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STEP 3: Putting back and sealing the crystal into case, Reluming Dial + Hands
This step is the hardest one ! For this step I would recommend to first try on your cheap watch (like I am on my DSSD), because if you mess something up, you will be not that sad. This step was the longest one to take for me. Learned A LOT from this, and read and learn from my mistakes !
First I will tease you with a lume shot, of my DSSD :lol:
And now I will write all necessary tools for the STEP 3:
- Few finger condoms
- Watch parts holder with cover
- Dust blower
- Good lighting conditions
- Wooden toothpick
- Dial protector
- Sharp needle
- Rodico paste
- Cotton cloths
- Crystal press
- WatchLume material - Super Blue ( similar to what rolex uses on their DSSD) White Daylight- Blue Night - Similar To Tritec BG W9
- WatchLume binder matt material
- Sets of oilers
- Movement holder
- UV Adhesive glue
- GS hypo cement glue
- UV lamp from your girlfriend/sister/mom/shop
- Paper tape
- Magnifying glass / Loupe / Digital microscope
- Plate with clean water / Ultrasonic cleaner
- Dust blower / Air can
- Handy UV light for checking the lume consistency
- Ultra Fine nail polish fillets from your girlfriend/sister/mom/shop
- 2-3 hours of time, with possible other stuff to relume, if you will not use all your prepared lume
So are we ready for the hardest part ? Firstly, I must say, that not everything came as planned. I will have to relume the hands again / or bend a little, because they are sticking up on 3 o’clock. For me, the most HARDEST part was reluming hands. Like I said, this was first time I have relumed my watch, and got only information from the net (thanks WIZ !). So I will also write some comments, regarding what I have learned from the reluming, and on what you should be looking after ! So let’s get started
Before we will relume our dial and hands, let’s put back the crystal, so it can dry out when we will do relume. Prepare the equipment.
Find the correct dies for the Crystal press and fix them onto crystal press.
Now once again clean the case and the “Original ring lock system”, because when Crystal will be set, you would not be able to clean it again. Also blow all dust, hair etc. from the case with dust blower.
Clean the crystal from remaining glue, clean it from deep fingertips (mostly from the corners and the bottom of the crystal) and find the Laser etched crown, what will be at 6 o’cklock.
Now, when case is cleaned, insert inside the plastic ring what was with crystal, into its original place.
Now put the crystal into the socket, and align the laser etched crown onto the letter “K” on the sign “Ring Lock System”.
Now get your UV adhesive glue, and glue around the crystal. Don’t use too much, because it can get under the crystal, and we don’t want that. Also notice, my UV adhesive was for Wader repair, but I tested it, if it will hold metal and glass, and it was holding it, so I give it a go. Also don’t worry, UV adhesive will dry only on Sun Light or UV light. SO when you are home, and you don’t have direct sunlight, you can take your time, and apply it correctly. Also UV adhesive is better on hot summer days, because it will hold stronger, therefor better Water resist is possible.
When Applied the UV adhesive, and aligned the Crown on letter “K” we can push the crystal back into its place. Take a note, that there is not that much space that crystal will soak into, so you will not hear any nice “click” you must check it visually. If you will try to over force the crystal into the case, you can break your die, or even worse, damage your crystal.
When it is on its place, remove the remaining UV adhesive, what is out of its place.
Now put the crystal into UV lamp, so we can set up the UV adhesive, and it can dry out. Replace the position every 3 minutes, so whole glue will be covered by UV light. Don’t look into UV light, it will damage your eyes.
After “sunning” it in UV lamp, apply GS Hypo cement around the crystal, so it will fill up the gap between crystal and case. Help yourself with wooden toothpick.
Put it again into UV lamp, so we will again help it a bit to dry out.
After 15 minutes, take the DSSD out of the UV lamp, and clean remaining glue , which should not be around top border of crystal.
Now take the ceramic bezel, to see if the crystal is placed correctly. For me it is good to go
Now take the case and put it somewhere to rest for 24 hours, so the glue can dry nicely. Now we can finally move to reluming ! Yay, everybody is waiting for that. Take the rodico with lume markers, paper tape, your loupe and the needle and toothpick.
Now we must remove the old lume from the markers. As you can see, I have created an “needle tool”. The old lume was holding really STRONG on my markers. I was unable to remove it by toothpick. So I used the sharp needle and I take it off with it.
