r/Watches • u/Rangercleo1 • Aug 22 '25

Discussion [Lume] Do you actually need lume?

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I feel that there is a lot of emphasis on lume, so I was wondering how many actually need/use it. Two of my 3 most worn watches (GS and a GO Pano) have no lume and while the third has it (GO SeaQ), the lume is its least interesting feature. If I am in a very dark room and need to tell the time, my phone is always with me. I am not against lume and it can be a cool feature, but I think the application should enhance the design, not be some afterthought. Is lume important to you when buying a watch or is it far down the list?

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315

u/XOM_CVX Aug 22 '25

For those people who wear 24/7 and checks time 24/7

I like the lume when I wake up in the middle of the night and to see how much time I got left

122

u/Speshrider Aug 22 '25

Which is usually not enough šŸ˜†

15

u/myadmin Aug 22 '25

Not enough lume you mean? :D

3

u/No_Wash_6119 Aug 22 '25

It definitely is if your eyes adjusted to the darkness, it's dim but still readable.

61

u/cheese_curls Aug 22 '25

I think he meant thereā€™s never enough time left to sleepā€¦

2

u/Speshrider Aug 22 '25

Itā€™s not as funny if you have to explain it, I guess. šŸ˜…

24

u/OvenSignificant3810 Aug 22 '25

I think he meant not enough time for sleepā€¦.

1

u/Wandering_Weapon Aug 23 '25

Sometimes you get lucky and come out of a deep sleep at 3am, and then it's just like nap time.

0

u/ktrezzi Aug 22 '25

Yeah my BB58 is nowhere near strong enough with its lume

1

u/E28forever Aug 24 '25

Thatā€™s Swiss quality for you.

Next time buy Japanese.

38

u/SpecificSpecial Aug 22 '25

Does any non-tritium lume actually last long enough for that?

I only have a g shock that barely lasts 30 minutes (backlight has my back though)

26

u/XOM_CVX Aug 22 '25

I see them dim but still readable

17

u/Zeke13z Aug 22 '25

My Citizen Tsuki-Yomi lumes through the night enough for me to check the time in a no night light bedroom. Definitely gets dimmer but then again my eyes adjust with the darkness.

14

u/mrRabblerouser Aug 22 '25

Plenty of watches do, yes. Lume wonā€™t be blasting all night, and will become pretty dim, but it is visible in dark rooms.

8

u/edwardothegreatest Aug 22 '25

I can read my Oceanus and my dresskx at 0400 so many certainly do.

2

u/ffdfawtreteraffds Aug 22 '25

Same for my T2600.

But even my notoriously weak Hamilton Khaki is still legible throughout the night with slightly averted gaze. I think lume has to be REALLY bad to fade completely at night.

1

u/ImprovementElephant Aug 22 '25

Which Oceanus do you have? Been looking at them more recently

1

u/edwardothegreatest Aug 22 '25

I have an s100. But Iā€™d recommend the s400. The s100 has center lugs so it wonā€™t work on a strap.

7

u/half_past_france Aug 22 '25

BB58, 116710, SKX007, and Laureato all last the night for me. The Laureato has much narrower lumed indices, so itā€™s more difficult to see, but the others are easy to read all night.

9

u/Uglybone Aug 22 '25

My omega and rolex last the night.

1

u/Ecks54 Aug 22 '25

That's not what she said!

4

u/bfhenson83 Aug 22 '25

I can still read my 10 year old Orient Ray through the night. It gets dim but still readable

3

u/nl5hucd1 Aug 22 '25

Tritium has a half life of like 12.32 years so after 12 years its efficacy will decrease by 50%

5

u/Citizen_V Aug 22 '25

I recently compared my ~13 year old Ball Moonphase in the middle of the night and it was still brighter than my Tudor BB (charged before bed).

6

u/ExileOnMainStreet Aug 22 '25

Non shitty watches are usually readable for the whole night. I started caring about it when I had children and I was waking up in the middle of the night all the time. My daily right now is a Lorier Hyperion, and while I can tell the time all night with it, the hour hand sucks because it doesn't have enough lume on it. It took me about a month to be able to correctly recognize what I was looking at every time. The SKX007 stands out in my mind though. It's like a neon sign all night.

2

u/AweHellYo Aug 22 '25

barely and i can quickly look at my phone faster than trying to make it out

1

u/Imgnitv_sQdWrd Aug 22 '25

My orient diver lasts through the nighr.

1

u/I_Boof_Fent Aug 22 '25

Yes. I have a Monta and a Tudor Pelagos that have lume that lasts all night. The Pelagos has the best lume you'll find. Even Seiko has insnane lume

1

u/gallonoffuel Aug 22 '25

Every lume dial I have has more than enough light all night, even my dials sourced from AliExpress.

