Review of sanding an ARF dial to fit a Submariner v9 case 116610LN
Hi guys, this little review shall give you a brief info of how I sanded my slightly to large ARF 116610LN dial to fit a Noob v9 case.
The problem with ARF dials is that on certain watches they have incorrect dial diameter. Obviously, this counts for Daytonas as well as for Subs.
Therefore you can’t install them without modifications to a gen spec case (like noob v9). So either you sand down the case, which is more tricky IMO and can cause rehaut damages, or you sand down the dial. I decided for option B.
As I’m not having any professional tools, I used a Dremel 6000, which is doing some basic work for me. I do also have the respective free standing work station to mount the Dremel (which is important IMO, otherwise you cannot be any precise).
I used one of the sanding tools which came directly together with the Dremel itself. Make sure to use a rather fine-grain one as the dial is super sensitive.
And then I just started. Activated the Dremel, put over some finger gloves to not touch the dial with my skin, and sanded down some millimeters by circling around the dial. As I had nothing to measure for how much I need to take off, I tested the dial after each complete circle. Make sure to put evenly pressure, not to make it a rectangle
As the edges of dials are covered / hidden by the case anyway and the dial feet will center the dial, it’s not that important to keep a perfect circle alive. But at least it should be close to good
Otherwise you might oversand it and can cause a gap between dial and case. However, it seems that there is enough room to try as I needed to sand and circle around many times (5 times or more, before it fit into my case).
Just a recommendation:
As I am not a professional and I did not sand any dial before, I was sometimes not as precise and slipped down with the sanding wheel. This caused some scratches on the dial. Once it’s installed, they are not that visible, because it’s on the edges only - had luck. However, I figured out that I did always slip down to the left side.
The reason behind could be, that I’m a right hand guy and might put little bit more pressure from right side and then slip down to the left.
After this happened 3 times, I swapped the Dial face from the right to the left. Means the dial face was now looking at the Dremel. This was a good move, because I slipped down two more times but this caused only some scratches on the back of the dial (be careful not to cut off the dial feet by coincidence).
After the dial was ready and diameter fit for the case, I cleaned it with an air pump and very gently with a watches micro fibre cloth.
Finally, I’m quiet happy about the result and that I tried this. Nonetheless, I would only recommend to do this with a dial you are not unhappy if losing it.
The total watch I put together as follows:
-V7 Bands (SELs supported by tape, you can read my v8, v9 comparison if you like to know why: https://forum.replica-watch.info/fo...-regmariner-hulk-comparison-submariner-116610)
-ARF clasp 904L (it’s a nice clasp, only v6s is better)
-Noob v9 case 904L (good case but little different lug thickness - see also comparison thread above)
-V8 crystal (had a nice cyclops)
- V9 hands (should have changed to ARF because Noob uses more Creme Lume color while ARF uses more white lume color. Therefore this doesn’t match 100%. Might change them one day)
-SA3135 (it runs and winds really good, usually I am not a big fan of the SA but this one seems quiet ok)
-ARF dial (as described above, sanded to fit)
-Gen gasket
-Gen tube
-Gen crown
-Gen Date Disc (fits without modifications)
-Gen flip lock (just because I liked to have a gen crown on my flip lock - interestingly this fits ARF clasp very good but leaves some gaps on v6s clasp. Therefore I decided to use it on my ARF clasp as the v6s is really very good as it is. You can see the difference of gen flip lock by how precise and clean they are polished inside)
-Gen spring bars
-V9 bezel assembly (have a gen assembly here as well but honestly I can’t mount ceramic inserts or remove them without cracking. That’s why I prefer Noob for the moment until I decide which insert I will finally use - Noob is just glued)
-CF Inlay (on special order and Production of a local watch smith). Did a comparison bellow between CF original version, versus this one. Really can’t stand which one I should use. Both have some pros and little cons only but look at the pics.
Here we go:
Update:
Corrected my description in picture of dial face between sanding (from right to left) and added the CleanFactory insert comparison of the local watch smith version (called MB in some pics) versus original CleanFactory Lee version (CF) plus against a gen LV insert on some pics and some pics with mounted inserts on LV dial (just for fun)
Hi guys, this little review shall give you a brief info of how I sanded my slightly to large ARF 116610LN dial to fit a Noob v9 case.
