Jump to content

How do you 'Age' your lume?


Tmuir

Recommended Posts

I've got a watch I've been asked to restore mechanically which has a rather badly aged dial.

The owner is aware I cant do anything with the dial but the watch has brass hands and the lume is flaking out from the hands.

As the dial is really showing the age if I replace the lume I cant have it looking new and bright.

I bought one product which is meant to give the lume an aged look, but I'm not happy with it.

What do people use here to give the lume a more aged appearance when reluming an old watch?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sometimes i mixed the old lume with new lume. Have used Noctilumina aged pigment that has no glow. Even used some black marker pen to get the lume a little blackish. Or grey as they usually are if the have been around for many years. It's just how much black you use.  Take care if they are radium. So you use the radium lume again. Yellow marker pen work great to. But it takes very little to color in the lume. 

Edited by rogart63
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes unsure if it is radium or not, so will treat it as is it is radium lume.

I'm guessing the watch was made around the time Radium was being phased out.

Thanks for the tip on Noctilumina, I wasn't aware of that brand and it will now require some further investigation

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was too initially. Someone mentioned that and it works better. 

Its a bit fiddly as lume can absorb at different rates, but dip-blow dry- check -repeat can usually get a perfect match. 

Use daylight only if possible for best match. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like it might be time for me to raid some of the broken watches at my class to get some hands to have a practice on, although I'm sure my wife will think I'm madder than usual when I tell her I need to make some tea and coffee to paint my watch hands with......

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • This is a type of tool that may be suitable to remove the bezel - though note that I'm pretty sure the watch should be face down - not face up, as in some of the photos of these tools on amazon & ebay! If you try one one of those, put the movement screws back in first to avoid accidents. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Removal-Professional-Remover-Watchmaker-Diameter/dp/B09XCH4QVN?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=A296NCMMFVXSDN&th=1  
    • Hi, I’m constantly asking my wife to help me with removing the stem in order to complete casing. To expand, this is not a challenge for me when the setting lever is secured by a screw (older calibers). However when the setting lever is attached to a spring loaded setting lever axel, like on more modern calibers, I simply don’t see how to apply enough pressure on the button to get the stem out short of putting the movement face down with the dial and hands attached, which I’m loath to do in order to avoid damaging the dial/hands? what technique should I be using? thanks  
    • Many thanks for your advice (being borne in mind at present) & offer Dell. When I was given the clock the plastic anchor was loose on the arbour (it had split at the 'hole') &, after repairing this, I have been trying to determine whether the spindle (pin) should be perpendicular when the pallet is sitting on a flat surface; or whether, when installed, its L-R extremes (or alternatively its tick & tock points) should lie at equal angles from the vertical when moved with spring absent. I can get the clock to run but in every such configuration the top block has to be turned anti-clockwise (from above) by quite a bit in order to be 'in beat' & it always runs fast (despite the pendulum being set to as slow as possible). This makes me wonder if there is any particular feature of/fault in a torsion spring clock which determines which turn direction (if any) is necessary to get it 'in beat'; & whether there would be a different set of settings that would get it running nearer to time at somewhere around the mid timing/inertia position which would then allow tweaking of the fast/slow setting.
    • Now this has happened I bet China or India just to name two will start to produce none genuine parts.  I did. But idiot Boris Johnson failed miserably in his negotiations. The E U stitched up the UK like a kipper. Nigel Farage  offered his help but big head Boris declined. So this is why we are in this mess all because Johnson wasn't clever enough.  
    • Hands up all those who voted to leave the EU 😂, oopsie.  UK has just signed the Hague convention, next year that will provide cross border clout to British courts.
×
×
  • Create New...