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Gotta love those Clark hands for $13

Blasting off. (Which means delayed for paperwork)

Looks great! Is it just me or is the minute track painted on? Looks like it's all true gilt except for that, unless the lighting is tricking me. Minh dials aren't done on gen plates, the thickness of the plate itself is the way to check quickly, gen is thick, his aren't.. The dark lord uses gen plates exclusively for a few different reasons and that's why his prices have gone up up up lately, because of the cost and effort to find them. Usually the plate is era specific but not model specific. If a 6538 dial is 27mm then he can use any 1030 plate with a 27mm size.

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White on white More things to come.

Trying out the service look since the lume on my new Yuki dial and Clark hands is so white

Here's a Tonny I picked up, the picture sucks but it's indeed black paint over brass with the relief edge showing. Not bad for 1/10 the price of a Dark Lord dial.

Pressure tested to 200m yesterday lol, i don't buy it but I'll hit the pool with it at least.

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Pam 616 on gen distressed leather! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pam 292 on green asolutement. Fresh today.

Beautiful sunny day!

I would bet that just about every 'dial refinished on a genuine dial plate' is not what it is claimed to be. Why? Because not many genuine dial plates are floating around today like they were 20 or 25 years ago. I used to see old rolex dials (mostly 6694, 1500, 1600 DJ etc) at NAWCC shows for $15 or $20 each and only bought 8 or 10 in all the years I belonged to the NAWCC. They just were not important back then like they are now because you could still buy dials at the friendly rolex AD. Fast forward to 2000 or so when higher grade 'refinished' dials started showing up, there were not nearly enough 'genuine dial plates' to go around so fakers did what they do best...make fake signed dial plates. Since the genuine signed plates were sometimes roughly signed anyway, the bogus plates will usually pass inspection...except for the wrong sized dial feet posts, shoddy soldering, and notches at 3. What difference does a dial 'refinished on a genuine dial plate' make compared to 'refinished on a fake dial plate'? None at all unless the rest of the watch is genuine imho. One could claim a refinished dial using a genuine signed dial plate is 100% Ok (I would go along with this), but in reality the same refinishing job on a fake signed dial plate does not make much difference on an otherwise genuine watch (to many) and no difference at all on a fake or Frankenstien watch imho. In order to determine if the dial plate is genuine you would need to be somewhat of a 'backside dial expert' and after all, how many rolex characters will allow some Bozo to r/r their 'refinished dial on a genuine dial plate' (oxymoron!) just to try to tell if the damn plate is genuine to the brand? Not many I bet. As for the 'genuine dial plate' being original to a particular watch...it would be a real stretch to prove such a claim. Btw...the rolex purists who will not allow a 'refinished dial on a replica dial plate' on an otherwise genuine watch today would have been dancing in the street 20 years ago for a refinished dial on a fake plate with the quality we have today. The bottom line (to me anyway) is a genuine watch should have a genuine dial plate if possible and replicas and F-steins do not matter at all. As time goes by and top grade replica cases, dials, bracelets etc can not be distinguished from genuine, the 'genuine dial plate' matter will disappear just like the '100% genuine, never welded or polished case' matter is slowly dissolving now. Q...If the swiss watch factories could make nearly identical genuine cases by the thousands with the tools available 50 years ago...why can't the Chinese/Taiwanese etc make them now on the super high tech machines they have today for almost $nothing, like cranking out Canal Street Specials? A...They can, they just don't want to. They could also make dials that are identical to genuine (except for tritium) but they do not want to do this either. But they are very close on both counts. 'dial plate = 'baseplate'

Great comparison, thanks!

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what i ALWAYS use to separate the retaining ring from the case is this snap back watch case opener AND a watch makers hammer tape around the case as much as possible using electrical tape, turn the case on its side, insert the sharp edge of the opener between the ring and the case and gently tap with the small hammer, work your way around the case and it comes off, unwarped and no case damage as long as you tape it up a bit. to press crystals this is my preferred method. cheap and very effective 1 1/2" polyester adapter from home depot with a flat nylon disc in a taped up bench vise, turn slowly and press, keep it straight. just make sure the crystal isnt too tight for the case beforehand, or it will crack and you may not even notice