Tropical dial experiment??

[kvuaria]

I don't know what it is.. but I just love tropical brown dials no matter if it's Rolex, Omega, etc. I had read countless threads and cannot find any good mod to get a natural tropical brown dial effects. I just thought of something so here goes.

Has anyone ever look inside of their coffee mug? Prolong due to coffee residue make the inside of a coffee mug stained with kinda a chocolate brown color. I see it stained with stainless steel, plastic mugs, etc. I think it would apply the same to the dials if soak in black coffee long period of time. I'm guessing 2-4 weeks?

By soaking the entire dial in black coffee I'm guessing over time the coffee residue would stick to the dial and create a tropical brown effects. This would make every dials effect different cause its not a one application kinda mod. I believe depend on the dials origin the effect would be one of a kind. Once the dial is stained with coffee residue, I guess the plots and be relume to get the best result.

I have not try it. Let me know what your thoughts on it.

 

[p0pperini]

Funnily enough, you haven't just stumbled across an idea that no one else has ever thought of. Using coffee to artificially age watch dials, hands, lume, datewheels etc. is a very common practice. It's probably the number one starting point for anyone getting into modding vintage watches so they look older.

However, although the results of coffee staining can be very effective and give a dial an aged look, it won't make a dial look particularly tropical. That's because (as I'm sure you're aware) the tropical look is caused (as the name suggests) by the long-term effect of UV rays on the dial laquer/paint/nickel plating, causing it to fade to various shades of brown. Coffee doesn't achieve the same faded look.

My esteemed forum buddy chrome72 has been experimenting with reproducing the effects of fading on black nickel plated dials, hoping to reproduce the effect. He discusses it in the "making a gilt dial" thread, all of which is worth a read, but I've linked to the relevant post here: https://forum.replica-watch.info/fo...a-gilt-dial-not-decal?p=10558417#post10558417

(He's using dial printing clichés made from the dial artworks I did for him, so I'm following his experiments with great interest.)