Mark:

It would be interesting to try to establish (1) when Heuer stopped using radium, and was it across the entire line or did the radium continue on some models, while being discontinued in others, and (b) when Heuer began using the "T" mark on the dial.

I have some of the tellow boxes for the dashboard timers marked, "Rad", indicating that the timepiece in the box was still using Radium. Perhaps these dashboard timers were among the models for which the extra luminosity of Radium continued, after some other models had switched to Tritium?

I will inquire of our best source of information.

Jeff

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: It's possible the earliest Autavias used radium, but fairly
: unlikely - some watch manufacturers were still using it in the
: 60s, but mainly for applications where "extra"
: luminosity was required like dive watches and some military
: applications needing good night readability. It was considered
: not entirely ethical at that point too, given that the radium
: girls case had flagged up the dangers of radium as early as the
: 1920s. I think it's more likely that it ties in with the
: recognition that tritium can be dangerous as well (though only
: when ingested) and additional legislation coming in regarding
: its use and export controls. So my best guess would be that both
: T'd and T-less watches use tritium, but the later watches are
: obliged to notify this on the dial. This could be a very good
: question to pose to the ex-Heuer watchmakers I reckon.

: We can indeed. Some of the early polygon-caseback Carreras
: have no 'T' on the dial either, on watches with no dial
: retouching. So that would put the phasing in of that legislation
: at some point during 1964 and trials of other lume materials a
: few years later (for Heuer, others had started earlier), which
: makes some kind of sense.

: The 1962 catalogue that introduced the Autavias:

:
:

: doesn't show any Ts but we can't always trust the catalogue
: shots for the fine details. I really like these large-register
: Autavias - Peter had a splendid two-reg example at the
: auction.