JoeyB

I've done two white dials several years ago. My picture needs updating. It's not sharp enough. Essentially what I did was print just the lettering on clear decal, and painted the dial itself white. Other than that, it's the same technique.

Most photo printers will do fine. Ant printing more than 5000dpi makes puddles of ink on the decal paper. Rafflestime has the small GMT hand and the 6mm Brevet + crown. The crown needs some modding. There is a thread on that in the archives.

The only red lettering I tried failed miserably. The red letters on a 6542 are painted on the surface of the dial, and looked really bad when trying to print it within the dial. Good luck.

Bart, looking good. Now try something I haven't been able to do yet. The white background on the hour markers. I can control the lume to stay in the lines, but have yet to find a paint that is compatible with the decals that I can control. Let me know if you do.

Yep, I forget to mention that the date lines up properly for the Rolex magnifier. I don't know about the font, I've always changed that part.

Yep, future reminders would be helpful. My nurse can tell me when to pay while feeding me my tapioca. Us old folks need all the help we can get!

Just paid my VIP dues, didn't know if it had run out or not. If so, I didn't get a reminder. Will we get something in the future?

I bought my two DG3804B movements for one 6542 and my 1675 brand new from Otto Frei. They both were quite clean looking as compared to those that came in reps, and regulated easily. I don't know that is what makes the difference, but it looks that way to me. What I liked about the date wheel was the date 'ring' was easier to work with and lining it up using little tabs to secure it to the date wheel.

Could it be a heritage thing?

I had issues with decal sealer. Even after two days drying, it made the ink blot and run. I called the decal manufacturer and he recommended the Krylon. I can use that within 30 minutes of printing. As you can see from the pic I posted, I get the aged patina by varying the spray orange peel to smooth.

If you are in the U.S. you can go to Hobby Lobby and get the decal paper for about $10, and use an online coupon for 30 - 40% off. Walmart has the Krylon Crystal clear gloss sealer at the best price, under $4. Most any printer that you print your photos on is good enough. You'll only be printing black on clear decal paper. The lume I use is a water based acrylic glow paint available at most art supply stores for about $5. I tint to color using kid's water based brown, just a touch or so. That's where the practice and difficulty is. I use a nib pen on the coronet and straight markers, but people use all sorts of things to apply the lume. On the round hour markers I use a bamboo skewer for shish-ka-bob, flatten the end, dip and touch. It's almost perfect and the only easy part! The thing that's nice is that it is all water based, so you can wipe away a mistake with a wet Q-tip. I've posted it all somewhere on site, but here is the pic of my 6542 dial for your use if you choose to.

Even when going budget, a 6542 is expensive. The Tiger2 case was my preference, but they are no longer in production. So for me, that leaves the Explorer ll 'Steve McQueen' cartel watch. Order the watch with the movement you prefer. I have both the ETA2846 and the DG3804B, and both are running for years now. I understand the desire for a gen Swiss movement, but the Chinese movement is just as accurate, and substantially less expensive in both the short and long run. No need to service, just replace with a brand new movement for under $35. You need to work the case, grinding off the crown guards, and then taking the edge off the bottom sides for the thinner case look. I use the dial that came with the watch, sand it to bare brass and refinished with a water slide decal. There are threads explain how to do that by me and Bart Cordell. It's not hard once you have help from this forum, and they are quite good and really inexpensive as long as you don't count your time! I wear my DG3804B daily, it's now 5 years old and the brass under the decal that shows through for the script has not tarnished at all. So the decal seals it. The hands come from Rafflestime. The red/black date wheel is printed on clear self sticking address label and applied to the stock date wheel painted the shade of white/aging you prefer. It all fits together as it came as an Explorer, so that hassle is eliminated. I still have some inserts and bezels made to gen spec. But someone on Ebay has them cheaper after buying mine and copying. Good luck. I've had a lot of fun building and learning and rebuilding the 6542, all started by Freddy333 years ago. I came here looking for info on the 1675 when I saw Freddy's first 6542 in mid project. I didn't even know that it existed. But that insert got me! The rest is history!

Congratulations!! You're pregnant! Must be those long Great White North Winters.

Logged in and out 3 times, and then the same using another browser. No issues.

Yes. As Cordell said, if you use the Rolex 'TUDOR' hands they will fit. The TUDOR model uses the ETA movement.

Thank you! Coming from you is greatly appreciated. All of mine is Chinese, Clark's crystal and my bezel, but nothing gen at all. I pieced the second hand together. The movement is an ETA2846. You do great work.

I'm very aware of the variances by Rolex and watchmakers since 1953. Anything could have been added or changed. The 6204 was not a 'James Bond' watch, though some think that calling it one adds value to it. As is in your link, the 6204 had pencil hands with the longer 13mm minute hand, not the 'Mercedes hand'. And a 'BREVET' 6204 would have had a 6mm '+' crown. Again, beautiful work.

Beautiful work, great watch but it's not a 6204.

I'm jealous because it is gorgeous, but my tired old eyes can't read a Daytona without carrying around a magnifying glass. I'll have to abstain from posting a pic until the repairs are complete.

I've found that putting a bit of lume in the cup and then a drop of 5 minute epoxy and it comes out nice.

I started back in 2009 and the decals have been a rolling through to my final in 2013. I set everything to the highest resolution my program could handle, and then I went pixel by pixel. I eliminated the lighter and darker 'shades', and made it all solid black with solid white (inkjet printers do not print white so on a clear decal paper the lettering will be clear) lettering. I had to go back and forth, enlarging and reducing the blowup to check if it looked right. I'm no computer person, so I likely did it the hard way. But I like the result.

I've done it both ways, but the lettering and logo need to come from a picture. The problem with using a picture is that you can rarely find one that is perfectly lined up to be round. So be prepared to round the slightly 'egg shaped' images using your photo program.

Did I mean 'seconds' hand? The closest I've come to a Pam was trying to build a 6154 in a 40mm case. But I couldn't get the case shape right. The tooling on yours is quite beautiful.

So, that's a Pam, eh? Looks like the second hand is missing.

Nicely done. As mentioned, the crystal needs to be shortened, it is sitting too high up. Also, this would not be a 6204. The 6204 has a 6mm crown, and the second hand has the lollipop at the end.