An odd question perhaps, and certainly not one for the purists on board... My "beater" 321 Speedmaster arrived (in quite acceptable condition). Along with the usual issues (dings, later bezel, over polished), the hands (which appear to me to be close to the original style) stand out in stark white contrast to the patinated matte black dial behind it. Any way to tone them down and look more natural and age-appropriate to the rest of the watch? (The less-than-classic wristie under office fluorescents!) Thanks!
Beautiful dial... You could send it to a watchmaker to re-lume the hands with a compound that had more of a vintage look to it. I suppose the hands could be repainted to a dingier shade of white while he was at it, but I've never seen that done.
I think the white survives surprisingly well even on really old speedys, not sure anything is needed, for the hands I recommend the oven... 225 degrees celsius 20-30min, perhaps a touch of grilling towards the end...
We do all sorts of weird things here! I've dry fried my Aqua Terra: http://omegaforums.net/threads/at-screwdown-crown.9669/
I have done that to a number of hands, and dials, for projects like seikos and cheapo 2824-divers, gives a nice vintage brown/yellow tone to the luminova, not sure about the longevity though, probably dries out the material and it may crack or crumble, I got bored and sold the watches... these were also lesser quality than OEM omega i suspect?
I'd heard about this being done... But never actually knew how this was done. I've got a bunch of old radium hands... May have to try this on a pair that's lost it's lume. Have you ever done it on painted hands like above? Seems like the metal would expand then contract quickly, potentially causing the paint to crack. The lume material is mixed up with solvent (rather than water), most of the time, so I'd guess that most of it evaporates quickly after applying the lume and there'd be a minute change in moisture content in the lume even after the oven or stir fry . Just my hunch though; would love for someone to confirm this or post some pics of the process!
no good pics really, here a std MKII dial and hands nice puffy brown result hands less successful ended up using a pair of old naturally aged hands instead
This was big on some Panerai forums a few years ago. The results that I saw looked good, however people are likely reluctant to show a mod they did at home that went really bad. Cheers, Al
note that the writing and lines are usually affected as well, the above MKII writing went brown for instance, others I have had turn grey... not so appealing... so its hard to get the same look as a naturally aged dial this way...
I know the best way to have your watch get that naturally aged look: let it age on it's own over decades of wear. Voila!
Wow!--Thanks for the workshop tutorial! A handy lesson for the modders and for vintage collectors alike (particularly useful for those of us who try to sniff out the nefarious "NOS" dials that look a little too good for their own good.)
http://omegaforums.net/threads/customizing-my-145-022-69.6363/ I tinted the lume on a new set of hands for my speedmaster in this thread. The results look very natural. My watchmaker even asked where I was able to source a pair of old hands for it.
Not sure about the new lume but old dry tritium will swell (and crumble) with moisture. Seems when it does it often is claimed as relume when in fact it has taken on moisture at some point in the watches life.
