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A dial with broken feet is salvageable?

MartinOcando

By MartinOcando
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

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MartinOcando Member

MartinOcando

Posted
Posted

I broke both feet of my Victorinox Infantry quartz watch. Long story, not worth mentioning. I've searched all over the web, and can't find a spare dial. And is a difficult size to find, since the dial is 36mm in diameter.

Is there a way that I can fix it? Or adhere it to the movement in any way? I don't want to glue it, in fact, I don't see a way to do it without damaging something, so I don't want to go that way. I'm thinking on maybe drilling a tiny hole were the fit were, and insert some kind of a T shaped rod. Even if it shows on the dial, I don't really care too much, as I really love the dial, and I'd like to recover this watch, as it has been with me for over 15 years. I'll be replacing the movement soon, though, since the original got damaged when it fell and hit the floor crown first, which broke the keyless works. But without a dial, I can't do anything.

I hope there is something I can do.

IMG_1382.jpeg

IMG_1383.jpeg

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HectorLooi Distinguished Member

HectorLooi

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Posted

There are several ways of repairing this.

Glue dots- this is the simplest but mot the best method. Thse are tiny sticky blobs of glue that you can place in areas with no moving mechanical parts. But with your day/date complication, this would be hard to find

Stick on dial feet- these are tiny thumb tacks that can be glued in the original positions of the dial feet. Personally, I haven't had much success with these. Either the glue isn't strong enough or the extra thickness of the head of the dial feet interferes with the seating of the dial.

Dial feet soldering- this is probably the most professional repair possible. Not easy to accomplish. Risk of permanent damage to dial face. May need special equipment. This is something that I've tried but yet to master. Always ended up bad. There are some videos on YouTube on this subject.

Good luck mate! ?

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MartinOcando Member

MartinOcando

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Yeah, the day-date complication covers most of the movement real state, so I don't think it'll work. As for the sticky feet, as you say, I can see them interfering with the spacing of the dial. And soldering the feet back doesn't seem like feasible with the tools I have at hand, or whomever I can find where I live, which is not very much, I'm afraid. 

So, I see myself drilling the holes from the back side, taking care not to remove too much material from the dial, and searching for some kind of very thin nail that I can push through the hole and make it fit to the locking feet in the movement. If I can achieve that, I think I'd saved the dial. I see no other way around. The feet wire gauge is very thin, so the main issue here will be to find a suitable nail.

In fact, if I can find a proper nail with a small enough head, I might even paint the head with the same olive green color of the deal. I'll see what I can finally do to this. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the tips.

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aac58 WRT Addict

aac58

Posted
Posted (edited)

There's a tool to make a recess on the dial and accommodate new feet with heads. I haven't tried it, but looks like it's easy to get the feet in the correct position, however I also think it's risky due to how thin dials are.

 

Edited by aac58
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watchweasol Distinguished Member

watchweasol

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Hi  A re curring question which has had many answers, have a look  through the search facility on the home page top right.    In answer to you question  yes they are salvageable and there are DIY options but with watches with da/date complications make it a bit more dificult.   Ther is a boolk By Wesley R Door who published in the Hofological Press who build a simple machine to re fit dial feet. I build a version of my own based on documents by Dirk Fassbender (pics below, dialface unmarked) they are catted resistance or cold soldering in that they produce an arc at the joint to melt the solder without damage.  They are easy to build and easier to use.

DSCF3262.JPG

DSCF3260.JPG

DSCF3264.JPG

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Tudor Distinguished Member

Tudor

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The glue-on feet are fine; Burgeon has them for reasonable money (which is unusual for them).

No matter what, make sure the area of repair on the back of the dial is absolutely clean (sand it to clean and roughen, and then remove all traced of sanding debris) and also sand the flat top of the replacement foot. This also helps to reduce the height of the foot. And, once the new foot is on the main plate, you can see if the large flat top is interfering with any day or date changing components, and trim/sand/clean as needed to clear. I think you will have enough height for the flat tops, since there is a date spacer ring (or something) going on there I suspect.

Use slow curing epoxy- mount the new feet into the movement (or on the bare plate if you are scared, but that may not help), apply a tiny dot of epoxy with an oiler, set the dial and align the day and date displays, as well as the center hole, before your epoxy cures. A small weight which allows you to see the dial is not moving (such as inverted shot glass) keeps pressure on until the epoxy cures. ALWAYS double the "label" cure time. One hour cure? Give it at least two...

Good luck.

Edited by Tudor
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Tudor Distinguished Member

Tudor

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Vigor is the popular jeweler's epoxy but I think it cures too fast.

I would use West System, standard cure, but that's not practical for a typical watchmaker. You need to buy large (at least a quart, possibly pint) quantities of the resin and hardener, as it is for building boats. I have some left over from guitar a cue making.

