Reply With QuoteExcellent work. What temperature did you bake it at?
There should be a competition to see who can make the most interesting mod from one of these watches!
Recently relented and bought this. For £3.99 I thought I would give it a go.
As covered elsewhere, it's nothing special with a scratchy strap and the magazine is particularly poor!
I decided to give a go to dial ageing, something I've wanted to try for a while and doing it on this is risk free.
Here we have the patient waiting the procedure, little does it know what is coming!
Popping the back off reveals a tiny movement and a massive spacer! It's a Japanese movement, will probably give years of fuss free service.
Removing the spacer, shows the true scale of how oversized the case is for the movement.
Out with the movement:
Then off with the hands:
The dial is just a push fit to the movement, so it came off no bother:
Here's me definitely not using a Pirex dish before it goes in the oven!
Having read up on it, everyone seemed to say that 15 minutes was needed. I ended up cooking it for 40! I think it is because the text is printed rather than painted.
Having no text on the dial helped too, as there was nothing else to colour.
Having spent 40 mins on the dial, I decided to relume the hands rather than bake them. The lume is very poor anyway. So I removed the white "lume":
Then mixed up a nice aged colour:
Applied the lume and allowed to dry:
One thing, is that the hands now glow much better than the dial!
Back together. It's quite difficult to photograph but the dial text is a nice light brown colour now. I like the slight contrast with the hand colour:
I changed the awful strap for an olive Nato I had lying about. Vastly better.
Despite trying not to, I quite like it!
Thanks for looking
Ian
Last edited by IanM; 17th March 2014 at 20:15.
Excellent work. What temperature did you bake it at?
There should be a competition to see who can make the most interesting mod from one of these watches!
All jolly good (low risk) fun
Thats a distinct improvement
220 deg C. Up quite high.Originally Posted by Lampoc
Definitely thinking about doing similar to one of the diver ones if it appears in the newsagent.
Dial baking, reluming and bleaching the bezel.
Nice, good job. Now I would swap the crystal for a slightly domed acrylic one!
(Also I would consider polishing the case).
Best
JMH
A domed plexi would look good. I'll have a dig about my spares box and see what I've got!
If you dont find any just give me the diameter, I have all sizes between 27,8 and 32,4 mm, if it is in between I can send you one!
Thanks for the very kind offer. I'll have a check. Most of my spares are "vintage" so I'm doubtful of having something this big but I may have ordered it in the past by mistake.
Cheers
Ian
You could have put the case in the washing machine and given it the true "one careful squaddie owner" finish ;)
If I'm being generous, I could say that is the look the magazine paid someone to give it.
It looks like it's been brush finished by someone while they were sitting on the back of a bike going down a cobbled street ;-)
Would be my pleasure to help a fellow forum member out. If you give me the size and shipping address (as private forum message?) I could send you the crystal right on Monday.
Best
JMH
Sadly it's a monster. 33.4mm. I've nothing that big! Looking at your earlier message it's bigger than what you have as well.
Regards
Ian
Ouch, pitty. on ebay there is a crystal seller with reasonable prices, but he doesnt seem to have 334 either:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/WATCH-GLASS-L...item2ecc2f29b8
Others have, but for like £5, which is more than the watch.
Best
JMH
Thanks.
I'll have a look on Cousins website. There will be one there.
Thanks for the post.
An interesting way of transforming a vintage watch.
Bought a domed acrylic one from Cousins. Not easy to fit as I don't have a crystal press. Just had to break my fingers instead!
Found another NATO which looks better than the green one:
http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/...psuzmhim7x.jpg
http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/...psftdl9ctj.jpg
To saves scrolling back up, this is what it looked like when I started:
http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/...psrxhs3dyf.jpg
I'm stopping now!
Ian
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