Luminesence

[Huertecilla]

Most lcd watches have a reflective foil under the display and a led for night lighting.

Once upon a time there were lcd watches with a tritium tube in a tray under the display.

Several modern chinese displays have a luminescent layer under the display. Most times electroluminescent like the Timex dials.

I wonder if a photoluminescent paint on the back of the display would improve the readeability of a standard lcd.
Has anyone here applied photoluminescent paint to the back of a display as a home grown mod?

I have peeled off the polarising sheet from displays to make an ´invisible´ watch so am not tóó apprehensive about the reflecting foil and the piant is easlily enough sourced but.... some first hand experience is always bonus info.

Thanks in advance.

[LEDluvr]

It sounds like a good idea Huertecilla. Abem has done some good work on replacing the tritium vials on a few of his vintage watches but I don't recall anyone mentioning the technique you propose. I say give it a go! Unfortunaltey, it seems today's luminesent paint is so weak the glow fades after a few hours at most. If there was a way to find and use the 'old school' radium paint - like the kind commonly used in the 1950's - now that would very bright!

[abem]

Huertecilla,

This sounds like a fine idea and I think you should be able to pull it off with no problem.

There are all sorts of different materials that have been used as LCD reflectors and they all seem to work reasonably well. Some watches use silvery plastic foil, some use semi transparent reflective foil with a backlight underneath, some use textured metal reflectors (silver or gold), some use colored plastic or paper (usually green).

Below is an example of a Tritium backlight mod that I did. I wore this watch to a film festival this weekend - works great in the dark. The tritium actually uses a phosphor to create its colored glow. The tritium itself just emits beta rays, which don't glow unless they strike a phosporescent material. Hence, the different colors of Tritium vials are actually due to different phosphors:
http://www.timetrafficker.com/watches/l ... index.html

Tritium is rather pricey, though, so if you find a decent phosphor / superluminova type solution that works well, then that would be a good alternative.

I look forward to some pix of the phosphorescent backlight. If it works, maybe you can even try different colors!

-abe.

[LEDluvr]

Not to get OT, but is this your own website Abem??

http://www.timetrafficker.com/watches/lcd/fairchild-lcd-tritium/index.html

[abem]

Yes, it's a work in progress. It's nice to have a place where I can put my watch photos all together in one place and to collect little historical anecdotes and vintage ads that go with each model. I enjoy writing the little profiles for each watch type and try to capture the significance of each piece as well as I can since I think each one that I have is interesting in some way or another which may or may not be immediately obvious.

I may eventually use this to sell a few odds and ends at a little retro store down the street from my house that is owned by a friend of mine.

Right now, I'm working on a little watch history interactive timeline, so if you have suggestions for additional historical watch events that aren't listed here, let me know!:
http://www.timetrafficker.com/about/history/index.html

-abe.

[LEDluvr]

abem wrote:

Right now, I'm working on a little watch history interactive timeline, so if you have suggestions for additional historical watch events that aren't listed here, let me know!:

Thank Abem, I'll check out your site and let you know if anything comes to mind.

Back to the main topic - Huertecilla, I hope you give your idea a try. Many of us have older LCD watches that are not 'collectable' so we could make this modifcation too if your experiement works out.

[Huertecilla]

Huertecilla, I hope you give your idea a try. Many of us have older LCD watches that are not 'collectable' so we could make this modifcation too if your experiement works out.

Found a source for the right lume.
The only snag is wether I trust myself to get the display on the zebra connectors again.
It is after all neither a non-collectable nor an oldie. It is just that the quality of the display is the only letdown and lume would brighten it up.