The problem with ARF dials is that on certain watches they have incorrect dial diameter. Obviously, this counts for Daytonas as well as for Subs.
Therefore you can’t install them without modifications to a gen spec case (like noob v9). So either you sand down the case, which is more tricky IMO and can cause rehaut damages, or you sand down the dial. I decided for option B.
As I’m not having any professional tools, I used a Dremel 6000, which is doing some basic work for me. I do also have the respective free standing work station to mount the Dremel (which is important IMO, otherwise you cannot be any precise).
I used one of the sanding tools which came directly together with the Dremel itself. Make sure to use a rather fine-grain one as the dial is super sensitive.
And then I just started. Activated the Dremel, put over some finger gloves to not touch the dial with my skin, and sanded down some millimeters by circling around the dial. As I had nothing to measure for how much I need to take off, I tested the dial after each complete circle. Make sure to put evenly pressure, not to make it a rectangle
As the edges of dials are covered / hidden by the case anyway and the dial feet will center the dial, it’s not that important to keep a perfect circle alive. But at least it should be close to good
Otherwise you might oversand it and can cause a gap between dial and case. However, it seems that there is enough room to try as I needed to sand and circle around many times (5 times or more, before it fit into my case).
Just a recommendation:
As I am not a professional and I did not sand any dial before, I was sometimes not as precise and slipped down with the sanding wheel. This caused some scratches on the dial. Once it’s installed, they are not that visible, because it’s on the edges only - had luck. However, I figured out that I did always slip down to the left side.
The reason behind could be, that I’m a right hand guy and might put little bit more pressure from right side and then slip down to the left.
After this happened 3 times, I swapped the Dial face from the right to the left. Means the dial face was now looking at the Dremel. This was a good move, because I slipped down two more times but this caused only some scratches on the back of the dial (be careful not to cut off the dial feet by coincidence).
After the dial was ready and diameter fit for the case, I cleaned it with an air pump and very gently with a watches micro fibre cloth.
Finally, I’m quiet happy about the result and that I tried this. Nonetheless, I would only recommend to do this with a dial you are not unhappy if losing it.
The total watch I put together as follows:
-V7 Bands (SELs supported by tape, you can read my v8, v9 comparison if you like to know why: https://forum.replica-watch.info/fo...-regmariner-hulk-comparison-submariner-116610)
-ARF clasp 904L (it’s a nice clasp, only v6s is better)
-Noob v9 case 904L (good case but little different lug thickness - see also comparison thread above)
-V8 crystal (had a nice cyclops)
- V9 hands (should have changed to ARF because Noob uses more Creme Lume color while ARF uses more white lume color. Therefore this doesn’t match 100%. Might change them one day)
-SA3135 (it runs and winds really good, usually I am not a big fan of the SA but this one seems quiet ok)
-ARF dial (as described above, sanded to fit)
-Gen gasket
-Gen tube
-Gen crown
-Gen Date Disc (fits without modifications)
-Gen flip lock (just because I liked to have a gen crown on my flip lock - interestingly this fits ARF clasp very good but leaves some gaps on v6s clasp. Therefore I decided to use it on my ARF clasp as the v6s is really very good as it is. You can see the difference of gen flip lock by how precise and clean they are polished inside)
-Gen spring bars
-V9 bezel assembly (have a gen assembly here as well but honestly I can’t mount ceramic inserts or remove them without cracking. That’s why I prefer Noob for the moment until I decide which insert I will finally use - Noob is just glued)
-CF Inlay (on special order and Production of a local watch smith). Did a comparison bellow between CF original version, versus this one. Really can’t stand which one I should use. Both have some pros and little cons only but look at the pics.
Here we go:
Update:
Corrected my description in picture of dial face between sanding (from right to left) and added the CleanFactory insert comparison of the local watch smith version (called MB in some pics) versus original CleanFactory Lee version (CF) plus against a gen LV insert on some pics and some pics with mounted inserts on LV dial (just for fun)
