JKF 1680 Red Dial Sub Relume

[hanski]

I’m thoroughly enjoying the dial on this JKF 1680 Red Dial Sub - the crown, font, and alignments are all close enough to pass, particularly on the wrist. But what’s been bothering me is the lume. It’s very, very flat. 

I decided to learn how to relume a dial and hands. I needed a handful of things to get it done: 

Tutorial on luming: 

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f6/watch-luminizing-tutorial-673983.html

Lume:

www.noctilumina.com

I contacted Scott at Noctilume for recommendations on mixing a high-glow, “vintage” lume. He was very helpful! Recommended I mix his G15F with AG40F to get a light-yellow appearance but high-glow output. I ended up buying my binder, pigment, oilers, and mixing bowl from him. 

Tools: 

- Set of Oilers (fine and medium used most)

- Ceramic mixing bowl

- Ag40F pigment

- G15F pigment

- Binder 3

- 3x Loupe

- Paint Thinner

- Xacto Knife

Practice: 

I used images of 1680 dials, printed and lacquered (to scale) as practice runs. This worked very well for me. I got used to working under the loupe, mixing, and applying lume. 

In the end I think it turned out quite nice. Clean edges, nice pillowing, and good color consistency. 

After it cures for 72hrs I’ll reassemble and get back to wearing this. 

Thanks for looking! 

 

 

 

 

[Nanuq]

Wow, that's nice work.  Beautiful job. 

 

[capice]

job well done,

[Sogeha]

That is a very impressive job there

[daovto]

Dial looks beautiful now... your lume skills are strong

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[jackflash]

Excellent job congrats! Thanks for the links too.

[Mike on a bike]

Yes great work there, have not seen very many done so well!

[Nanuq]

Let me elaborate a little: I have a Submariner from 1958 and it looked like it was relumed with a paint roller. It was horrific. Being in desperate need of a service, I sent it off to the expert of experts, and he gave it his Midas touch. He's also a fine artist and I asked if he could remove the crap lume and redo it right? He agreed and he did his best work on it. I've worn it for years since he retired and enjoyed every minute.

Until I saw the lume work you did. It's better than our long gone maestro.

Seriously. That's a hell of a result you achieved.

[hanski]

Thank you for the compliments! It’s my first dial (if you don’t count the many practice print dials a did in advance of it). Hopefully it’s not just beginners luck - I am still very much a novice learning as I go. 

I posted in hopes to share my learning process and resources in a consolidated location. 

I would offer one more thing, the mix is critical. I noticed if the lume is too thin, it spreads uncontrollably. If it is too thick, you don’t get liquid tension to create a droplet but rather clumpy texture. 

I found it was about getting the right amount of that mix onto the oiler, placing it in the center of the marker, and gently spiraling out to the edges. At that point, it’s all about releasing the droplet and letting the surface tension take over, forming the nice pillow-like shape. 

I’m sure I’ll get thrown thru a loupe (hahaha) when I try to work on reluming my gen 1940’s Wittnauer. The lume job on this has bothered me since I got it like a decade ago. I’ll certainly have to practice up to this one! I’ll post the results in triumph or shame in a month or two  

[Sogeha]

If you post pictures of that Wittnauer successfully re-lumed in a few months time, I think it could be considered your “masterpiece” and brothers will be asking you to help them. 

[dieselpower]

Beautiful work. Well done.

[kernow]

Great work. If you need practice, I’ve a few watches here that need reluming that you could ‘practice’ on! Shame I’m the other side of the pond though. Keep up the good work and keep posting your results.