As promised here are some pictures of what finally returned to me: Considering from where we started, this result is far apart from what I had expected... And to the naked eye, this dial looks perfect now!
A vast improvement on what went before. I actually like the radium burns on the subdials ... I'm just trying to decide if the re-lume isn't "too good". Then again, wear it for a few more decades and I'm sure it'll start to puff up.
James did not use UV powder, because the indices were totally damaged and UV lume is harder to apply. So I went for the best optical result and did not want to risk it might go wrong.
Let's call it Mr. Hymans "Signature". I appreciate this honest approach way more than having him doing things where you can't tell under 20x magnification if it's original or restored lume. I believe we will have many more well restored dials in the future and that's a good thing.
Understood Still curious to see how the material he used looks like under a UV torch, though... Would you have one so you can snap a pic and share? That dial is lovely thanks! Paul
Ha - sorry, didn't understand that earlier, that's why I kept asking For the record, you can pick a $5 UV light that does the job very well on pretty much any of the usual online platforms!
I know it's not a thing. But I simply don't have one here at the moment. Then I know that James did not use UV powder. So what are you expecting to see?
Really amazing improvement to my eyes, I’d be delighted with that compared to the “original “ posted.
Yes. And in this case it didn't matter if one can spot out it's a relume. I just wanted to have a wearable dial. That was also the reason to go for the dull yellow colour. I have enough of dials with brown indices, already.
If you can't tell under 20x mag if it's a relume or not, at that point, does it matter? Yes I know, "it's not original", but what I mean is, but if it gets to the point where literally experts cannot distinguish a relume.... whats the difference?
The most important thing to me is that a dial is the face of a watch. And you have to look at it from a normal distance. Super macro shots are fine, but have no value for everyday use. Every relume, may it be with UV powder, tritium, radium or whatever has to simply follow the thougt how the watch looks on your wrist in the end. Because this is the only thing that matters, unless you are watching your timepiece through a microscope all day long.
Take a look at the Vintage (Rolex) market and think a step further. It's more about certain sellers who "fail" to disclose value relevant things to then ask a premium from you, not about the fact how good a re-lume/casework/redial/fake parts is/are. That's the difference. You can already see it every day, even though the forensic skills needed are comparably low now.
