Building a vintage Explorer 1016 with real gilt dial

[calamityjane]

Hotfoil stamping and coldfoil and laquerd by foil can now be roll on. Kurz in Germany are leaders in foils. Read Kurtz Gmbh webbsite and you will understand. Back in 50ths and 60ths they silkscreened. In 70-80 tampoprinted dial’s was used and still do, also both in a combination.

 

[calamityjane]

Rolex new dials, fluted disls are foiled.

 

[WatchN3RD]

i really wonder how rolex did the finish. How many coats did they do? How did they polish? Having spent too much time on the dial part even if you have a perfect impression from a pad print at tiny imperfection on the dial surface prior to plating shows up in the final product. I’m sure quite a few dials were rejected for that along with non 100% of print impressions due to ink not being picked up fully. On top of that I’m sure quite a few dials were rejected in what I am assuming is a lengthy lacquering time given curing times and reapplication of lacquer.

I’m assuming too I’m the 50s there was pretty good “dust free room” technologies.

Maybe they just sprayed one really wet coat that slowly cured. It's only with faster curing finishes that air bubbles or extreme orange peel occur.

Louisville Slugger just dips their bats in bucket of lacquer and hangs them to dry.

 

[chrome72]

Maybe they just sprayed one really wet coat that slowly cured. It's only with faster curing finishes that air bubbles or extreme orange peel occur.

Louisville Slugger just dips their bats in bucket of lacquer and hangs them to dry.

Nitrocellulose does that. I got some
Nice finishes on my gilt dials with it after 3 applications every 30 min with a rattle can. Haven’t polished them yet but they are pretty nice as is. Always open to other ideas

 

[WatchN3RD]

So, it's 10:13 - time so take and share the new updates in complete and sun light. It's creasy in real I heven't seen the "orange peel" - My camera seems to be better than my eyes.

That looks awesome. Only to be clear, I simply commented about clearcoating techniques because you said you switched to sanding after every coat. I wasn't trying to imply your finish needed improvement.

I'm envious of your ability to improve so many different aspects of the build. You are building, machining, manipulating dial files, making dials, and even more.

 

[matzemedia]

Reshaping the case
Since last year, when I finished the watch the first time, it gets some details fixed. I optimized my printer setup that helped me to do better toner transfer for the dial. So I created again two dials and picked the best version for this case. It is now again half a year ago and every time I am wearing this Explorer I had the feeling there is something wrong with the shape of the case. So I looked at different gen 1016 Explorer at the internet, and they are all slimmer at the side. If you like Raffle case don't continue reading now, otherwise you will see the problem every day ;-).



Following the lines from the center of your dial to 2 or 10 o'clock up to the end of the bezel, then it should be the end of the case. This makes the case more elegant. Well, this wasn't at my raffle case and has to be fixed. The other fix is that the silhouette, when you look from the side, should be evenly. To fix this, I removed some metal from the top of the horns. And finally, here is the result.

 

[matzemedia]

 

[dpd3672]

Reshaping the case
Since last year, when I finished the watch the first time, it gets some details fixed. I optimized my printer setup that helped me to do better toner transfer for the dial. So I created again two dials and picked the best version for this case. It is now again half a year ago and every time I am wearing this Explorer I had the feeling there is something wrong with the shape of the case. So I looked at different gen 1016 Explorer at the internet, and they are all slimmer at the side. If you like Raffle case don't continue reading now, otherwise you will see the problem every day ;-).



Following the lines from the center of your dial to 2 or 10 o'clock up to the end of the bezel, then it should be the end of the case. This makes the case more elegant. Well, this wasn't at my raffle case and has to be fixed. The other fix is that the silhouette, when you look from the side, should be evenly. To fix this, I removed some metal from the top of the horns. And finally, here is the result.

That's one of the best case work jobs on a Raffles case I've ever seen. And my pet peeve has always been the side profile, which you nailed.

Great work!