Cartel 1675 Mod - step 2, dial

[NCRich 13,746]

OK so as I said in the last part the dial on these really lets you down.

 

 

It is flat and cheap looking with applied indices. I want to add some texture and I want to relume the dial. Reluming a dial like this is really hard, there are no convenient circles to apply the lume to. Nothing to draw your eye away either. The lume on these is usually apply like a screen print or ink jet type machine. Will be hard to achieve something good, but this watch is about $125 and a dial on ebay or Yuki is $125 and up. We will try to overcome.

 

So we start with a unevenly applied coat of matt lacquer. I want it to look like leather at high mag, it won't on the watch. These pics are macro so they will look a bit extreme.

 

 

Now you could put on another couple coats of lacquer and it would build up around the indices and meld it into the dial. That looks better. You could take some coffee or watercolors and, depending on your desire to age it, get something eventually like this.

 

 

And that looks ok. But lets take off the indices by pushing them out from the back with a pin. Very carefully because you can lift the paint on the dial.

 

 

Now we've got a template for the lume. The slight build up of the lacquer shows me where to lume. It is still hard to do.

 

Here is my lume stuff.

 

 

I use a water based lume binder for two reasons. First I can use watercolors to color my lume and match anything pretty well. Second I screw up, and the water based stuff I can wipe off with those manicurist Qtips you see there. I can't tell you how to lume. You have to screw up stuff for a while till you get better at it. Start with something like this, it is easier.

 

 

It doesn't have to be perfect, you see some godawful stuff on gens on ebay. So I applly lume with oilers. You can watch some really good people do it on youtube. So after an hour or so I get here.

 

 

Remember you are still looking at high mag pics. It will look way better on the watch. I let that dry real good, at least overnight. I will sand the lume where I can to make it more even (cause I'm not a master). I cut manicure emery boards into tiny files to work on that lume. I'm ready to put the hands on. BTW I relumed them to match as well. I've got brass tweezers so as not to scratch the hands, a hand set tool, a ball point pen refill (sets hour and gmt hand). I put the gmt hand on and rotate it around the dial to make sure it doesn't foul on the indices. I had to sand some of them down a tiny bit.

 

 

Tiny GMT hand - expensive little trick

 

 

With the hands off I advance the watch till the date just snaps over. Now I will attach all the hands for midnight.

 

 

Now they are all on.

 

 

 

In sunlight, I still may clean up a bit around 6/9/12.

 

 

 

OK, so next up is drilling and reshaping the case. But I'm on holiday next week so the next installment may have to wait a bit.

[Thelittleprince 2]

Pure talent!!! Well done sir!

 

:thumbsup:

[BM284 1,518]

Great stuff Rich

[GC 4,477]

That lume is nuclear, and yet looks 40yrs old in daylight. Best of both worlds.

[RussP 22,204]

I nominate Rich for immediate Vintage Rolex TD status.

 

[Rower 262]

I so wish I had your skills!