Possible solution for indices on ceramic bezel

[altesporsche]

Been playing with paints and colors in some V6S inserts I have and a GMT CHS bezel that I have and came pretty close to the gen look with an easy fix.. have to see how long it will hold or how it looks in sunlight compared to the gen, but if so this is a $8 mod that fixes the shitty V6S plat color indices. 

This was a few tonight quick but good result in the 15min I spent at it. 

 

A 116610 insert that I had kicking around and a GMT next to my gen GMT. The numbers left of the triangle have been painted. Would like some feedback and the 116610 the left side has been colored. 

 

With the 116610 I have taken the photo on an angle to show that the original color goes flat unlike the gen that stays kinda bright in low light. So if you see to the top left it's in the shade and still much brighter than the right side in direct light on an angle. Right of the 30 marker is the original V6s color and left is painted. 

 

This is just a quickie, will get back with results of when I spend time at it. 

 

I know now there are a few fellas who are charging a lot to have them done with real platinum to be close to gen as possible, but  this is for those who cannot sink huge amounts into a watch and also something even a beginner can do himself.. simple mods that keep the hobby fun ? 

 

Sharing some knoledge for the sake of the lot of us lol 

 

 

[altesporsche]

Here are some comparisons for the V6S compared to the gen half regular V6S and half painted. 30 50 and 40 are painted and the indices between, but the 10 side is unpainted and original V6S colouring

[mrsoundman]

Your 116610 painted Insert looks Awesome!   .  I have a 116610 V7 and I don't wear it that much because the crappy insert color is an obvious tell. 

 

Prior to RWI going down, there were several threads I was following on the "Platinum Paint Mod", but no one would share the specific paint they used to perform the mod.  There was a guy (smoke - I believe) who would paint your bezel for you, but I prefer DIY. 

 

Definitely interested in what paint you are using in the photos above and any prep instructions.  This will be of huge help to anyone with a V6S or V7 who doesn't wish to spend ~$200+ on real platinum paint or ~$800 on a GEN insert!

 

[altesporsche]

Yea my intention for passing this info was for those who would like to DIY and for those who do not have a lot of experience in modding or painting parts etc.. so I've been testing different things. 

I'm trying to find the best and closest to the gen color without getting complicated and here's how I did that 116610LN insert ... with a silver metallic sharpie marker, a 2 pack for $6.99 at staples ? Lol it works and it's damn close to the gen color. Just filled the indices and rubbed over with fine micro fiber cloth to take away the access on the polished part of the ceramic. 

 

This is still preliminary and im still testing other things and have a few pretty cool markers ordered that actually have metal in them like the silver sharpie. So once I get them and try I'll post photos and what I have tried, I'm also going to see how durable the sharpie that I used is, but I'm guessing it's quite good because I use the black and other colors for marking steel through hyd fluid and grease etc.. at work. 

 

Cheers !  

[Federico1203]

Hi @alterporsche... please, would you say us what is the paint that are you using? It is a sharper marker or other thing? And the method? I'm trying to do the same with spray "Rusty-Oleum Metallic Chrome" paint and I'm not sure about the color and the durability...

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[mrsoundman]

4 hours ago, altesporsche said:

I'm trying to find the best and closest to the gen color without getting complicated and here's how I did that 116610LN insert ... with a silver metallic sharpie marker, a 2 pack for $6.99 at staples ? Lol it works and it's damn close to the gen color. Just filled the indices and rubbed over with fine micro fiber cloth to take away the access on the polished part of the ceramic. 

 

Too funny, I never would imagined Silver Sharpie.  They sell these in a 4-pack at my Staples down the street, I'll give it a try later today!  

[altesporsche]

6 hours ago, Federico1203 said:

Hi @alterporsche... please, would you say us what is the paint that are you using? It is a sharper marker or other thing? And the method? I'm trying to do the same with spray "Rusty-Oleum Metallic Chrome" paint and I'm not sure about the color and the durability...

