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I bought a non-worker for 50p to look inside. Nice heavy case, bad case back, and I think it was a Miyota inside mine. Shame it didn't work with a new battery, screw-down crown and everything.
Really not a fan of the hands, but interested in the theories.
pdlouche-
Basically the Rolex Geneva PR dept. haven't come up with an official theory as such.
It's based around it's functionality to keep the tritium in place and the Mercedes symbol was reasonably aesthetically pleasing.
I've seen a very old prototype hour hand in which the tritium was only halved but at the time the watchmakers still were not happy with the security.
The tritium compound of old was not very good at staying put, it dried out pretty quickly, cracked, got dusty and fell out.
Thankfully lum technology has come a very long way in 40 years and we don't need to worry about surface area like the watchmakers had to back in the day.
The merc symbol isn't needed anymore but will remain as part of the heritage.
Still prefer something like the Tudor snowflake though.
Antidotes
I bought one for £13 from china once. Was a great watch until it started running backwards. I expected more from Rolex.