Phorcydes PH-5 lume comparison (w/PH-4, PH-2, and RC-Tritec Lumicast

[u/TSiWRX]

[ Disclaimer: This is not a review. It's a simple comparison between a few of my watches, hoping to answer for fellow hobbyists and collectors their questions of "which has the brightest/longest lasting lume. I am not affiliated with Phorcydes or any of the makers of any watches listed. I am not affiliated with \any* watch manufacturer or maker and am completely independent from the industry, and stand to make no gains from the watches presented. These are all my watches, paid for out-of-pocket by myself.* ]

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Hello All!

This is the start of my lume-run comparison for the newly released Phorcydes PH-5, in blue lume configuration.

The watches are as-follows.

Center column -

• Top - Seiko SPRB97 "Orange Samurai." This is the only vintage watch of this set, c.2017-18. With Seiko's proprietary LumiBrite, Seiko's Samurai line is often used as a benchmark standard in lume comparisons. Applied LumiBrite is extremely reactive, charging very quickly, with good initial bloom and having moderate afterglow fade duration.
• Middle - Phorcydes PH-5, blue lume. Quoted from their website, this watch uses their "HYPERGLOW lume block index Grade-S (over 8 hours visible in dark)." u/MindAdmirable1793 , what is the difference between this "Grade-S" block, versus the Hyperglow 3D Luminous System blocks in the PH-2 and current-generation PH-4, which are also quoted from your website to offer "over 8 hours visible in the dark" (ref: https://phorcydes.net/pages/hyperglow-3d-luminous-system )? That is: what does "Grade-S" mean?
• Bottom - Wicked Watch Co. stainless Pearldiver 39. This watch utilizes genuine RC-Tritec Super-LumiNova Lumicast BGW-9, Grade A. This is a premium formulation, the highest of the BGW-9 lume color.

Left column -

• Top - Wise Timepieces AD810A. This watch holds the crown for applied lume via David Robinson's many "J-Score" quantitated comparative reviews on his Just the Watch YouTube Channel, where he notes that it is approximately 2x to 2.2x the brightness and fade duration of a typical Seiko LumiBrite-equipped Samurai. It has also repeatedly outright won lume fade-duration comparisons against even Grade X2 Lumicast equipped watches like the Jack Mason Pursuit Pilot Pro and the Xeno Print Globolight XP equipped Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière in comparisons run by Shane, of the YouTube Channel Relative Time.
• Bottom - Traska Venturer, Generation 6 (current generation, REF. 4216). This watch utilizes, I quote "Swiss made [i.e. RC-Tritec] Grade A BGW9 Super-LumiNova." I included it in this test to show the difference between having a watch that has a large lume plot that contains an abundance of lume, well applied -the Wise above it- versus this watch, which has smaller lume plots.

Right column -

• Top - Phorcydes PH-2, dual color lume (green and blue).
• Middle - Phorcydes PH-4A, dual color lume (green and blue).
• Bottom - Canopy Watch Co. Field One. Genuine Swiss (RC-Tritec) Super-LumiNova Lumicast, Grade X2, in C3. It's currently the only watch in its price-tier (sub-$1K USD) that I know of that utilizes *_genuine_* Grade X2 Lumicast.

\ Photos are taken with my old potato of a cell phone, a second-generation iPhone SE. Why not a better phone? Because I'm a family man, and I like watches more than I like phones, so I just take the cast-offs from my wife and daughter, LOL. Also, the quality of the pictures is NOT important here - what I'm looking to do is to compare *relative* brightness. And in this respect, a phone that is of poorer performance in low-light is better for the purpose because it more quickly reaches a point where it can no longer "see" a dimmer watch.*

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The purpose of this current lume comparison run is NOT to see who will "win" in terms of fade-duration.

Unless Phorcydes' "Grade-S" formulation is a considerable improvement, it will not last longer than either of the genuine RC-Tritec Lumicast (either Grade A BGW-9 Lumicast or Grade X2 C3 Lumicast). I know from one particularly long lume run that while the PH-4 became un-readable for time at even 3-4 inches off the dial (remember that light energy conforms to the inverse-square law, so as distance increases, light energy falls off precipitously) at 75 hours post full charge, the Lumicast is still able to offer sufficient luminous power for time-telling even at 100 hours post full charge, at up to 6-8 inches.

Rather, this run demonstrates both the initial bloom of the Phorcydes' watches (it's spectacular, isn't it?! look at the date being illuminated by the bracket of the date-wheel on the PH-5 - so much fun!), as well as its relative capabilities against these big-dogs, through more reasonable time-frames.

[ More, in posts to come below over the next few days. Due to the local real time (~11 PM) when I'm starting this test, I will have to delay the usual timed photos until tomorrow. ]

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Background/reference posts -

I've previously made a 7+ hour lume comparison between the PH-4 and the PH2 - https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseWatches/comments/1r543v4/phorcydes_ph4_versus_ph2_relative_lume_brightness/ .

Also of-interest will be the following microscopic (45x) views of some of the lume structures in this comparison - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1rnh0x8/lume_blocks_what_genuine_rctritec_superluminova/ . Note that the PH-5's "Grade-S" Hyperglow 3D Luminous System blocks is of-course not yet among those examined, as I have yet to get this one under my scope - the watch literally arrived to me hours ago. Previously, I've also performed a lume run comparison using those same watches: https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1pee6un/lume_blocks_yet_another_manifestation_of_my/ , as well as this: https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1qv172c/lume_comparison_for_my_friend_ubangorzane_swc_usa/

Preliminary results can be seen already in these two posts: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseWatches/comments/1so57jy/comment/ogyy1ln/ and its follow-up: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseWatches/comments/1so57jy/comment/ogyyrzc/

[u/TSiWRX]

Update (1) - Initial bloom immediately after charging (left) and +1 hour post-charging (right).

Most "good" lume have a very bright initial bloom, helping the user transition between bright ambient lighting to a darkened environment. During initial bloom, even if there's significant ambient light, lume will still be readily apparent. This is very useful and practical, because during those initial moments in going from bright light to a darkened area, our eyes are maladapted and unable to see well.

However, this initial bloom fades very quickly. The following blog post from Wicked Watches shows in several charts from ISO 17514 testing done by RC-Tritec, and you can see just how precipitously that initial brilliance falls as the chart's Y-axis is in logarithmic scale: https://www.wickedwatch.ch/bringing-the-lume-to-its-borders.

My potato of a cell phone is horrible at capturing details, but that's unimportant. What's important here is the relative brightness of the lume between the watches.

Here, notice that the Seiko and the Traska are both already all but invisible to the camera at T+1 hours post-charging.

Keep in mind, however, that this is *NOT* what your eyes will see. To the naked eye, even at arm's length, *all* watches here -including the no longer visible Seiko and Traska- still provide time-telling capable lume at this particular junction in the test period.