RWG Technical

Try and find any of the topics we are discussing today, in anywhere near the detail at Time Zone, let alone any other forum...and your answer is plain to see. There is no comparison, not when open honest and informative reviews are the basis of your comparison. We were the first, and will always be NO. 1. RG

Rex on Geek has bought a Stylus Pen from RC, used I think and at a good price. Besides the cost of the unit ($2500 or so new), you have to mix up and leave the lume to stabilize for hours, then once you apply the lume with the pen, you have to clean out and flush out each and every piece that has come into contact with the lume, and I don't think it will produce a better finish that I do with my hand applications. If you had a factory set up where you were applying dots to dials for hours on end, the Stylo pen is for you. If your doing as I do, a dial here and there, it's just not worth the hassle... I think the pen is probably ok for plain round dots, doing saussage I think it would be hard to get consistant and nice results. I say this based on my hands on experience and what it takes to get it looking as I do... RG

Well done Francisco. If I can suggest a different way to make the hole in the seconds hand bigger. I use small broaches to drill out the hole and then it doesn't need to be glued to the post. The broaches are tapered and you can control the size of the hole and test it as you do the drilling, once it fits the post, you stop. Here is the type of broaches I am speaking about Hand broaches Bergeon 1896-H Assortment of 12 Pivot Smoothing Broaches Diameters 0.05 to 0.30 BERG-1896-H $23.30 RG

I think the majority are using silk screening the same as the dial printing is done. Easy to control when you have everything set up and automatic. The Stylo pen is sold by Tritec, basically a syringe that is controlled by pressure and works like a cake icing applicator. RG

Thanks for the info on the PVD and pics of that 212. At $475 it's not cheap...glad I have my own source and don't have to go through him. @ RobbieG I really don't know what way to go with the hands...the blue pics look good, but red and black also goes together well. I am no photoshop expert, I wonder if someone here can do up some variants of different colours on the hands, and even the subdial ticks (as shown in the other picture). This is all experimental and I am willing to try anything to get nice results. On the Super Lume difficulty, it's simply the consistancy of this particular lume, in order to get the black look, whatever they mixed with it doesn't seem to blend smoothly with the binder. I am going to try mixing some of my gloss binder to add slickness to it... I haven't asked RC about what I experienced, my guess is that the majority of thier customers are genuine producers who have and are using either Stylo Pen's for application, or silk screening the lume. It seems as if I may have created a monster, I think I will have to make a few of these up and offer them to the members of RWG, if there is interest of course... Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. RG

If you press the retaining ring over the crystal, you will break it. You have to grind down the inner circumfrance of the retaining ring, until the ring fits down aprox 1/2 way down the side of the crystal. This will leave just enough tension to secure it, but not too much that it will crack the crystal. If I were to guess, right now you can just barely fit the retaining ring on the crystal... RG

Well I think I am going to blue the large seconds hand, actually I am going to try and blue it the real way, with my microtorch...not sure how the hand will react to the heat but it should be able to be blued the natural way. I am quite surprised by the responses, actually I hesitated to even show it because I thought everyone would think I finally sniffed too much Super Lume binder As soon as I get the hand blued, or painted if that doesn't work out, I will post the updated pics. Since I have it apart, I will slip a non lumed 212 dial in the case so you can see how it looks. I'll try and get this done between now and the weekend... RG

Worn out cannon pinion...when you reset the time you change the position of the cannon clutch and it grabs again...for a while... On these movements you can normally remove the pinion from the gear, then stake it, re-assemble and the friction is restored. RG

It could be a number of things, more than likely your hairspring coils are touching each other from oil. You need to have a watchmaker check it out. These modern movements are not prone to magnetisme like the old ones were... RG

Oh man, what to do...what to do... I have this paint in almost the exact same colour and looking at your picture I am very tempted to do it this way...I can paint the seconds hand and also the chrono subdial. I have to do some thinking on this one. RG

Well...it seems as if I have some work to do. I'll do the tip of the hand red, and the "1950" red as well, thinking that a bright red similar to DSRD would be the correct match for the black colour. I'll post pics when I am done. Thanks again everyone, and to note, the same thing can be done to any other watch... RG

I was "Storm Stayed" on Monday...how did you guess?? RG

It's PVD coating, not DLC. In fact the coating is the older type and colour used on the original model. Cannon pin is silver, it's the lighting that is making it appear black, no AR and hard to take pics without me showing up in the crystal. Thanks for the positive feedback, hopefully the owner is as happy. RG

Yes, the PVD is from a good supplier I think I will go with the tip only red on the seconds hand. Red in the strap as well?? never even though of that...have to think it over. I am going to use the same dark red I used on the Breitling Blacksteel, if it works for the BS it should work for this one. Thanks for the comments and positive reviews, I wasn't sure if it would be to everyone's liking, but I certainly like how it turned out. RG

Tachymeter scale I can't change...but I can paint the hands, red chrono hands would be kind of cool as well...seems as if I have some thinking to do... The only thing if the hands were red, they would stand out too much compared to the hour and minute...hmmm, not easy this design work. @ Fidestro Thanks for the vote of confidance. RG

I am open to suggestions, actually Red may go better with the black grey combo... On just the tip or the complete hand...or something else... RG

Great idea, I think some colour would add to the effect... Do you think just the tip of the chrono seconds hand from the lume dot out?? I probably won't be keeping it, it was more of an experiement to try a few new things and see what could be done. I have lots of watches to wear... Glad you like it, and thanks for the feedback. RG

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I thought I would have a bit of fun and experiment with a few things... First up, I decided to PVD coat my 212 case. Then once I got the case back looking at the dial and luming it with C1 or C3 just didn't catch my eye...so I thought why not lume it with Genuine Dark Grey Super Luminova, and to top it all off...install a Carbon Fibre BOB strap... I also serviced the movement for years of trouble free service. Here is what I ended up with. I will add that this Super Lume is the most difficult lume I have ever used, imagine taking wet beach sand, trying to pick it up with a knife, and then trying to apply it to a dial...terrible stuff to work with, and the results are not to my normal standards. Hope you like it. And in case your thinking "there's no way that this lume glows..." Think again... Thanks for looking. RG

The easiest way I have found to to this, is to mix up a special lume mix in the colour you need to match the dial. RG

Spare parts is a big problem, all the more reason to have the movement serviced so you don't damage the gears in the autowinder. The other solution would be to replace the jewels for these gears with the ETA jewels and gears...I haven't tried it, but it should be possible...just expensive that's all... If you add it all up, servicing is still the best and cheapest way to make sure your movement lasts a long time... RG

I have modified the ETA reversing wheel, and the ratchet driving wheel (1482) by cutting the pivots down on the lathe and making them fit the Asian 7750...the problem is the time it takes to do the lathe work, and the cost of the ETA parts...it isn't economical to use this as a fix for the problem. RG

Very nice, congrats. RG

Well done. I use the same process just in the reverse fashion, I first clean everything in the Ultrasonic machine, then I soak the reversing wheel in one dip as I assemble the rest of the movement. Thanks again for a great post. RG

You would have to confirm exactly what movement or copy of what movement you have in the watch right now. If it's a copy of the ETA 28XX then you can replace it with the ETA from Ofrei. Datewheel can be swapped between the two and hands should fit without any problems. If you have something other than an ETA copy, you can't use the ETA as the hands etc won't fit. Plus, you need to know what exact caliber of ETA, a 2824-2 is not the same thickness as a 2836-2. RG