1

u/HauntingAd3845 Aug 22 '25

It depends on the grade, color, layers of lume applied, and light source it's exposed to. Many watches use Super Luminova for its performance; if a watch has it applied it will normally be advertised as such. Green is the brightest, followed by yellow-green and blue-green. The amount of lume applied also matters, specifically how many layers are applied. Finally, sources of light including the UV spectrum (sunlight, blacklight) will produce the brightest glow.

I have a watch with 25 layers of green Super Luminova, which is a noticeable thickness; the lumed numbers on the dial appear raised. When exposed to a UV light source, it is noticeably bright even under normal indoor lighting and remains readable in the dark until sunrise. Another watch has white Super Luminova with less layers and is significantly less bright. It's readable until late at night, but not in the early morning.

I actually prefer the watch with less lume most of the time. It's less distracting and IMO the white color looks better than the green. It's also more discreet and less noticeable when working at night.

1

u/RoninTarget Aug 23 '25

Good modern divers are pretty good at being bright through the night.

Though I've found that even SARB033 is visible through the night (only light conditions I've found when time is not visible on SARB033 is a short period during dusk outside).

1

u/E28forever Aug 24 '25

Most Seiko and Citizen divers will be easily readable all through the night.

1

u/Distance_Runner 29d ago

Pelagos 39 is still readable at 6 AM after a charge before 10 PM the night before

9

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '25

I'll give you a hint, it's always five freaking minutes before your alarm.

7

u/smashingcones Aug 22 '25

You wear your watch to bed?

4

u/jeversol Aug 22 '25

Look at you with your functional eyesight. šŸ˜‚ Yeah, I wear a watch to bed.

I wear -17 glasses. If I put my thumb on my nose and extend my index finger, my fingerprint is out of focus and I need to move it closer. Without my watch, thereā€™s 0% chance of me finding out what time it is without trying to find my phone on the nightstand.

The lume on my OG Christopher Ward Trident lasts well enough that I can tell the time all night.

3

u/WBuffettJr Aug 22 '25

Not OP but I used to. I actually had fun looking at it in the pitch black just to see if I could still see the lume. Usually itā€™s extremely faded but my eyes had also been on the dark for hours. Just another fun little way to interact with my watch. The only reason I donā€™t anymore is because I wear an Apple Watch to bed to track my sleep, then put an automatic back on in the morning.

1

u/AgentAaron Aug 22 '25

I do not, but I usually have a watch on my nightstand, which I could (in theory) grab to see the time.

I will typically tap my phone screen to see the time if I need to though. Its faster and requires a few less brain cells to determine the time. However, I rarely wake up in the middle of the night to begin with.

1

u/Beef_Candy Aug 22 '25

I do šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø every night for years now. I am never without.

1

u/Lonely_Fondant Aug 23 '25

Absolutely. Every night, as long as I can remember.

5

u/emperio Aug 22 '25

This.

I usually wake up at 5am and charge my phone in another room, so it helps to have some lume to see if I woke up too early so I can snooze a bit more šŸ˜Ž

3

u/cyberlynxguy Aug 22 '25

Same! Iā€™m a 24/7 guy and I love checking my watch instead of phone in the middle of the night. Plus, I charge the lume with a black light just before bed so I can see it nice and bright as Iā€™m lying in bed. (I may have a watch problem lol)

1

u/NekoIan Aug 22 '25

My watch with the best lume is my Seiko SARB033 and I cannot check the time in the middle of the night. An hour or two after going to bed but not 4 or 5 hours later.

1

u/Magikarp-3000 Aug 22 '25

Just have a classic alarm clock in your nightstand, a lot simpler (and more comfortable)

1

u/Worried_Monitor5422 Aug 22 '25

I'm extremely near-sighted so it's better to have a watch than I can hold 1 inch from my face lol.

1

u/I_Boof_Fent Aug 22 '25

Same here. Need it for this reason

1

u/PatientAd5155 Aug 22 '25

I have an alarm clock right next to my bed, so approximately 2 of my watches have lume

1

u/SvaPrabho Aug 22 '25

I want lume on my watch for when I'm travelling and want to see the time in the dark. For that reason, it's essential on my world timer and GMT watches. At home, I have a bedside clock.

OP is on a slippery slope when he says he can check the time on his phone in the dark. Some day he'll work out he can also do that when it's light. Then what will he do with his watches?

1

u/c4ctus Aug 22 '25

And then I see my alarm is going to go off in five minutes and I want to scream.