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I used a sharpie marker see the photo below, I only have gen inserts in my builds now, so I'm testing this out for the sake of the community ? I have another marker I need to check today, if you want to wait it may even be better. 

 

You see platinum isn't a shiny metal it's actually a dull grey that catches light a little different than gold or silver. When you see shiny platinum it's plated with rhodium or pladium etc.. by products of platinum production that have very high reflective properties. For example "white gold" is plated with rhodium for its reflective shine. 

 

I have a chrome marker im picking up today that I will try as well and I think given the textured base in the indices it will dull out the bright chrome to a sheen much like the gen color, or so I hope lol 

 

anyways I'll post on this later. 

 

Doing this as a little project to keep sane lol when I can get away from being a new dad ?  

 

Cheers fellas ! 

 

Here is the sharpie I used just incase anyone doesn't want to wait lol 

[eazye]

Did you just paint over the existing paint or did you try to take some off first?

 

[altesporsche]

16 minutes ago, eazye said:

Did you just paint over the existing paint or did you try to take some off first?

 

Directly over the paint that was there. Sharpies have a really good bonding agent in them and hard to remove when dry. 

[Federico1203]

 
I used a sharpie marker see the photo below, I only have gen inserts in my builds now, so I'm testing this out for the sake of the community I have another marker I need to check today, if you want to wait it may even be better. 
 
You see platinum isn't a shiny metal it's actually a dull grey that catches light a little different than gold or silver. When you see shiny platinum it's plated with rhodium or pladium etc.. by products of platinum production that have very high reflective properties. For example "white gold" is plated with rhodium for its reflective shine. 
 
I have a chrome marker im picking up today that I will try as well and I think given the textured base in the indices it will dull out the bright chrome to a sheen much like the gen color, or so I hope lol 
 
anyways I'll post on this later. 
 
Doing this as a little project to keep sane lol when I can get away from being a new dad  
 
Cheers fellas ! 
 
Here is the sharpie I used just incase anyone doesn't want to wait lol 

Thanks buddy! I will expecting your next note.

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[eazye]

Directly over the paint that was there. Sharpies have a really good bonding agent in them and hard to remove when dry. 

Cool. I'm going to try it. I just went to Michaels and got one along with few other paints.

I'll also post share some pics here of the results if you don't mind?

[mrsoundman]

I just finished performing this mod.  It's was ridiculously easy.  I used some 90% Isopropyl Alcohol to clean the insert first (allow the alcohol to dry fully), applied the sharpie to the insert (didn't really worry about using too much), used a fine brush to smooth out any rough spots, then used a dry (clean) cloth to gently rub away the excess on the ceramic portion of the insert.  The hardest part was painting around the pearl in the triangle.  End result looks awesome!

 

I didn't take a before shot, however, prior to this mod - while sitting in my watch box, I would look at the dull dark insert color and would be annoyed by how dark it was.  Now, it looks like a proper 95% GEN looking insert!

 

@altesporsche you are a genius, thank you sir!  

 

 

[eazye]

This is awesome!!

I didn't finish yet so you can get an idea of the difference. I cut a qtip to scrap the extra paint off

[altesporsche]

Hey glad you guys gave it a shot ! 

It is actually dead on with the silver on the GMT insert and the LV and LN Gen inserts I have. 

 

Good call on the cleaning with alcohol, to ensure a good bond. 

 

And in all reality even even if it wears after a while or anything, it's super easy to reapply. 

 

To be honest aside from the small champhered edge in the Indices (hardly visible to the eye) this takes the GMT and the LN to Gen look and well aside from the Green ceramic in some lights it also helps the rep LV as well. 

 

Looks awesome fellas ! Glad I could be of help to the community. Now if only we had a good green insert for the LV's things would get really interesting and save people the $1400 for a gen LV insert. 

[eazye]

What's nice about this is that the paint from the marker is thin enough that it won't clump.

