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STEP 4 : Putting back dial on movement, putting back hands, greasing o-rings, painting ceramic bezel + creating pearl
This step is also hard one, because now we will see if we had bended hands (or we will bend hands) and if the lume material is not so THICK!
Also when we grease all tubes, we can finally also waterproof our watch. And we will also pait numerals on the ceramic bezel and also we will create our very first pearl! SO let’s get started!
And now I will write all necessary tools for the STEP 4:
- Few finger condoms
- Watch parts holder with cover
- Dust blower/Aired can
- Good lighting conditions
- Wooden toothpick
- Dial protector
- Rodico paste
- Cotton cloths
- Hand press tool / Presto
- WatchLume material - Super Blue ( similar to what rolex uses on their DSSD) White Daylight- Blue Night - Similar To Tritec BG W9
- One big oiler
- Movement holder
- White Enamel Paint
- Enamel thinner
- UV Adhesive glue
- GS hypo cement glue
- UV lamp from your girlfriend/sister/mom/shop
- Magnifying glass / Loupe / Digital microscope
- Antimagnetic tweezers
- Small headed brush
- Hair dryer
- Nail polish fillet
- Watch parts holder with cover
- Sticky ball or DSSD case back opener
- Set of screwdrivers for watches
- Ufff I hope that is all
Again, we start by preparing all out equipment to have everything near us to work fast an easy After nice long hours wait, we finally have dried lume markers on dial and hands, so we can put it back on the movement.
We put it back how we originally took it off, and also we will screw the screws holding the dial. I adjusted the dial a bit, so finally I have my date window in right position
Now we can put or movement with dial to movement holder or we can go without it (your call). Also it is great time to put back the stem with crown. WARNING! When putting back the stem, don’t forget to PUSH THE BUTTON what we originally pressed to release it! If you force it, you can break something! When we have the stem back in place, Normally put the crown to position of setting time, and move forward before the date will change. This will indicate our 12 o’clock. Then just help yourself with tweezers to put first the hour hand to its place and press it with hand presser tool, and try to move the hours again, to check if the date will change again on 12 o’clock. Don’t worry if you will not be able to set it exactly on the first time. I personally done it 7 times but final result are, now when it is 12:00 my date will change Then also put onto its position the minute hand, press with hand press tool and try again the checking of the date change.
Now the tricky part, the second hand. This one is the easiest to bend, if not applied correctly or pressed correctly. Some of watchmakers use tape to put the second hand, I just used the tweezers, placed it onto the small pin, and press it with hand press tool. Now slowly change the time, and check if the hands are not sticking or scratching each other, or touching the dial lume markers. Because if they do, your watch will stop every time, when it will get stuck with something. I personally recommend to get it running for 24 hours, just placed in watch parts holder, and see if it will work. Also this would be great to regulate the watch! You won’t be needed to always open the back case to regulate it. When everything is OK, we can finally put it back into the watch
Now we can grease those rubber rings for water resistance!
We take our most used tool (toothpick) and put a reasonable amount of grease on the tip of the toothpick. Then we will put this grease all around the o-rings.
Just apply it like I do on my photos don’t forget that DSSD has triple lock system, so there are 3 o rings. One outside of the crown tube, one inside the crown tube, and one inside the crown itself.
This will make our watch nicely waterproof !
Now we can finally put back our regulated movement into the case. Before you put in the case, make sure there is NO DUST, FINGERPRINTS or any other material, that should not be inside the watch. Use the dust blower or aired can, to blow out all the mess, and clean nicely the crystal with some polishing cloth (NOT CAPE COD!), as you can see on most of my pictures, the grey cloth is the polishing cloth I use. You can get it on ebay for around 10€ and it is washable in washing machine, and it cleans and polish really well! For the finger prints you can try out the rodico. If you will clean the dial, I recommend to do it before putting the hands on, or when you will clean the dial WATCH OUT not to bend the hands, just put all hands on one side and clean the dial. So when everything is cleaned from fingerprints and dust, we can put the movement inside the case
Check again the face of the watch if some small dust didn’t fell from some hidden space. Now put inside the movement holder. The drilled hole on the holder should be positioned on the crown position and align the movement, that you will be able to put inside the crown.
Now take the movement holder screws and put them into the position, and slightly screw them (we will also adjust the dial position).
Now put inside the crown with stem, again don’t forget to push the button when doing it. You can also try slightly move the movement (you will be able to move it 1-2mm up and down, depends how will the stem allows it). This is for align your engraved crown will be aligned with 12 o’clock! I have managed that, so this is only small tip for those, that have it a bit off space! When it is in perfect condition, screw the screws holding the movement with holder and case. Also get ready your rotor and rotor screw and the correct screwdriver.
Now set the rotor in its position and screw it tightly, because we don’t want to have loosen the rotor.
Now we can finally grease the back plate O-ring. The steps are the same like we greased our first O-rings. Don’t be shy, and grease it right.
