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Posted

A mark 11 iwc civilian model, blacked out arrow with a sterile case back.

 

Hands are a dark green, so matched the hands to the dial luminous.

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Posted

A large sized screwback longines from the 1940's.

 

Hands were missing luminous. 

 

Very hard colour for me to match, so luminous compound wasn't at all nice to work with.

 

Some luminous was missing from numbers. So I decided it was best to just touch them up and fill in missing bits, keeping it as original as possible, instead of redoing the lot. 

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Posted

Hello again BW,

Do you have any tips for light cleaning of old dials. I tend to try a mild fairy liquid solution on a cotton bud.

Cheers,

Vic

Posted

Fairy liquid and luke warm water does do wonders sometimes, but it's only if the dial is dirty with actual dirt or grease on it.

I've only tried it on some watches that I was going to restore the dial, normally works with dials that the outer edge is grubby, this is because someones sweat has gathered around the edge.

It won't get rid of any natural ageing though. Like the longines above. The discolouration is under the dial lacquer. Though some people love patina, and it's becoming more and more popular. (Chocolate dial speedmasters :-p, there was a time when you couldn't give them away.)

I don't have any techniques to clean dials any better than fairy up liquid.

Some people use silver dip, but I think it's dumb, I've seen it make dials lighter, but it leaves all these nasty scratches that reflect when you move the watch to a different angle. I much prefer a yellow dial than one with scratches on it.

I also watched some guy put a vintage rolex daytona dial in the stuff, and he wouldn't stop until "he got it perfect" and then all the lettering came off.

Posted (edited)

New one, relumed yesterday, and put together this morning.

Don't know why but all the luminous was missing when I bought it. Also missing lum from the second hand.

Relumed and replaced missing lum dot on case.

 

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Edited by BeyondWorld
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