What is Tritium Illumination and is it safe?
Tritium illumination is a completely self-powered form of illumination typically used in the tactical, watch and aerospace industries due to it’s reliability.
As a soft beta emitter, Tritium is incapable of penetrating the outer skin layers and used in our watches, the Tritium illumination does not emit any harmful radiation because the electrons cannot pass through the hermetically sealed glass capillaries.
We frequently get asked the question of "What is Tritium illumination and is it safe?".
So, in this journal entry we want to provide you with plenty of information on the safety of Tritium illumination and how we safely use it in our watches.
The Science Behind the Technology
Tritium, also known as super heavy hydrogen, was first discovered by Ernest Rutherford, ML Oliphant and Paul Harteckin in 1934.
Tritium emits electrons through beta decay and when these electrons interact with a phosphorous material, a fluorescent light is created that can last up to 20 years.
When this Tritium powered illumination is sealed inside a glass tube, it is known as a GTLS (Gaseous Tritium Light Source) which is up to 100 times brighter over a long period than any comparable technology.
To produce a GTLS vial, glass is lined with phosphorescent material, then filled and pressurised by a machine with gaseous Tritium and sliced into segments by a laser beam to be sealed hermetically.
Inside the vial, the electrons emitted by the tritium gas excites the phosphor to give off the cold continuous light. GTLS can be created in different colours, generally green is perceived by the human eye as the brightest colour.
How we use Tritium Illumination
Swiss-made Tritium illumination features in each and every Nite watch due to its unwavering reliability and readability in all conditions. Our men's Tritium watch collection is currently made up of 4 series:
The Atlas: Tritium Automatic field watch
The Hawk: Tritium tactical watch
The biggest advantage of Tritium illumination is that there is no need for batteries! It doesn’t need any external light source to charge it up either. Tritium provides a constant glow, throughout the night unlike traditional illumination such as Super-LumiNova which will gradually fade in a matter of hours. This is why many see people believe Tritium watches to be the best watch for night use.
Is Tritium Illumination Safe?
The answer, you will be glad to hear, is that the Tritium illumination used in Nite watches is completely safe.
As a soft beta emitter, Tritium is incapable of penetrating the outer skin layers and used in our watches, the Tritium illumination does not emit any harmful radiation because the electrons cannot pass through the hermetically sealed glass capillaries.
We source all of our GTLS from mb-microtec of Switzerland – the original founders and market leaders of the technology and you can find more information on them via the trigalight website (https://trigalight.com/).
Why Should You Choose a Tritium Watch?
- Entirely self-powered
- Completely safe to use
- Provides a constant glow 24/7
- Looks awesome
Here at Nite its safe to say we’re obsessed with Tritium illumination so if you still have any questions please do get in touch with our team who would be delighted to help: theteam@nitewatches.com
Share
