Rolex MilSub ref.5517 Project: BUILD

[obiwan]

6 hours ago, freddy333 said:

Overall, I think it looks reasonable, but the yellow 'patina' is an obvious tell. 

It is very difficult for a factory to produce a realistic patina. If the dial is offered with whiter lume, I would opt for that. While rare, I still occasionally see gen Subs of the period with whitish lume. So you could pull that off if the rest of the dial, watch & you look the part.

Faking patina is definitely more ART than science. It requires ALOT of knowledge, experience, testingtestingtesting & hand-work to produce a 'natural' looking result. For a factory produced dial, I think it looks good. But I doubt it will fool a serious collector. Here is a macro shot of the lume on 1 of my gen Sub dials for comparison --

Really appreciate your feedback. It's frustrating as my helenrou dial has (to my eye at least) a better overall look. However, the structure of the lume on the kuared dial is closer to the finish on your gen sub. I may have to ask the watchmaker to use the helenrou dial and get him to match the kuared hands to the to helenrou colour 🤔 

6 hours ago, freddy333 said:

Overall, I think it looks reasonable, but the yellow 'patina' is an obvious tell. 

It is very difficult for a factory to produce a realistic patina. If the dial is offered with whiter lume, I would opt for that. While rare, I still occasionally see gen Subs of the period with whitish lume. So you could pull that off if the rest of the dial, watch & you look the part.

Faking patina is definitely more ART than science. It requires ALOT of knowledge, experience, testingtestingtesting & hand-work to produce a 'natural' looking result. For a factory produced dial, I think it looks good. But I doubt it will fool a serious collector. Here is a macro shot of the lume on 1 of my gen Sub dials for comparison --

Really appreciate your feedback. It's frustrating as my helenrou dial has (to my eye at least) a better overall look. However, the structure of the lume on the kuared dial is closer to the finish on your gen sub. I may have to ask the watchmaker to use the helenrou dial and get him to match the kuared hands to the to helenrou colour 🤔 

6 hours ago, freddy333 said:

Overall, I think it looks reasonable, but the yellow 'patina' is an obvious tell. 

It is very difficult for a factory to produce a realistic patina. If the dial is offered with whiter lume, I would opt for that. While rare, I still occasionally see gen Subs of the period with whitish lume. So you could pull that off if the rest of the dial, watch & you look the part.

Faking patina is definitely more ART than science. It requires ALOT of knowledge, experience, testingtestingtesting & hand-work to produce a 'natural' looking result. For a factory produced dial, I think it looks good. But I doubt it will fool a serious collector. Here is a macro shot of the lume on 1 of my gen Sub dials for comparison --

Really appreciate your feedback. It's frustrating as my helenrou dial has (to my eye at least) a better overall look. However, the structure of the lume on the kuared dial is closer to the finish on your gen sub. I may have to ask the watchmaker to use the helenrou dial and get him to match the kuared hands to the to helenrou colour 🤔 

[jackflash]

Best thing to do is to choose images of a 5517 gen that you like and ask your watchmaker to try and match the appearance.

Rep top, gen below:

[obiwan]

32 minutes ago, jackflash said:

Best thing to do is to choose images of a 5517 gen that you like and ask your watchmaker to match the appearance.

Indeed  🙌👌

[obiwan]

Well, it's all done and I'm in love. kuared supplied case, dial and hands with genuine rolex 1520 movement purchased from Chrono 24. Also rocking a ghost bezel. Appreciate all the advice from you guys. Now I just need to beat the [censored] out of it 😜

[Ronin]

👍🏻👍🏻