Now put the back plate with case back on the case and screw it. Prepare your case back tools.
Now screw it hard, so no water can get through (but you will be able to open it in future).
And we have it already screwd, you can now test the water resistance my has passed the test of putting it into the buckle of 25 liters of water for 10 minutes. If you are afraid, do it without movement inside.
Now we can repair our ceramic bezel to finish our watch Prepare the tools and needed materials.
Clean the ceramic bezel from all dust, fingerprints or any other residue, we don’t want to have there, so it is nice and shinny.
Take your enamel paint and dip a little the brush.
Now apply the paint on all numerals and markers of the bezel insert. When finished, clean the brush with enamel thinner, so you will be able to use that brush again in future.
Now take your hairdryer and blow it with hot air for around 5 minutes, so we can quicken the dry.
Now quick dip some clean cloth with the enamel thinner, and clean the bezel with the inside border of bezel insert to outer border of the bezel insert. Don’t try to push hard, when going over the markers and numerals. We don’t want to remove the paint from there! We want to remove the paint only from the ceramics – black.
After finished the cleaning, again dry it out with hairdryer for around 5-8 minutes. After that prepare your pearl dot, which we have already removed the old lume from it. This pearl was from the bad ceramic bezel I have received. I have scratched the green lume.
If you have scratched the outside of the pearl, use the nail polish filler to make it nice and shiny around! It works great! You will see for yourself!
Now take the pearl and place it inside the hole of the ceramic bezel insert.
Now get ready your GS hypo cement, and glue the bezel from the back side (glue the pin) and a little around, so we will not lose it again (let’s hope so).
When applied the glue in the hole, press the pearl into the ceramic bezel, for 15 seconds, so all the air will get out and it will have nice fit with ceramic bezel. Also use the time to fix the pearl for the position you desire.
Now let’s mix our lume material with our epoxy glue. The process is similar like with the lume binder but we will use the Epoxy glue. I didn’t had epoxy glue so I used the GS hypo cement, and it worked quite well.
Now Apply the mixed glue with lume onto the pearl, with your binder or toothpick. Create the pear of your desire.
Now leave it for a day to dry. We don’t want anything nasty on our pearl, so we will keep it to dry out. Next day we will finally put the watch back together we will glue the ceramic bezel insert, put back the bracelet, and make some nice wristies and pictures of the new modded DSSD ! Stay tuned for the last FINAL STEP 5 !
Link: FINAL STEP 5: Assemble the whole watch, glue the insert
This step is also hard one, because now we will see if we had bended hands (or we will bend hands) and if the lume material is not so THICK!
Also when we grease all tubes, we can finally also waterproof our watch. And we will also pait numerals on the ceramic bezel and also we will create our very first pearl! SO let’s get started!And now I will write all necessary tools for the STEP 4:
- Few finger condoms
- Watch parts holder with cover
- Dust blower/Aired can
- Good lighting conditions
- Wooden toothpick
- Dial protector
- Rodico paste
- Cotton cloths
- Hand press tool / Presto
- WatchLume material - Super Blue ( similar to what rolex uses on their DSSD) White Daylight- Blue Night - Similar To Tritec BG W9
- One big oiler
- Movement holder
- White Enamel Paint
- Enamel thinner
- UV Adhesive glue
- GS hypo cement glue
- UV lamp from your girlfriend/sister/mom/shop
- Magnifying glass / Loupe / Digital microscope
- Antimagnetic tweezers
- Small headed brush
- Hair dryer
- Nail polish fillet
- Watch parts holder with cover
- Sticky ball or DSSD case back opener
- Set of screwdrivers for watches
- Ufff I hope that is all
Again, we start by preparing all out equipment to have everything near us to work fast an easy
After nice long hours wait, we finally have dried lume markers on dial and hands, so we can put it back on the movement.
We put it back how we originally took it off, and also we will screw the screws holding the dial. I adjusted the dial a bit, so finally I have my date window in right position
Now we can put or movement with dial to movement holder or we can go without it (your call). Also it is great time to put back the stem with crown. WARNING! When putting back the stem, don’t forget to PUSH THE BUTTON what we originally pressed to release it! If you force it, you can break something! When we have the stem back in place, Normally put the crown to position of setting time, and move forward before the date will change. This will indicate our 12 o’clock. Then just help yourself with tweezers to put first the hour hand to its place and press it with hand presser tool, and try to move the hours again, to check if the date will change again on 12 o’clock. Don’t worry if you will not be able to set it exactly on the first time. I personally done it 7 times
but final result are, now when it is 12:00 my date will change Then also put onto its position the minute hand, press with hand press tool and try again the checking of the date change.
