Jump to content

Dial (face) cleaning?


Recommended Posts

On 13/05/2018 at 10:18 AM, Redwood said:

Can the lost lettering/ branding be replaced with water slip transfers printed on a home printer and then apply a thin coat of varnish, or will this look dreadful


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

If you have a really good camera, a really good printer and you are good at using Ilustrator and/or Photoshop ... then it's doable.

 

Take a high definition picture of your dial, without crystal and perfectly front picture of course.

Open it with Photoshop and change the image so that the lettering is the real size and the definition is 4000 ppi.

Then you redesign the lost lettering on a specific layer.

Here you have to mimic the "age" of the remaining lettering cause you want to repair an old dial ... not make a brand new one.

When the design seems OK you print your file (only the layer with lost lettering) on clear decal paper, spray 1 or 2 really thin coats of varnish to protect the ink (unless you have a laser printer).

Then you can cut your decal and transfer it on the dial, trying to perfectly adjust the position.

Let the decal dry for about 24 hours then spray all the dial with a thin coat of varnish, matte or bright depending on the finish you want.

Protect the dial with a glass and let the varnish dry for about 48 hours.

Now you can put your dial on the movement, case everything and enjoy your refurbished watch.

 

If you try that one IMPORTANT thing is you must make you first tests on dials you really dont care about, because at first you could do more damages than improvements.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Tough call on that one... The issue is the clear coat/lacquer turning yellow. You can usually remove it gently with an ammonia based window cleaner and a q-tip (rinse in lots of water and dry thoroughly when done). BUT, you can also see that the black paint used to mark the minutes is sticking to the lacquer, so removing the lacquer may cause all the black paint to come off as well. Same reason why I'd keep it out of the ultrasonic cleaner: the lacquer is already chipping and the vibrations might cause it to chip even more.

If it were mine, I would leave it alone.

If you decide to go ahead, let us know what you end up doing and take pictures!

Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would leave it alone. If you think that's bad you should see some of the dials that I've handled...

Too risky to go ahead with this. Quite possibly the paint will start to come off. Not entirely but it'll turn bad and out of place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Hi All,

I am just getting started in the hobby and wondering what the best approach is to cleaning my dirty watch faces on my military watches (A-11 type), some are really faded and stained and some look like the inside of a coal fired boiler.  I recognize they will never look minty fresh, but a little cleaning will help several of them

Just looking for general suggestions /"tricks of the trade" before I do any real damage .. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a discussion recently here on radium do a search and see if you can find it. The problem with radium is it burns out the phosphorus relatively fast it is still radioactive for a very long time and depending upon how much you have it's not good for you. Then military dials and hands tended to be much much more radioactive than the civilian stuff.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I have this vintage Seiko digital LCD watch from around 1985. The "dial" seems to be very dirty and I'm wondering how I can go about cleaning it. It looks like its mostly dirt and grime. What can I use to clean it? I tried looking around for a NOS dial with no luck...

seiko lcd watch.jpg

Edited by seikoskx
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hello,

I'm working on my AS 341 movement and am trying to clean up the dial.  So far I've been able to polish the numbers by rubbing the face against some paper with a bit of polish on it.  I've also tried using a bit of soap and water as well as isopropyl alcohol, but I'm not able to bring it back to what I would expect is "clean".  Does anyone have any tips or experience with cleaning old watch dials, or what a watch dial like this "should" look like?

Closeups were done with a DLSR, taking an old manual lens and using it backwards.  Makes a great cheap macro lens!  Just make sure to check the mirror won't hit anything and the aperture is as small as possible

Thanks!

 

1668710572_PALDial.thumb.JPG.433f13da670e66e59a9752304a77b156.JPG

IMG_6489.jpg

IMG_6497.jpg

IMG_6499.jpg

IMG_6500.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • that band is old as stated, there is a kit that pops up from time to time on selling sites for the repair of these type bands, some of this type are adjustable on a few links, one adjustable type allows you to align the round opening in the expansion slit [like yours] with the rivet to separate, but if yours won't come out then the rivet head is too big and will have to be done with some rivet removal and replacement, I suppose if you could make/optain the correct rivets that one could alter the said band, the tops/caps do lift off after raising the tabs....  
    • This is a watch from a friend who sent it to a neighborhood watchmaker for a battery change. It came back with the watch stem in a ziplock bag and the dial skewed 20°. The watchmaker told him that the stem was faulty and the watch cannot be repaired. I opened up the watch and found that one dial foot was broken off and still stuck in the movement, while the other was bent until it was flat against the dial. The stem could be inserted but it couldn't be pulled out to quickset and time adjusting positions. I did a full disassemble, cleaned and oiled the movement. But when it put in the battery, the second hand runs super fast. Like it gains 30 mins every hour. Any advice on fixing this problem? TIA.
    • I determined that the balance staff is rotating, not the roller table, so my second attempt at riveting was unsuccessful. I have ordered a new balance staff and will take measurements when it arrives. The balance staff i originally ordered (and now reordered) was specified as: Replacement balance staff: (A. Schild Caliber 984 1002 1021 1124 Original Balance Staff Part 723) so it should be correct. Measurements: (see pic below for terminology) xxxyy is a place holder until the new balance staff arrives. Lower pivot: Old - .08 mm New - xxxyy Lower pivot to balance seat: Old - 1.53 mm New - xxxyy Roller shoulder: Old - .42 mm New - xxxyy Hub: Old - xxxyy New - xxxyy Balance shoulder: Old - .86 mm New - xxxyy Collet shoulder: Old - .56 mm New - xxxyy Upper pivot: Old - broken New - xxxyy
    • Hello and welcome from Leeds.  We're here to help. 
    • I was just about to adk that, probably they have unnecessary waiting lists to make their watches appear more exclusive than they actually are.
×
×
  • Create New...