Remove the old lume from all markers. WARNING ! Don’t put too much force into it, because the markers have small pins, what are used to be hold on the dial. If you will put in too much force, of removing the old lume, you could bend the pin or worse, break it ! Also don’t scratch the area around the marker, if you will scratch it, you still be able to polish it with fine fillet.
Now here comes the tricky part, removing the old lume from hands. Like I said, the old lume on markers was holding really STRONG, and so was also on hands. So push it from other side and remove the remaining lume with toothpick. WARNING ! Don’t remove the old lume, when it is holding strong, on the RODICO ! You can bend the hand, when the rodico will soak it. Best way would be, have it on the paper, so you will not scratch or bend the hand.
After that, give all markers and hand a nice clean bath, so we can remove it from dust, moisture or remaining’s.
Now prepare your markers and hands for new lume material !
Get ready your lume tools and material.
Blow the dust from the plate, where we will mix the lume material with binder.
Now apply reasonable amount of Lume material onto the plate. Take a note I dropped TOO MUCH of the lume material, and it was hardly even 1 g ! Best was would be give a little and then add more if it will not be enough.
Now apply binder to amount of the Lume material you desired. How much binder to lume ? You will know the correct consistency. Also if your lume material, will get dry, always you can drop a nice small drop of binder, to reactivate the dried lume material.
Mix the two compounds to have something similar to this.
Now you can light it out with an UV light, to check the consistency.
Now take your oiler set, and select the size of oiler which will be best for you to work with. I went with the biggest one, when 1-2 dips of lume was great for the hour marker. The Hardest part for me was applying the lume on hands. I have done it 7 times ! On the last time, it was finally ok ! If you have scratched hands, you can always re-polish them with fine nail fillet. On these picture, the lume applying was for the first time, so the hands are scratched… I will post pictures later with polished hands. Also LEAVE the markers with lume for 7 hours to dry !!! I was impatient and paid my price, of a damaging my lume on markers It is not that horrible, but it was better before I touched it.
When the LUME is dried out, put the markers back onto the dial, and glue the pins with GS hypo cement.
Now leave it like that, to dry the glue on the dial. Next step will be reassemble the dial and hands and check if everything is ok
LINK: STEP 4 : Putting back dial on movement, putting back hands, greasing o-rings, painting ceramic bezel + creating pearl
This step is the hardest one ! For this step I would recommend to first try on your cheap watch (like I am on my DSSD), because if you mess something up, you will be not that sad. This step was the longest one to take for me. Learned A LOT from this, and read and learn from my mistakes !
First I will tease you with a lume shot, of my DSSD :lol:
And now I will write all necessary tools for the STEP 3:
- Few finger condoms
- Watch parts holder with cover
- Dust blower
- Good lighting conditions
- Wooden toothpick
- Dial protector
- Sharp needle
- Rodico paste
- Cotton cloths
- Crystal press
- WatchLume material - Super Blue ( similar to what rolex uses on their DSSD) White Daylight- Blue Night - Similar To Tritec BG W9
- WatchLume binder matt material
- Sets of oilers
- Movement holder
- UV Adhesive glue
- GS hypo cement glue
- UV lamp from your girlfriend/sister/mom/shop
- Paper tape
- Magnifying glass / Loupe / Digital microscope
- Plate with clean water / Ultrasonic cleaner
- Dust blower / Air can
- Handy UV light for checking the lume consistency
- Ultra Fine nail polish fillets from your girlfriend/sister/mom/shop
- 2-3 hours of time, with possible other stuff to relume, if you will not use all your prepared lume
So are we ready for the hardest part ?
Firstly, I must say, that not everything came as planned. I will have to relume the hands again / or bend a little, because they are sticking up on 3 o’clock. For me, the most HARDEST part was reluming hands. Like I said, this was first time I have relumed my watch, and got only information from the net (thanks WIZ !). So I will also write some comments, regarding what I have learned from the reluming, and on what you should be looking after ! So let’s get started Before we will relume our dial and hands, let’s put back the crystal, so it can dry out when we will do relume. Prepare the equipment.
Find the correct dies for the Crystal press and fix them onto crystal press.
Now once again clean the case and the “Original ring lock system”, because when Crystal will be set, you would not be able to clean it again. Also blow all dust, hair etc. from the case with dust blower.
Clean the crystal from remaining glue, clean it from deep fingertips (mostly from the corners and the bottom of the crystal) and find the Laser etched crown, what will be at 6 o’cklock.
