Home Made How To (2), Tudor Ranger Now Explorer Dial Added

[Slartibartfast]

OK, so after some more printing, luming and building, the Explorer is now ready for some

wrist time. Thought I would share a few pics of this little beauty.

Again, the dial designed on AutoCAD and printed onto laser decal paper, all the same processes as the Ranger.

In my prototype dials I had re-created a version with an outer ring at the edges of the minute markers.

I couldn't get this to work properly, as when the dial was cased, the slightly off-centre home made

dial blank was visible due to the outer ring. Ah well, never mind. When I can find a way of making better

more precise dial blanks, I will have another go at that version. I have used a gold hand set, and think

that this combo adds something different, and looks really cool (IMO).

Here's a pic of a gen for comparison.

Enjoy!

[gplracer]

I am truly amazed! Fantastic work!

[freddy333]

Brilliant! I am not sure how/why I missed this, but well done.

[Slartibartfast]

Brilliant! I am not sure how/why I missed this, but well done.

Thanks freddy. Given your experience with this marque, I am pleased that you have found my efforts worth a read!

[valerian]

Holy cow! I missed this the first time round!

This is absolutely fantastic. You don't happen to have a second one of those homegrown Explorers? I'd buy one of you any minute!

Thanks for showing this.

Valerian

[gplracer]

I think this should be revisited. It is really exciting. I would love to see you attempt a vintage red sea dweller dial.

[By-Tor]

Amazing work!

Hey... you might want to attempt to do a 1680 red Submariner dial. The MBW dials aren't even close and it's the same thing with all aftermarket dials too. It's all about the SUBMARINER font and color.

[Panther917]

As a noob to the hobby, this is very inspiring....Brilliant!!!

[Rolexious]

This is totally awesome. Perhaps now we can finally get a decent/great 1680 Red Sub dial made? If so, can the red be screened to be raised and bright red like the original?

http://rolex.watchprosite.com/show-nblog.post/ti-481641/

[TeeJay]

This is totally awesome. Perhaps now we can finally get a decent/great 1680 Red Sub dial made? If so, can the red be screened to be raised and bright red like the original?

http://rolex.watchprosite.com/show-nblog.post/ti-481641/

In a word: No.

All dial markings, such as text, numerals, markers, are all transparent areas, on the black decal. It would be possible to use red paint or ink on the base of the dial, so it would show through as red text, but it would not be raised. As example, this is what I did with one of Slartibartfast's Explorer dial decals to create a 6200 dial, using a black Sharpie on the base of the dial so the text Explorer and Precision would not be visible...

[maxlawbr]

Wow,

Amazing, fantastic work.

Congrats for the watch and skill.

[BrianT]

Nice work!!

[charmquark]

Which fonts did you use?

[Slartibartfast]

No fonts are used.

This is all vector work.

I traced a dial picture.

[dakwan]

Unluckily, all the pic are dead.... Any chance of re-up?

[Bungle]

Hi Slartibartfast, I know this thread is a bit old now, but just in case, would you be willing to share your original vector files, so that I can see if I can mod them into a Sub 6538 or 5513 dial version?