Now the tricky part, the second hand. This one is the easiest to bend, if not applied correctly or pressed correctly. Some of watchmakers use tape to put the second hand, I just used the tweezers, placed it onto the small pin, and press it with hand press tool. Now slowly change the time, and check if the hands are not sticking or scratching each other, or touching the dial lume markers. Because if they do, your watch will stop every time, when it will get stuck with something. I personally recommend to get it running for 24 hours, just placed in watch parts holder, and see if it will work. Also this would be great to regulate the watch! You won’t be needed to always open the back case to regulate it. When everything is OK, we can finally put it back into the watch
Now we can grease those rubber rings for water resistance!
We take our most used tool (toothpick) and put a reasonable amount of grease on the tip of the toothpick. Then we will put this grease all around the o-rings.
Just apply it like I do on my photos
don’t forget that DSSD has triple lock system, so there are 3 o rings. One outside of the crown tube, one inside the crown tube, and one inside the crown itself.
This will make our watch nicely waterproof !
Now we can finally put back our regulated movement into the case. Before you put in the case, make sure there is NO DUST, FINGERPRINTS or any other material, that should not be inside the watch. Use the dust blower or aired can, to blow out all the mess, and clean nicely the crystal with some polishing cloth (NOT CAPE COD!), as you can see on most of my pictures, the grey cloth is the polishing cloth I use. You can get it on ebay for around 10€ and it is washable in washing machine, and it cleans and polish really well! For the finger prints you can try out the rodico. If you will clean the dial, I recommend to do it before putting the hands on, or when you will clean the dial WATCH OUT not to bend the hands, just put all hands on one side and clean the dial. So when everything is cleaned from fingerprints and dust, we can put the movement inside the case
Check again the face of the watch if some small dust didn’t fell from some hidden space. Now put inside the movement holder. The drilled hole on the holder should be positioned on the crown position and align the movement, that you will be able to put inside the crown.
Now take the movement holder screws and put them into the position, and slightly screw them (we will also adjust the dial position).
Now put inside the crown with stem, again don’t forget to push the button when doing it. You can also try slightly move the movement (you will be able to move it 1-2mm up and down, depends how will the stem allows it). This is for align your engraved crown will be aligned with 12 o’clock! I have managed that, so this is only small tip for those, that have it a bit off space! When it is in perfect condition, screw the screws holding the movement with holder and case. Also get ready your rotor and rotor screw and the correct screwdriver.
Now set the rotor in its position and screw it tightly, because we don’t want to have loosen the rotor.
Now we can finally grease the back plate O-ring. The steps are the same like we greased our first O-rings. Don’t be shy, and grease it right.
Now put the back plate with case back on the case and screw it. Prepare your case back tools.
Now screw it hard, so no water can get through (but you will be able to open it in future
).
And we have it already screwd, you can now test the water resistance
my has passed the test of putting it into the buckle of 25 liters of water for 10 minutes. If you are afraid, do it without movement inside.
Now we can repair our ceramic bezel to finish our watch
Prepare the tools and needed materials.
Clean the ceramic bezel from all dust, fingerprints or any other residue, we don’t want to have there, so it is nice and shinny.
Take your enamel paint and dip a little the brush.
Now apply the paint on all numerals and markers of the bezel insert. When finished, clean the brush with enamel thinner, so you will be able to use that brush again in future.
Now take your hairdryer and blow it with hot air for around 5 minutes, so we can quicken the dry.
Now quick dip some clean cloth with the enamel thinner, and clean the bezel with the inside border of bezel insert to outer border of the bezel insert. Don’t try to push hard, when going over the markers and numerals. We don’t want to remove the paint from there! We want to remove the paint only from the ceramics – black.
After finished the cleaning, again dry it out with hairdryer for around 5-8 minutes. After that prepare your pearl dot, which we have already removed the old lume from it. This pearl was from the bad ceramic bezel I have received. I have scratched the green lume.
If you have scratched the outside of the pearl, use the nail polish filler to make it nice and shiny around! It works great! You will see for yourself!
Now take the pearl and place it inside the hole of the ceramic bezel insert.
Now get ready your GS hypo cement, and glue the bezel from the back side (glue the pin) and a little around, so we will not lose it again (let’s hope so).
When applied the glue in the hole, press the pearl into the ceramic bezel, for 15 seconds, so all the air will get out and it will have nice fit with ceramic bezel. Also use the time to fix the pearl for the position you desire.
Now let’s mix our lume material with our epoxy glue. The process is similar like with the lume binder but we will use the Epoxy glue. I didn’t had epoxy glue so I used the GS hypo cement, and it worked quite well.
Now Apply the mixed glue with lume onto the pearl, with your binder or toothpick. Create the pear of your desire.
Now leave it for a day to dry. We don’t want anything nasty on our pearl, so we will keep it to dry out. Next day we will finally put the watch back together
we will glue the ceramic bezel insert, put back the bracelet, and make some nice wristies and pictures of the new modded DSSD ! Stay tuned for the last FINAL STEP 5 ! Link: FINAL STEP 5: Assemble the whole watch, glue the insert