first time vintage build- rolex 6200

[sor@mail.technion.ac.il]

Hi there,
This is my first thread and first time aging somthing, so I would appreciate any tip I can get.
the photos where taken with a camera phone, so I apologize in advance.. I was simply too nervous to handle anything else 

ingredients:
* Tiger concept sterile watch from ebay.
* raffles time 6200 dial (doesn't fit the case- needs shaving down)
* cup of joe (extra strong)
* oven preheated to 150C -> then seeing that its not enough for me 200C (on the second try)

tools:
* basic watch maker kit.
* rodico on a toothpick (do deal with the tiny hands)
* Q tips- to "paint" the hands


after tearing down the case I dealt with the individual parts:
rehout- pretty straight forward, preheating with a hair drier really makes things easy. work the insert with sandpaper then pop in bleach for 2 min. wash with fresh water dry and presto.
case- just went mid-evil on the sucker.


dial- now here is where it became interesting. I really had no Idea what to expect.. so I experimented on 3 dials at the same time.
*note that the explorer 111490 is my experimental lumming dial- so different thickness of lume were effected slightly different. 
(I seem to have misplaced the image of the TC dial before)




20 min of heating on 150C (+ turbo function on oven) got the tiger case to this:


granted its not much.. so I decided to try coffee and the heating on 200C (+ turbo function on oven).
I just popped the dials for a quick swim in steaming coffee then placed them on some tin foil (for ease removal)

*** this is when thing became intense.. so keep an eye on the dial while its in the oven***
after 2 min in the oven I got this:



and compare to the non coffee:


hands- now these were not effected at all by time in the oven alone. so I just placed them on the tin foil and gently painted them with coffe with a Q tip.
then popped in the oven on 200C (+ turbo function on oven) for about 5 min- I am pretty shure the can handle longer.




in the case:



So what have I learned?
* very gentle dial aging- preheat oven to 150C for about 20min 
* hard core overkill dial aging- coffee dip + turbo 200C for about 2 min (i'll probably settle for 1 min next time or 150C for longer)
* I am undecided about the hands.
* the hardest part is to get yourself going.. once you start you see there is nothing to fear really.

[mcotter]

You're going at it w/ too much intensity! Spend time studying the piece you are emulating, get to recognize the effect you're after. Rarely does a dial look as "baked" as yours does.The insert looks like you've gone at it w/ abrasives. An aged faded insert is "gentle", not like its been draged behind your motorcycle! There are many "tutorials" on aging, read many & practice,practice, practice.......You'll get it w/ time. ( sorry if I've been too harsh on your efforts,) This forum has many very talented "Agers" If that's a word who will chime in I'm sure. Regards, mcotter

[drainaps]

Very interesting and thanks for posting. While I'd qualify your approach as a bit of a "brute force" one, in view of the results, I have learnt a lot. Thanks for posting.

[sor@mail.technion.ac.il]

You're going at it w/ too much intensity! Spend time studying the piece you are emulating, get to recognize the effect you're after. Rarely does a dial look as "baked" as yours does.The insert looks like you've gone at it w/ abrasives. An aged faded insert is "gentle", not like its been draged behind your motorcycle! There are many "tutorials" on aging, read many & practice,practice, practice.......You'll get it w/ time. ( sorry if I've been too harsh on your efforts,) This forum has many very talented "Agers" If that's a word who will chime in I'm sure. Regards, mcotter

thanks for the input

 

this was just the first go at it.

as you said I have alot of fine (and not so fine) tuning ahead.

 

no movements where hurt in the making.

[sor@mail.technion.ac.il]

Very interesting and thanks for posting. While I'd qualify your approach as a bit of a "brute force" one, in view of the results, I have learnt a lot. Thanks for posting.

my pleasure.

although this seems less then subtle, I have done my fair share of reading.. but nothing really prepares you to what it feels like hands on

 

I'll be much more minded to the continuing effect of the different processes next time. 

[freddy333]

I agree on most of the comments above. Too much heat for too long. Your dial looks 'cooked', which is not the effect you want.

You might do better with a light coating of matte varnish spray (google 'rwgforum' & 'matte varnish' to see examples). Hands often come out very well with a bit of baking (try 200 degrees F for a few minutes), but keep an eye on them because the line separating nicely patina'd   from burnt    is just a matter of seconds.

[Geof3]

Have to agree with the above. If you had forgone the abrasives on the bezel and just stuck with the color tone you would have been close to producing a genuine look. The dial looks like it came off Mercury on the sunny side. I've tried cooking dials, never seems to work well unless you want a moon surface look. I prefer old school modeling weathering techniques then clear varnish to hold in the weathered effect. Don't have any pics, those pieces are long gone and I don't mess with my watches as much anyone. I like a nice clean look these days. Good effort though...

[sor@mail.technion.ac.il]

update,

I took another dial to the oven. no coffee this time.

and shaved the dial by connecting it instead of the cutting discs and shaving it on a stone. easy peasy.

 

attached are some crappy pics from the phone. (in bad lighting)

[sor@mail.technion.ac.il]

 

 

[dogan]

looks much much better this time! how many minutes and at what degrees did you put the dial in the oven? did u use again the yellow dial (4th pic from above)? does the baking change the surface structure of the lume so it is not smooth anymore?