Review: Hands on with Raffles new 6350 explorer dial

[369mafia]

I received my raffles order yesterday with his newest offering A 6350 explorer honeycomb dial with aged lume a gilt type print

Overall impressions. very impressed. Very nice quality for a $40.00 dial
the waffle pattern is very crisp the gold colored print is also crisp and looks great. a clean print on the textured dial surface not an easy task
the dial has a satin finish that looks vintage in appearance
the lume is a light toasted almond color which is a bit on the light side based on gen examples but it does look great and compliment the dial nicely
the lume does work and it is very durable. no chipping or pealing lume here, unlike my mq dial

Cons: not a true negative relief gilt dial. it looks the part but there is no substitute for a true gilt dial but again for the price point you can not beat it!
dial feet for DG and ETA no NH options other than clipping the feet and using dial dots.


Out of the box it looks great!!


I went to work and swapped out my tropical dial for this one to see how it looks and was not disappointed.

digging around in my parts , I found this long arm merc hand that was labeled for DG movement. the hour hand fits an ETA as well fyi so I aged the lume to match the dial and put it together. perfect for this build.





other than that, I have nothing negative to say about this new product from Raffles. This is your chance to build a grail watch on a budget. If you want to make it happen, reach out to me and lets chat.

Thanks for looking

 

[ward1991]

That's the bees knees

 

[KJ2020]

Very nice!

 

[Winni1611]

Mine is on the way from raffles.

 

[freebalkany]

Ah well, you got me there. I'll buy one for my 6610 build. I'll report here

 

[369mafia]

Ah well, you got me there. I'll buy one for my 6610 build. I'll report here

6610?

 

[freebalkany]

Yes, I'm planning on updating the dial and hands on this build: https://forum.replica-watch.info/threads/6610-custom-build.10202164/post-10398655
Effectivetely changing it from a 6610 to a 6350

 

[369mafia]

Yes, I'm planning on updating the dial and hands on this build: https://forum.replica-watch.info/threads/6610-custom-build.10202164/post-10398655
Effectivetely changing it from a 6610 to a 6350

Ah okay gotcha!!

I think you will be quite pleased with the quality of the 6350 dial compared to the early 6610 you have. I really like how you aged that dial. Are you keeping the hand set or swapping to pencil or 6200 hands ?

as a point of interest, I spoke with raffles and since the text and chapter ring are virtually the same on the 6350 and a 6610 I think I may have convicted raffles to offer a gilt gloss 6610 dial using the same print stamp and lume as the 6350 to create an updated 6610 dial for his catalog.

 

[freebalkany]

Ah okay gotcha!!

I think you will be quite pleased with the quality of the 6350 dial compared to the early 6610 you have. I really like how you aged that dial. Are you keeping the hand set or swapping to pencil or 6200 hands ?

as a point of interest, I spoke with raffles and since the text and chapter ring are virtually the same on the 6350 and a 6610 I think I may have convicted raffles to offer a gilt gloss 6610 dial using the same print stamp and lume as the 6350 to create an updated 6610 dial for his catalog.

For the hands, I will order this https://www.ebay.com/itm/162853809858
I'll post my work on this thread if it's fine.
But I have a couple of other projects on the side, so it make take some times.

 

[369mafia]

Update :

I received the Tiger concepts 1016p case set yesterday and I wanted to do a test fit to confirm that raffles dials and eta movements will fit. I was pleasantly surprised!!

The bezel is nearly identical to the jmb bezel on my 6350. The bubble caseback is awesome. Mirror polish. Very nice. Sadly it doea not fit the raffles case.

The raffles crowns do fit the TC tubes.

The lugs are shaped nicely and more narrow than the raffles

The lug holes need enlarging but their position ia good and the raffles end links fit very well

Initial thoughts were that the dial seat and opening were too ltge despite the 29mm specs size. But the dial fit no issues. The interior of the case is Roomy and needed to use slightly longer movement tabs to secure it but it fits perfectly. No alignment or stem height issues

Overall. This is the best budget option for a 6350 case set available out of the box.

One flaw. Noticed the crystal was slightly proud of the bezel at the 7 o’clock position. Don’t know if the crystal is glued in. So I reached out to Will to find out.

 

[samsoniteman]

@369mafia - Thats fan-effing-tastic man! I need to stop looking at the forums cuz its detrimental to my wallet lol.. Love this.

 

[freebalkany]

Hello there!
I finally received my 6350 dial from raffles.
I also got the handset from rafflestime, but for some reason the second hand would not fit. So I kept the old one.
Anyway, the watch is more a beater than anything, so accuracy isn’t so important here.
Cheers

 

[369mafia]

Hello there!
I finally received my 6350 dial from raffles.
I also got the handset from rafflestime, but for some reason the second hand would not fit. So I kept the old one.
Anyway, the watch is more a beater than anything, so accuracy isn’t so important here.
Cheers

Nicely done. I kinda like it with the white seconds hand.

The seconds hand that comes with the pencil hands can be a bit of a tight fit. I have noticed that on the last few sets Ive worked with. seems that there is a slight flaw in the mfg as long as you got it centered and level it goes on with a bit of pressure.

pretty impressive quality for a40 dollar dial eh?

 

[freebalkany]

Yeah it's very nice overall.
I think this might be the perfect beater watch.

 

[VintageSubEnjoyer]

Really want to build one of these. They look great

 

[ming-them]

Update :

I received the Tiger concepts 1016p case set yesterday and I wanted to do a test fit to confirm that raffles dials and eta movements will fit. I was pleasantly surprised!!

The bezel is nearly identical to the jmb bezel on my 6350. The bubble caseback is awesome. Mirror polish. Very nice. Sadly it doea not fit the raffles case.

The raffles crowns do fit the TC tubes.

The lugs are shaped nicely and more narrow than the raffles

The lug holes need enlarging but their position ia good and the raffles end links fit very well

Initial thoughts were that the dial seat and opening were too ltge despite the 29mm specs size. But the dial fit no issues. The interior of the case is Roomy and needed to use slightly longer movement tabs to secure it but it fits perfectly. No alignment or stem height issues

Overall. This is the best budget option for a 6350 case set available out of the box.

One flaw. Noticed the crystal was slightly proud of the bezel at the 7 o’clock position. Don’t know if the crystal is glued in. So I reached out to Will to find out.

Hey - do you known if NH38 would fit in this case? Is it still the best bang for buck option for a 6350 build?

 

[369mafia]

Hey - do you known if NH38 would fit in this case? Is it still the best bang for buck option for a 6350 build?

YEs it will fit , both the dial and the case. if you managed to screw up the keyless on one of these.. I wanna know how because its nearly impossible