Hi guys, quick update. A dear member @whippetman01 was brave enough to send one of his Seamaster bezels over for restoration. I just finished working on it and wanted to share a quick before after preview since the bakelite now needs to dry for at least one week until I can share the final results. Aside from redoing the bezel insert, I also relumed the damaged lume in the trapezoid with some tritium powder I have left. Let me know what you think! Before: After:
Since Corona forces me to stay at home I spent some time working on the Seamaster 300 again. Although I was already pretty happy with the result, the contrast between dial and lume just didn't feel right. After a lot (!!) of trial and error I finally figured out a nice way to add patina during relume with tritium powder. I think it looks much nicer and really improves the look of the gilt dial
just sent you a link to the old , waterbased tritium paint for sale. be very quick; next to nothing left worldwide..... buy a few, if you want to experience yourself and do customer watches.... your dial looks better now, but tritium does not age that way. too grainy. smooth is the way to go.... kind regards. achim
I took some detail shots. It's a pain to capture but I hope it helps in order to judge texture. It actually looks very similar compared to my other watches with tritium dials in factory condition
Gif showing the UV reaction next to a 806 and Big T with factory stock dials. Hope this works. Let me know if there is a smarter way to post video footage
Bezel arrived swiftly and safely from 321Only today and you can see from his before and after photos it’s a fantastic job.His turnaround was a couple of weeks and that’s in lockdown situation! Will keep the bezel as a spare for my SM 300 unless anyone is in desperate need!
It was in rather a bad state! Even had a large ding at 9:00 which has now mostly been sorted thanks again 321Only