when excepted by the left over radium or the weakened tritium. Cheers, Geoff.

There is still a lot of radium paint on the dial so there wouldn't be much of a difference

came to see a comment about this, something i would have loved to see too.

The care taken here to prevent contamination seems quite commendable; still in all, there seem to be places during this restoration that radium residue could have escaped to the work bench. This is an extremely interesting problem that watchmakers face. I’d like to learn more about techniques and process for this kind of restoration. That is a very nice modern and compact Geiger counter I wonder where one might find one.

@@marwenyahyaoui3799 ooh so thats why he didin't clean/polished the dial

They dont look that vintage to me just well used

This is actually Swiss engineering.

@@carlosamaral6917 Yes! AS was in Grenchen, Switzerland! So honour to whom honour belongs! Or: Switzerland supported Hitler!

@@jurivlk5433 Helma was a business and they've done business with those who paid first. Nothing to do with supporting any side of the war!

@@carlosamaral6917 Of course it has a lot to do with supporting the war!!! If You don't believe it, try to make business with Iran, Cuba, North Korea...Uncle Sam will explain it! The Swiss were very friendly with the Nazis and collaborated with them.

@@jurivlk5433 Juri, in business we can't see things in such a straight way. The Swiss were also selling watches to the allies. All the countries were using Swiss watches no matter if they were from the axis or allies. The only exception were the Japanese that used to be supplied by Seiko. Back in the time, the Japanese watches didn't have the indestructible and high quality reputation they have today, so buying Swiss was the only way to go. Some Italian military had a few Panerai, but at same time, they were supplied by Swiss too. You're talking about Iran... As far as I know Americans and Europeans make business with Iran. Don't they use Apple, Microsoft, Google, VW, Audi, BMW, Jeep, Ford, Opel, etc? Cuba and North Korea are just enclosed countries living on a communist bubble, but they end up buying some western products as well. The Swiss were neutrals and being neutral means dealing with both sides. Same has happened with my country, Portugal.

how was it possible for you to comment 3 days ago, when he just uploaded the video? Did you get the link when it was private?

@@TheSmokeRecords YES! I am a Patreon of RDR and we get the videos early and also get other behind the scenes stuff. It's really worthwhile. I have even purchased a restored item. I highly recommend becoming a Patreon.

Hi @@lucashipkins from where did you purchase a restored item? Hey s there a shop dedicated to the restored items of this great channel?

@@behnamkakavand You need to join his Patreon. It is well worth the monthly payment. I highly recommend it.

@@lucashipkins that’s true and already joined just few minutes ago

Danke ich werde es versuchen 😉

Thanks 😊

Ain't it grand. I fell for the job right off.

And from what I've been learning, first uncasing the watch is probably releasing some radon gas that should be addressed with good ventilation...don't want to be breathing that either.

@@tybertimus Radon have a half life of 3,8 days... The magic behind these watches, is the radium. Nowadays everything is "Awn this that bla bla ..." Snow flakes.

honestly i feel like i should be paying just to watch lol this is beautiful. every part of it

Yes, but it doesn't feel awesome on my thumb 😅

Циферблат со стрелками вечь усратый , корпус как был весь в царапинах так и остался. У нее реально проблемы со зрением и головой!!!

@@user-eb9df3qv9l да и барашек можно было оригинальный оставить

@@user-eb9df3qv9l ваш уровень оценки качества совпадает полностью с моим -))) Вы бы гармонично вписались в мою команду -)

Probably from the overhype of the radiation. 1.2 or 2.8 mSv isn't really anything strong, you need 100+ over a matter of minutes to even increase your chances of cancer or to initiate the break down of any cell in your body. There are mostly warnings for short dosages of 500+ mSv. Or they're jerks.

any way we can a watch for restoration. l have a similar Omega watch ?

Yes it is 😅

@@RedDeadRestoration you are a master!! 😃

In germany there are special centers that will take care of that stuff

It’s absolutely insane how little the general populace of the world understood and still is yet to understand about radioactivity