Hi-first of all hello! been lurking and reading for a while.
I have bought Aquaracer that I really like but has been discontinued! - My first, but not last Tag Heuer!
It's a Aquaracer quartz WAY1110.
It's new, but never been out of its box, except for a battery change a few years ago!
The luminous dials and indices are very dim in dark light, and I am wondering is because it's been literally in the dark for 4 years!
Will these improve with exposure to sun/light etc?
Thanks

 

Lume only degrades with time, and exposure to light will shorten it's lifespan further. Should still be fine after 4 years in the dark though! Tags are not known for their amazing lume, but following exposure to bright sunlight it should be readable into the small hours of the night provided it's really dark.

 

Hey! Sounds odd, Aquaracer lume is normally rather good.

Anyway, show us some photos of that beauty of yours!

And welcome to the forum

 

Thought it was only tritum lume that faded, all modern lume (superlumonova etc) didn’t have a shelf life, and should glow strong one charged.

 

Leave it on a windowsill or shine a torch on it and see what happens. I only discovered recently that lume is actually designed to be used with a torch... you are supposed to shine a torch on it when diving and it shines. Of course most of us don't dive so much so people talk about it lasting through the night, but that's not really the point.

 

After having no lume on my first ‘luxury’ watch ahem a U Boat, I know now it’s a non negotiable for me. Even a little bit is needed.

Been spoilt with the Seiko Monster & Panerai. Now both home. Must day the BB58 lume will last all night & that’s with no torch charging. Helpful when the little one calls me at god knows what hour!

The little kid in me also enjoys going from somewhere bright to dark and the lume doing its job.

 

Well, I agree that superluminova will last a long time and it won't discolour like tritium, but absolutely everything degrades over time (not even a diamond is for ever) and light radiation, whether from the sun or a man-made source will only speed that process up. You've seen how things fade when they've been left in sunlight (e.g. a shop window) for a long time - same principle.

But yeah, a 4 year old watch should be absolutely fine, it won't have noticeably lost much I imagine.

 

Thank you all. I may be expecting too much- not having had another one to compare it with!!
I tried a torch and it does lume brightly for a while!

 

Thanks,
Here is a photo of it!
I actually went into our Tag Heuer dealer to buy a new 200 series quartz but did not like it on my wrist-for me it was too much case and not enough dial. The assistant had a older WAY 1110 on and I thought it was a much better balance of case/dial and that's when I decided to try and find a new old stock one!
I think the non quartz ones look a lot better, but as my wife pointed out- as I don't wear it every day ill forget to put it on a watch winder and when I want it it will be stopped!