My screwed up 111, 1st lume job.. Intentionally Marred

[daytona4me]

So.. here is the story,

I have had this old 111H for a long time.. got it from River a while back and have disassembled it at least a dozen times just to tinker with it.
I've nicked up the dial in a couple places but always on the edges... this time.. after putting rc tritec on the back plate (Luming it) i added some glue to
keep the plates together (normal process) but did not realize that I had a tiny dot of it on my glove. When I pressed the two together the glue got on the dial and that was finally the end of it. I lumed the hands and then took a q-tip drenched it in one dip and hit the dial in a couple places just to see what it would look like.

Lessons learned:
#1, Dont do the hands last, do them first,, the consistency of the lume only gets thicker as time goes by (even 10 minutes makes a difference). This makes a big difference as there is not much clearance between the hands and thick lume will cause them to run into one another and that makes everything stop!
#2, Be careful removing the hands from the dial. The matte black paint that is on the hands will flake and a black marker will not help much.
#3 Be very very careful with glue. Too much and it will come through the holes in the dial (that did not happen to me) and dont get any on your gloves!
#4 Dont shorten yoru crown stem if you dont have a V crown guard otherwise it will just be floppy.. lol.. I dont know why I did it,, once again..just screwing around. lol

I have not decided if I like the outcome or not.. will probably just get rid of it.. or throw a new dial and hands on it if I tire of it's "tired" look.. :lol:
Glows like a torch though.. couple small imperfections in the lume but pretty damn decent for my first one.... lots of learning to do though.

 

[jetrigger]

That is like a torch. Very accurate.

 

[Spirit]

...awww! What a damage

But still looks nice with that torch on! lol
How much did you pay for the SuperLuminova by the way?

The 111H is one of my favorites!

Cheers,
Spirit.

EDIT> Just came out of my mind...Couldn´t you paint the Dial all matte black and make an unbranded Dial out of it? Wouldn´t it solve the damage?
You would have a "000 alike"(?) PAM afterall...

 

[cybee]

Well heck it was only the first time so it's OK.... that stuff really glows. I'm gonna have to try and do one of these lume jobs, they look like a lot of fun.

I'm sure from this point you will get better and better.

 

[daytona4me]

EDIT> Just came out of my mind...Couldn´t you paint the Dial all matte black and make an unbranded Dial out of it? Wouldn´t it solve the damage?
You would have a "000 alike"(?) PAM afterall...

I would rather cut my arms off than to Paint a Dial.. I was thinking of taking some white out and drawing some stick figures on it but that would just cause a lot of trouble.. lol... besides... a messed up dial just gives it character..

 

[horologie_unitas]

lesson learned.

lume looks good.

next one will be perfect.

to boldly do what you have not done before.

 

[enzo]

not a total loss, after all the lume job is good. Just go back and sand the top sandwich clean, either repaint it black, or use chemcials to blue the metal to a nice patina'd finish or shine the brass metal up on it and leave it raw, paint it brown or something that suits your fancy, flat blat crinkle sounds cool ... . Suddenly you have a nicely hand lumed tribute watch, screw OP and their branding, what you want is a nicely designed watch that you put your personal mark on ... don't be a prisoner to the logo trademark of a company that would serve you papers if they knew you existed.


and since that painted dial is obviously not the best ink a quick swipe of alcohol would make the current dial generic in seconds, some ethanhol and all that white goes bybye

 

[fakemaster]

Finally decided to take the plunge eh?

 

[lan61t]

Unbranded the watch, ask fakey to pvd the case, and Voila you got a nice looking pvd watch

 

[skyline_g35]

or just cut your arm off. but if you decide to get rid of the dial, I'll take it off of your hands. :lol:

 

[Hambone]

Better job than I could have done. Take Enzo's advice, sounds like a good plan.

 

[nielsen]

Is there a thread on luming reps? I can't find one. This is something I think I'd like to try my hand on--but I need some basic instruction and guidance. Don't know where to begin.....

 

[dvburns]

You could also get a new dial from DSN and use the new front plate with your re-lumed back plate. The lume job you did is so good it would be nice to pair it with a perfect dial.

You could also look on the used forum for a dial. They come up pretty regularly.

Nice job.

 

[skyline_g35]

Is there a thread on luming reps? I can't find one. This is something I think I'd like to try my hand on--but I need some basic instruction and guidance. Don't know where to begin.....

Excellent question. I'd like to try and find this answer as well. I've searched the Tech area with no luck. Next step: Search.

 

[Timmy!]

I give you all the credit in the world for trying. That looks like a hard job.

 

[therebel]

I wish I had pictures from my first lume attempt...let's just say it was so terrible that it was almost my last attempt.

As mentioned earlier, strip that paint and make a badass unbranded homage. I've always thought about doing this and somehow printing off a cool image to put over the dial (probably would look ghetto but who cares).

 

[daytona4me]

I have at least 5 or 6 other 111 dials brand new that I could throw on there.. but there is not a story behind those.. :lol: (going to need them as I mess them up...lol.. maybe get one or two for contests)..

Painted dials as in designs are a desecration to the watch imo, those might be what gets the girl off at Replica geeks but it's not my thing.. except for the sitck figure from the VW commercials.. yeah.. Hast du einen Vogel?

As for a tutorial on luming.. doubt you will find one. The masters are not going to share their technique as that is why they are paid the big bux.
I had an advantage though, everyone remembers TWP, as many know I was good friends with him until he had his problems,.. he explained to me what was difficult and what to avoid, etc.. I looked back at some of our old chat logs and recalled what we had talked about on the telephone so long ago.

He had sent me a couple messed up dials for practice and some noctiluminova to practice with but I pretty much played with consistency.. and only for a short time. I had not touched the stuff since March 08 and then it was only the 2nd time since August of last year.

This time I scrapped the Noctiluminova and just used RC Tritec as it is not as grainy and much easier to work with. I got the consistency down in the first batch I made but had to adjust on the fly to make it right.

I'll did another 111 dial which might be better than this one but I need to order some hands so I can do it correctly.

This is something neat to do but I could not stomach doing it for a living.. it's too tedious and delicate to make a living at and I can only imagine that I would not please anyone with my impatient hand. Hope I get decent at this so I can do some contests and giveaways for a modded watch.. that could generate some buzz... and the members would welcome it even if it were not perfect..

Already did my sights on my Glock .45acp, now I am looking around for something else to have fun with.. :twisted:

 

[watchbuff]

looks good,. I d make it a homage. Some methyl ethyl ketone ( mek) and all the writing is gone. Or get a new dial and u got a good rep pam. Either way nice work .