Awesome find man. Not quite there but definitely much closer than the original for sure.


I'll probably go over again tomorrow.

[themannier]

This is great, congrats !

How is the texture of this paint ? Does it stay thin and smooth ?  

[hologramet]

That's old school "Platinum Paint Mod"

 

This is new school: For more info, check the RepGeek / Rolex-subforum. I haven't done it, nor am I the author. It looked, however, very-very promising.

 

Noob ceramic insert with platinum plating

As a sub rookie, I bought my first V6 sub no date last year. At that time, I was satisfied with the quality and wore it often. With a great opportunity, I’ve compared with gen hulk, I’ve found out most parts of this rep are good, but there are still many defects which can get some better works. The most obvious one I noticed is the color of numbers on the ceramic insert. The index digital color on gen is metal luster, but rep is too dark, moreover, the rep’s index digital’s surface is very rough compared to gen. Another tell is that the sharp edge on rep index, the edge on gen is chamfered and it looks very stereoscopic. So I was thinking about the way to get these better, after researching, I’ve found some experts who is able to mod index by liquid painting, but the edge is still too sharp not round. Last December, a bright idea occurred in my mind, why not try to do a REAL WORK which is plating platinum on the insert? Then here is my result.....

I collect some noob v7 inserts to test my idea. The plating material is 99.99% platinum and it would be coated on top of my inserts. After a few experiments, I got the best result. Some photos are taken to present as followings. As you can see, here are gen, my work and without modded insert (stock) under different light condition for comparison.

Gen Hulk say hi to everybody.


Comparison between gen, modded and V7 insert under sunlight

Modded insert on the top.


Gen / my modded insert / V7 stock insert.

Comparing to these 3 inserts, the index color on stock V7 insert is more grayish and it is a known issue that it is getting darker after several weeks usage. My work - platinum plated one is closed to gen (see the mark "50" and "20").

Since I don't have rep hulk, I put this green insert onto my sub no date, this index works for me except the dark green color lol......


Comparison under different light condition
These photos were taken under different light condition, the color is closed to gen after my platinum modification.

Under fluorescent light:


Under yellow light:

Both of color on the insert scale are closed to each other whichever different light was applied.

Marco view after mod

Before plating, the surface inside the groove is rough (more grain can be observed, please see the V7 stock). The platinum coated index looks much more smoothly and might even more better than gen? Will double confirm that.

Edge smoothing mod
During the mod process, I realized that the Noob ceramic is able to be machined, so some abrasive was applied to chamfer the edge. The smoothing test was tested on my rep GMT master II inserts and the result is brilliant. (the index color on this smoothed insert is incorrect, please ignore it.)

[altesporsche]

I've seen this and it looks great and for those who do want to spend $290 usd to have it plated, sure go for it. It would be a waste on the LV as the color of the insert is wrong anyways, but this does take the rep LN and  GMT to a higher level if you like to look at your insert with a 10x loop lol 

 

My "old school paint mod" that I descovered last week while trying different things, is for those who don't have or don't want to spend that kind of money on modding a rep insert and the rep inserts all aside from the GMT have nicely cut edges just not champhered as I have mentioned above. And it's actual metal in the marker and super easy to do.  

 

Alsp im making zero off this, its was purely an FYI to those who wanted to give it a go and have an insert that looks as close to gen as possible without spending a lot and an insert. 

[mrsoundman]

3 hours ago, hologramet said:

 

That's old school "Platinum Paint Mod"

 

This is new school: For more info, check the RepGeek / Rolex-subforum. I haven't done it, nor am I the author. It looked, however, very-very promising.

 

 

 

I was following a similar RWI thread by the same author prior to the site going down.  I was contemplating sending my insert to him (I forget exactly where he was located, but he was outside the CONUS).  The problem everyone was running into was that he wasn't stocking REP inserts and you had to remove/send him your insert, wait a couple of weeks and then re-install.  Most guys aren't comfortable trying to remove the ceramic insert because it's fragile and easily broken - so there was the added cost of sending it to someone to remove the insert first...  To be honest, if this guy was stocking REP inserts, plating them for ~$290 and all I had to do was send my watch back to BK for swapping the insert, I would have already done it...

