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Home-made Snowflake Tudor Dial Transfers


TeeJay

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Okay, I'm sure you all remember Slartibartfast's awesome Ranger dial project, well, since then, Slartibartfast and I have been in collaboration to explore the medium of dial transfers as a viable substitute dial. Given the recent popularity of Tudors, and as the previous project had been a Ranger, it made sense to stick with the Tudor theme, and in the end, we wound up going with a no-date Snowflake dial. The process of producing the dial, Slartibartfast documented in his above linked tutorial/pictorial, so all I am doing here, is reviewing the dial 'as a product', and presenting it to the community as a fun project, which has given very good results :) Any questions, I would suggest to direct to Slartibartfast, as he is the one who actually brought this all to fruition, I was merely a sounding board and reviewer.

While Slartibartfast has very kindly gifted me the dial reviewed, that has not in any way biassed my view of the dial, because I am genuinely impressed by the finished result, and would have given a positive review even if the dial was not to remain in my possession. Onto words and pictures (who remembers that old classic? ;) )

The actual face of the dial, is, as in the above linked tutorial, a high-quality print onto water transfer paper. Here are a couple of 'raw transfers' so people can see how they look 'coming off the line', to bear in mind when comparing to the actual finished dial...

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Here's a better shot to show the clarity of the printing...

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After application, the dial was painted with luminous paint (not superlume, although I can only imagine how awesome a superlumed dial would look) and then sprayed with matte varnish. While I have been told that the transfer would not withstand getting wet, and that the edge can be a weak point, for the transfer to potentially seperate from the base dial, I can honestly say that I found no such problems when installing the dial. While I handled the dial gently during installation, I did not treat it any more gently than I would any other dial transplant, and there was no issue whatsoever. Here's a few shots to comparing the dial to a Silix Vintage dial.

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Personally, I think the quality is comparable. The varnish gives the dial an awesome texture, the text is clearly and crisply printed, and I think it looks fantastic :)

Here it is installed on the movement (I decided not to go with the destro setup in the end, as I just wasn't feeling it)

DSCN2191.jpg

And all cased up... I am not happy with the condition of the watch case, as I really want to get a black insert back in place, but at the moment, it's financially not an option, so I'm making do with the bare metal. That said, while I was not over happy with the condition of the NATO sub 24 hours ago, I am now thoroughly overjoyed with it, and would be happy to wear it publicly, even though it is still quite some way from accurate to the gen...

DSCN2192.jpg

From this point on, please excuse the condition of the crystal, as it obscures the clarity of the dial, but to the naked eye, on the wrist, the dial is incredibly clear and easy to read. Certainly the clearest Rolex dial I've seen, and on a line with Panerai clarity/ease of visibility. Could this be to do with the square indices being more noticeable to the eye than circular ones? I don't know... Either way, on the wrist, the dial is very easy to read at a glance :)

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With its equally vintaged blood-brother:

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Standing proud:

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And a final wrist shot :)

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As above, 'happy' does not begin to cover how pleased I am with the dial, and what an awesome start it has gotten my Snowflake project off to. Slartibartfast is a true gentleman, and collaborating with him on this project has truly been a pleasure :)

R, thank you again for your generosity in gifting me the dial, it really is very much appreciated, and if you'd care to add a few words about the production of the dial and the issues overcome, please feel free :):victory::1a::drinks:B)

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Thanks for the feedback, guys, I cannot take any credit here, as all the construction of this dial was done by R. He just sent me a couple of uncut transfers incase I wanted to play around with them myself, the dial arrived fully finished, and fixed to the brass backing disc :) All I did, was cobbled together a photoshop version of the dial layout, which he then refined into the final prints :)

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TeeJay, thank you very much for such a positive review of my dial making attempts. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with someone with such a passion for this hobby of ours. Artwork inspiration was all down to you.

I am seriously of the opinion that anyone with access to a vector drawing prog (such as autocad) and a 1200dpi laserjet can have a go at dial making themselves. The only serious bit is the luming, at which you will need some practice (using a loupe) prior to committing to the final dial.

Here is a shot of the two I made

FinishedTudorDials050909.jpg

TeeJay's dial is the one on the left (better 12 0'clock marker lume IMO).

Thanks to all for the comments.

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Whaow handsome job.

And very interesting thechnique.

I had thaught of that for changing font on a date disk (p196 7753 brob), but never even imagined it would be so cool for a dial.

After luming it does look like if was a normal dial.

Indeed, R first used the technique for changing a date wheel font :) As you say, once the transfer is lumed and varnished, it really does look like it is a regular dial. The crazing on the crystal picked up the light, which obscured the dial in the photos, but on the wrist, the crystal appears much 'clearer', and, given the quality of the finished dial, I would be quite happy to install one under a 'clean' sapphire crystal, and hope to be able to do so with a future project watch :)

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Me likey! how long did the whole thing take not including creating the dial template? Any plans to sell dials?

Well, we've been working on the project for over a month, but R would be the best person to say how long it took to actually do, as he did all the practical work. If I remember, it took me a few hours to create the original dial template, which he then refined into something more useable :)

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Me likey! how long did the whole thing take not including creating the dial template? Any plans to sell dials?

The creation of the dial has defined stages after creating the graphics and printing the decals

1. Apply the white backing sheet to dial blank

2. Apply base tansfer decal

3. Apply dial decal

4. Trim edges of decals to fit dial blank

5. Apply 1st coat of lume to indices

6. Apply top coat of lume to indices

7. Spray dial with matt acrylic varnish

8. Cut out central opening for hands.

Whole process takes about 4 days, as drying time for decals, lume, varnish etc. is very important.

BTW.....

I have one other dial, that I made at the same time as the dial reviewed by TeeJay.

If there is any interest, I was thinking about putting it up for a RWG Fund Raiser Auction.

All proceeds (less the cost of shipping) to the RWG fund.

Any interest anyone?

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Yes, I would be interested as I am sure other members and RWG would be too!

The creation of the dial has defined stages after creating the graphics and printing the decals

1. Apply the white backing sheet to dial blank

2. Apply base tansfer decal

3. Apply dial decal

4. Trim edges of decals to fit dial blank

5. Apply 1st coat of lume to indices

6. Apply top coat of lume to indices

7. Spray dial with matt acrylic varnish

8. Cut out central opening for hands.

Whole process takes about 4 days, as drying time for decals, lume, varnish etc. is very important.

BTW.....

I have one other dial, that I made at the same time as the dial reviewed by TeeJay.

If there is any interest, I was thinking about putting it up for a RWG Fund Raiser Auction.

All proceeds (less the cost of shipping) to the RWG fund.

Any interest anyone?

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Great collaboration project with amazing returns! I hope you wear it well T :thumbsupsmileyanim:

Thanks, it hasn't been off the wrist since the new dial (well, other than bathing, as I don't want to get the strap wet :lol: ) But I'm definitely preferring Tudor to Rolex now in terms of dial variations :lol::tu:

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What a great Project!! Even better, it can be improved with a small investment of dough (maybe 20 bucks) and a couple of techniques I stumbled accross while working on datewheel projects... Shoot me a PM TJ and I'll point you in the right direction...

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