Weekend Watchmaker

Let's build the watch with finished dial. These are the parts I used. Case and Bezel Case: Submariner style diver case, 40mm size with a 120-click bezel Bezel insert: Black ceramic bezel, Mil-Sub style with hash marks through the bezel Dial I airbrushed surfacers and yellow glossy lacquer paint on laser-cut metal dial base, pad printed the logs, indexes and text, then finished with glossy clear top coat. Watch lume paste mixed with little bit of white lacquer paint was applied onto hour index holes. If you look closely, you can see some dust from the paint job and there are a lot of imperfections. Despite this, It means a lot to me that I made the dial myself with my own design, and I am very satisfied with it. The Movement Seiko NH38 movement; A movement from the NH series, for open-heart and non-date. Hands Mercedes style hands with black thick painted edges. Because of the thick edges, there is not enough clearance between the hands, so it was a bit of a challenge to assembl...

The last time I made a watch dial with UV printing( link ), I wasn't happy with the lume. When I designed the watch dial, I wanted the watch hour index to be white, but it wasn't as white as I had hoped. There are many different colors of lume powders on the market. The brightest and longest lasting are green (like C3), followed by blue (like BGW9). The lume power glowing blue looks white in sunlight. Of course, I also used the powder that glows blue , but it didn't look as white as I wanted it to when I actually applied. Perhaps if I had applied the lume over a white base, it would have looked white, but the method I used was to fill the holes with lume paste, so it didn't look that white. (for more information, please see previous post ) After some thought, I decided to mix in some white lacquer paint when I mixed the lume powder with the binder. I thought that the non-transparent lacquer paint would make the lume less bright than the transparent binder alone, so I tr...

Many people want to personalize their watch dials with their own logo or text. In fact, there are sellers on online sites like aliexpress who offer to make dials for custom orders. I want to explain the different ways to print logos and text on the watch dials. UV Printing This is the first method I tried when I started making watch dials (see link for details). You can easily find sterile dials without logos and lettering on aliexpress or ebay, and you can use UV printing to print logos and lettering on these dials. The quality should be good because it is done by professionals. The disadvantage is that the result is too flat. Silkscreening This is a popular method for making watch dials. I wanted to try silkscreen, so I contacted a shop that makes silkscreen screens, but they told me that my design had very thin lines and small letters, so it was not possible to print with ink and solvents which are usuable at home, but only possible with industrial ink and solvents. Pad printing ...

The most readily available lacquer paints for airbrushing are modeling paints. If you go to a modeling hobby store, you can find paints sold by Mr.hobby, Tamiya, and other modelling companies. (FYI, Mr.Color from Mr.hobby, which are described as solvent-based acrylic paints, are lacquer paints.) They come in a wide variety of colors, so you should be able to find almost any color you want. If you don't find the color you want, you can mix them up. The bottles are small and cheap, so you can try different colors. Primers While the automotive spray paint in the previous post ( link ) adheres well to metal surfaces, this modeling lacquer paint does not adhere well to metal, so I recommend using a primer. It's important to note that many modeling primers are only intended for use on plastic surfaces, so be sure to read the instructions carefully. I used multi-purpose primer, which is a primer designed for use on metal or resin surfaces. Spray the primer on and wet-sand with fine sa...

Spraying seems to be the best way to paint surfaces evenly and neatly. However, spray paint cans have the disadvantage of having to buy new cans every time I want a new color. The alternative to spraying paint is to use an airbrush. An airbrush is a device that sprays paint with the pressure of a compressor. You can use lacquer paint or acrylic paint, and while lacquer paint is toxic and should be used with caution, it is easy to spray with low pressure and has the advantage of a smooth surface. A small 10ml bottle of lacquer paint for modeling hobby costs about $3. Since what I'll be painting is a small watch dial, about 3 centimeters in diameter, the small size is a big plus. You can also mix the paint to create the colors you want. In this post, I'll show you what tools I used to airbrush the dial. Spray booth When you use an airbrush, paint overspray is floating in the air. Inhaling this can be very bad for your health. Inhaling paint, not only well-known toxic lacquer pain...

The most easily you readily available paints are acrylic paints. It's easy and cheap to get a wide range of colors, you can mix them to create any color you want, and best of all, you don't have to worry about the paint chipping off because it's very hard when it dries. If you're a good painter, you can even use your watch dial as a canvas with a fine paintbrush to create some amazing artwork. But unfortunately, I'm not a good painter at all. I just wanted to paint the acrylic paint evenly on the watch dial. No matter how good you are, it's not easy to paint a surface evenly with a brush. Spraying is a little better option. After diluting the acrylic paint properly, you can spray it with an airbrush. However, acrylic paints tend to have large particles, so you'll need a good, powerful airbrush compressor, and if you have an airbrush, lacquer paints might be a better choice. Since I didn't have an airbrush at the time, I had to figure out how to evenly ap...