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Fairwater Take 2

5K views 30 replies 10 participants last post by  solex 
#1 · (Edited)
Here is my latest rendition of Fairwater, the circles and 12'oclock markers will be painted by hand with luminous paint.

Comments welcomed and appreciated.

I'm going to make my own dial blank out of galvanized steel, this is what I have lying around, is there any reason why I should not just go out an buy some sheet brass?

 
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#2 ·
I like what I see a lot! really great combo of long minute dashes and circles. Not 100% sure about the 12 o'clock markers. They don't look exactly in proportion with the rest of the dial
also "FairWater" and "Automatic" could use some letter kerning.
 
#3 ·
I think if you distinguish the markers at 3-6-9 a little from the rest of the circles, it would help the dial "pop" a little more.

Maybe oblong/oval them out, or increase the size slightly...not really sure, but something to differentiate them would look good in my opinion!
 
#22 ·
If you do this the logo should be larger to balance the dial otherwise the dial is unimpressive.....

 
#10 ·
A neat design Solex! I like your decision to put the flower as the 12 o clock marker. I also like the chosen font for Fairwater, it really gives me a diving feel.

For my own taste I would reduce and compress the text to about half the size.

Will be interesting to see your dial in a case. What kind of case will you choos for this one?
 
#19 ·
After 3 tries to get the dial right I'm finally finished and pleased with the results. Here is the procedure I followed:

The Dial

  1. Fabricated a 31 mm blank dial from sheet brass 0.015" thick and installed dial feet
  2. Painted the dial white and wet sanded with 3000 grit
  3. Printed the dial on white water-slide decal on a 1200 dpi printer. The decal was painted with several coats of clear prior cutting or affixing to the dial, I left a white border so the black boundary would be crisp. There is a white border near the chapter ring which I did not plan on but looks good IMHO
  4. All paint was dried for 2 days prior to handling
    1. Note spray painting needs to be done in light layers spread a few minutes apart also once you are done spraying you cannot spray again for at least 48 hours. If the printed procedures are not followed the underlying white paint and the decal will lift. This is the reason it took me three tries.
    2. Because it is relatively cold now I heated the spray can in hot water prior to painting
    3. Painting the decal prior to applying yielded the best results because the black laser printer ink can become blotchy when in water and handling when applying to the dial. This is not a major issue but it does require touch up with a Sharpe prior to painting with clear
    4. I really need to setup some sort of a spray boot to minimize the dust
  5. After fitting the decal and letting it dry for 24 hours, I sealed the edges of the decal with matte clear coat (hand painted)
  6. The circle indexes were painted with two coats of luminous paint

The Bezel
  1. Purchased a matte ceramic bezel insert
  2. Mixed orange using Testors yellow, red and white. Note: yellow is the based color, use red a little at a time to get the correct shade and a little white to brighten the final orange
  3. The insert was hand painted with an oiler making sure the paint was thin enough to flow and let it dry over night under heat. An X-ACTO knife was used at a shallow angle to remove excess paint after it was completely dry
    1. There is a little excess paint that will come off naturally with use
  4. The insert did not exactly fit the bezel and I really wanted and interference fit (press in).
  5. I made the jig picture to remove a few thousands of an inch using a pointed file and finished with several grits of sand paper from 320 to 2000
  6. The click spring was shortened by 1/2 to remove slop and also tighten up the bezel action

Finished off with a custom made elephant hide strap and stainless thumb nail buckle

Thank you again for your input on the dial design.
 

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#23 ·
The watch looks good except the lugs.....They would look better curved so the strap doesn't stick out. In other words the case looks too straight. IMHO

 
#26 ·
Here is the latest completed version of the dial.
-New submariner style case with triple lock crown
-Ceramic Bezel and minute hand were color matched
-Different hands were installed from the prior verion
-Dial was painted flat
-New gold tone ETA-2824-2 movement installed

 
#28 ·
Take a look in earlier posts I give the high level process. If you are interested in more details ask away there was no HOW-TO when I embarked on this project trial and error but perhaps I can help minimize some of your error if you wish to proceed
 
#31 ·
I three goals with my latest redo:

(1) I was not completely happy with the second watch as it need a bit more "white" space between the dial graphics and the chapter ring so I shrunk down the graphics and re-did the dial.

(2) Also I made new dial feet as the telephone wire post I used were too small in diameter. The perfect diameter is 0.7 mm which I milled from brass rods I had for pocket watch stakes.

(3) I wanted the dial to have a flatter finish.

The differences are subtle but I'm happy

BEFORE



AFTER

 
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