 

The great thing about this "old school" method is that one doesn't even need to remove the Insert from the watch and it cost me ~$7 and about 1 hour of time.  And the results speak for themselves.  In addition, to test the long term durability - I attempted to remove the silver permanent marker with alcohol and it wasn't easy (took a fair amount of scrubbing with a fine brush).  As @altesporsche mentioned, these were designed to be used in industrial environments.  

 

Previous discussions regarding cheap Insert painting mods had guys using hobby paint that they would dilute to match the GEN silver insert color.  These hobby paints were not very durable and would easy wear off over time.  IMHO this is the best solution for easy of application, durability and cost effectiveness.  

 

 

[altesporsche]

Exactly @mrsoundman ! That was my point and the whole reason I posted this. 

 

Model paint for the most part is acrylic so you need to seal it and still it's just paint and will wear much easier than the chemical based paints used in a simple sharpie marker lol 

 

we use the gold version of this marker for marking stainless tooling that we send several thousand feet below the seabed to drill rock.. so it's a tad more durable than acrylic paint ?

 

im not crapping on what this guy is doing, but yea I inquired about getting one done for a watch I'm building my brother (don't want to buy a gen insert to give away lol) and when he came back with it having to be removed (which is expected and quite easy for someone who's done it before) but for the majority of people who feel better sending it out to be removed, it becomes a pain in the ass. Then ship to Singapore, turnaround on his end is 2 weeks for his 99.99% platinum (which is impossible for this application) as there are only a few ways you can plate or coat non metal ceramics and plastics, one is electroless plating which would involve submersing in an etching bath that would ruin the polished surface as well, then you have sputtering which is the process of applying plating in a vacuum chamber and quite costly equipment (not worth it for this application)  then you have electroplating which cannot be completed unless the electroless plating is performed as a means for the materials to adhere to in the plating process, then finally you have spraying which is taking a powder form of a metal and basically brazing the material (no go with Plastics) and I can't see this with ceramic due to the high melting temp of the 6 platinum group metals being between 1770deg C  and 3050deg C, it's actually unlikely that even Rolex uses pure platinum as a plating on ceramic. I can see if the service included an insert and then you send your old one back etc.. but $290 is steep for "plating" as only the GMT will need the cleaning up of the edges (again visible under 10X not the eye unless really really looking for it) anyways 

that's just my 2 cents worth from 10 years of experience with precious and noble metals and a Phd in mechanical engineering.

 

In my eyes with my gens next next to the "sharpies mod" lol  it's much more worth it than giving someone almost $300 usd or more after having someone else remove it etc.. in which you are half way or more to the cost of a LN insert , just to make it look the same as spending an hour with a $8 marker that is nothing like the "old school" model paint mods.. 

[mmoderni]

Sorry if it is a stupid question: got a early Gmt noob v2 with white painting bezel..I was looking for the new noob insert with silver platinum paint but seems that no TD Keep them in stock. Gen insert is too expensive for my taste.
So do you think that it is possible use that sharpie also on a white paint and obtain same good results?


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[altesporsche]

Hmm all I can say is give it a go, I don't see why it wouldn't work. 

 

I have a V3 sub here I can try as that also has the white paint. 

 

Ill get back to you, so you don't ruin your insert. 

 

Cheers

[mmoderni]

Thanks for your kindness! I will wait for sure your results


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[altesporsche]

Here is a quick job on a ceramic sub V3 all but the 40 , 50 and half of the triangle are painted quickly. Still looks miles better, hope this helps ! Cheers and good luck with it. 

 

[mmoderni]

Yep definitely better ! Thanks for your help I will order a sharpie


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