Help me lume/mod this watch

[GGN]

So, I was in Lidl today and picked up this 'all stainless steel' watch for €8.99. Following forum member 'angelo''s excellent tutorial post about how to relume, I bought the watch for exactly this purpose. To try - for the first time - to do some lume work. Here is the watch:


So far, my idea is:

1) Add lume to the dial. First to the small indices beyond the markers. And then to the markers/numerals. Can these be painted/lumed directly, or do they need primer?

2) New hands. I'll probably put Mercedes hands on them, unless better ideas?

3) The bezel. I hate it. The paint is unprotected and already flaking off. Perhaps I can put some kind of sealer on it? Unless you guys have better ideas? I will put a lume dot on it using epoxy. Maybe I will drill a point for this.

4) The bracelet is approaching unwearable. I'm thinking a nylon strap..?

Anyway, I would love to hear any ideas/suggestions for this watch. Like I said, it was €8.99 so frankly I do not care about it - but would love to learn a thing or two.

Thanks for reading!

[pithy]

GGN, I personally like the watch as configured. Very clean and probably a great timekeeper. Granted, if one were to swap the hands/dial for lumed ones it would have more utility. If you are comfortable working at very small scale and can accept a less than perfect product, it might be fun to try to paint the dial with lume or affix tiny luminescent pips as hour markers. I call the current hand style dauphin and I don't think that they are particularly well suited to the addition of lume but you might want to experiment with dipping them. I can't tell if your dial numbers/indices are affixed, embossed or painted but mechanical or chemically etching them would my preference for prepping them for any adhesive application. The problem is that the paint can be compromised in this process. The lettering (and content thereof) is not offensive but if it disappeared that would probably be OK too. I like the bracelet. It may require adjustment. Replacing a bezel insert or the entire bezel is a great fix but this is usually very hard to do because of the challenges in matching the dimensions.

A lot of people seem to be interested in changing the appearance of watches. I might be nice if WUS had a special forum dedicated to luming and similar things - like cake decorating.

p

[GGN]

Hi Pithy,

Thanks very much for the feedback :) The watch looks okay, but in real life, it really does look all of its €8.99 price-tag and not much more. I will not wear it 'as-is' so I'm going to do something to it. I have a degree in chemistry and I've been fairly itching to inspect some of the luminous compounds about.

I actually can't tell what the markers are myself. I doubt they're embossed, but I don't see any gaps/joins to confirm they are affixed. I suppose I'll rub them down and I'll see how I go. Possibly I could paint the entire dial black, and then do the markers white after.

I resized the bracelet with a hammer and a nail. Size is fine, but it's still rubbish. Makes a lot of noise and squeaks..!

The hands. Hmm, I'm not a fan of them on any watch. Like you said, I immediately ruled out a new bezel as I suspect this watch would not adhere to normal Seiko/Invicta standards etc.

Anyway, will see how it goes! Thanks again!