Now, when case is cleaned, insert inside the plastic ring what was with crystal, into its original place.
Now put the crystal into the socket, and align the laser etched crown onto the letter “K” on the sign “Ring Lock System”.
Now get your UV adhesive glue, and glue around the crystal. Don’t use too much, because it can get under the crystal, and we don’t want that. Also notice, my UV adhesive was for Wader repair, but I tested it, if it will hold metal and glass, and it was holding it, so I give it a go. Also don’t worry, UV adhesive will dry only on Sun Light or UV light. SO when you are home, and you don’t have direct sunlight, you can take your time, and apply it correctly. Also UV adhesive is better on hot summer days, because it will hold stronger, therefor better Water resist is possible.
When Applied the UV adhesive, and aligned the Crown on letter “K” we can push the crystal back into its place. Take a note, that there is not that much space that crystal will soak into, so you will not hear any nice “click” you must check it visually. If you will try to over force the crystal into the case, you can break your die, or even worse, damage your crystal.
When it is on its place, remove the remaining UV adhesive, what is out of its place.
Now put the crystal into UV lamp, so we can set up the UV adhesive, and it can dry out. Replace the position every 3 minutes, so whole glue will be covered by UV light. Don’t look into UV light, it will damage your eyes.
After “sunning” it in UV lamp, apply GS Hypo cement around the crystal, so it will fill up the gap between crystal and case. Help yourself with wooden toothpick.
Put it again into UV lamp, so we will again help it a bit to dry out.
After 15 minutes, take the DSSD out of the UV lamp, and clean remaining glue , which should not be around top border of crystal.
Now take the ceramic bezel, to see if the crystal is placed correctly. For me it is good to go
Now take the case and put it somewhere to rest for 24 hours, so the glue can dry nicely. Now we can finally move to reluming ! Yay, everybody is waiting for that.
Take the rodico with lume markers, paper tape, your loupe and the needle and toothpick.
Now we must remove the old lume from the markers. As you can see, I have created an “needle tool”. The old lume was holding really STRONG on my markers. I was unable to remove it by toothpick. So I used the sharp needle and I take it off with it.
Remove the old lume from all markers. WARNING ! Don’t put too much force into it, because the markers have small pins, what are used to be hold on the dial. If you will put in too much force, of removing the old lume, you could bend the pin or worse, break it ! Also don’t scratch the area around the marker, if you will scratch it, you still be able to polish it with fine fillet.
Now here comes the tricky part, removing the old lume from hands. Like I said, the old lume on markers was holding really STRONG, and so was also on hands. So push it from other side and remove the remaining lume with toothpick. WARNING ! Don’t remove the old lume, when it is holding strong, on the RODICO ! You can bend the hand, when the rodico will soak it. Best way would be, have it on the paper, so you will not scratch or bend the hand.
After that, give all markers and hand a nice clean bath, so we can remove it from dust, moisture or remaining’s.
Now prepare your markers and hands for new lume material !
Get ready your lume tools and material.
Blow the dust from the plate, where we will mix the lume material with binder.
Now apply reasonable amount of Lume material onto the plate. Take a note I dropped TOO MUCH of the lume material, and it was hardly even 1 g ! Best was would be give a little and then add more if it will not be enough.
Now apply binder to amount of the Lume material you desired. How much binder to lume ? You will know the correct consistency. Also if your lume material, will get dry, always you can drop a nice small drop of binder, to reactivate the dried lume material.
Mix the two compounds to have something similar to this
.
Now you can light it out with an UV light, to check the consistency.
Now take your oiler set, and select the size of oiler which will be best for you to work with. I went with the biggest one, when 1-2 dips of lume was great for the hour marker. The Hardest part for me was applying the lume on hands. I have done it 7 times ! On the last time, it was finally ok ! If you have scratched hands, you can always re-polish them with fine nail fillet. On these picture, the lume applying was for the first time, so the hands are scratched… I will post pictures later with polished hands. Also LEAVE the markers with lume for 7 hours to dry !!! I was impatient and paid my price, of a damaging my lume on markers
It is not that horrible, but it was better before I touched it.
When the LUME is dried out, put the markers back onto the dial, and glue the pins with GS hypo cement.
Now leave it like that, to dry the glue on the dial. Next step will be reassemble the dial and hands and check if everything is ok
LINK: STEP 4 : Putting back dial on movement, putting back hands, greasing o-rings, painting ceramic bezel + creating pearl