Honestly any ~1 hour cure epoxy from Home Depot or wherever will be more than strong enough, if the prep is good.

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KOwatch Watch Enthusiast

KOwatch

Posted
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Oh please do not drill through the dial and insert a nail, reading that was like watching a horror movie. Is this a halloween post? ?

The glue feet method works fine. I use JB-weld epoxy, sets overnight. I like it becuase it comes in convenient 28g tubes is already thickened/reinforced, and is much better for mixing one drop of each. The boat building stuff is hard to mix up in small amounts less than 10ml (when you only need 1ml) and you have to mix in fillers, reinforcing binders or thixotropics or it's too thin and runny. I also get to avoid going around the house looking for stuff to bond "while I'm at it" with all the extra glue since it's all mixed up and ready to go (is that just me?).

I sand down the locations of the feet on the dial with a dremel tool, and put the feet into movement itself to position them on the dial. Make sure your cannon pinion is perfectly centered in the dial when you place it. With the slow-cure, you can carefully micro-adjust or tweak your positioning again about an hour after you set it up, I find the dial can sometimes shifts .1mm or so if you're not careful, particularly with more slippery glue mixes.

Sometimes the feet are too long for the movement, you'll have to trim them before you set it up. You'll have to measure the old feet for diameter, they range from about .6mm to 1mm, and it can be specific to about .1mm, depending on the method of securing the feet. Too big and it won't fit the hole, too small and the movement won't secure to the feet properly. Dial feet screws are reasonably forgiving, but eccentric screws and the ETA-style cams are more specific with what they can hold on to.

You don't need much expopoxyxy at all, you don't want extra oozing out and gluing your dial to the movement. I've tried placing a sheet of plastic film on the movement and poking the feet through that into the dial feet holes, that seemed to not work well as it ultimately interfered with the dial positioning. I ended up spreading a tiny bit of gasket grease around the dial feet holes on the movement, so the epoxy won't stick if there was any squeeze-out, and it's easy to clean off after the glue sets up.

When it sets up I also check to see the base of the dial feet are flat on the dial and there isn't any extra glue there that could interfere with the dial sitting well on the movement. You can carefully sand/file/scrape away any extra if there is.

Edited by KOwatch
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MartinOcando Member

MartinOcando

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9 hours ago, KOwatch said:

Oh please do not drill through the dial and insert a nail, reading that was like watching a horror movie. Is this a halloween post? ?

The glue feet method works fine. I use JB-weld epoxy, sets overnight. I like it becuase it comes in convenient 28g tubes is already thickened/reinforced, and is much better for mixing one drop of each. The boat building stuff is hard to mix up in small amounts less than 10ml (when you only need 1ml) and you have to mix in fillers, reinforcing binders or thixotropics or it's too thin and runny. I also get to avoid going around the house looking for stuff to bond "while I'm at it" with all the extra glue since it's all mixed up and ready to go (is that just me?).

I sand down the locations of the feet on the dial with a dremel tool, and put the feet into movement itself to position them on the dial. Make sure your cannon pinion is perfectly centered in the dial when you place it. With the slow-cure, you can carefully micro-adjust or tweak your positioning again about an hour after you set it up, I find the dial can sometimes shifts .1mm or so if you're not careful, particularly with more slippery glue mixes.

Sometimes the feet are too long for the movement, you'll have to trim them before you set it up. You'll have to measure the old feet for diameter, they range from about .6mm to 1mm, and it can be specific to about .1mm, depending on the method of securing the feet. Too big and it won't fit the hole, too small and the movement won't secure to the feet properly. Dial feet screws are reasonably forgiving, but eccentric screws and the ETA-style cams are more specific with what they can hold on to.

You don't need much expopoxyxy at all, you don't want extra oozing out and gluing your dial to the movement. I've tried placing a sheet of plastic film on the movement and poking the feet through that into the dial feet holes, that seemed to not work well as it ultimately interfered with the dial positioning. I ended up spreading a tiny bit of gasket grease around the dial feet holes on the movement, so the epoxy won't stick if there was any squeeze-out, and it's easy to clean off after the glue sets up.

When it sets up I also check to see the base of the dial feet are flat on the dial and there isn't any extra glue there that could interfere with the dial sitting well on the movement. You can carefully sand/file/scrape away any extra if there is.

? No worries, I didn't mean an actual nail, but something made of brass, exactly like the replacement feet, but in case there was no way to glue it to the back side, I wouldn't mind to have a couple brass spots in my dial. But now I understand there are several ways to repair it. For now I'm ordering the Bergeon feet and go with the epoxy method, and see how it goes. I'll keep this thread updated with my findings.

And thanks for the JB-weld epoxy tip. 

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