Davidsen dial and hands, and recessed hand upgrade review.

[RWG Technical]

Finally a source of hands, dials and stuff....I am so pleased that Davidsen has been able to supply these items, doing what I do, having access to spares is vital...

So as soon as I saw them advertized, I got a variety of hands, a dial and thought I would do a short pictorial of what I thought of them.

Quality is EXCELLENT. Very very good finish on all the parts I have gotten.

Lume on the hands is SL, but on the dial I got, it's not SL (Super Lume).

Not a big issue in my book, actually not an issue at all, as I will simply relume the dial myself.

Here are the dial and some of the hands I got from him:

Here is the dial next to my relumed 111

Here is the dial and one of the hands, note the lume is as good as the 111 that was relumed

35 seconds later, and the dial is not glowing at all, but the hands and the 111 are still doing well...

Davidsen recessed pin hand fix

Mr Davidsen was kind enough to include this with my order for me to have a look and post some comments.

I am not sure if there is a similar item for the black hands, but what I have done is compare this to the 111 that I just finished installing the longer cannon and hour wheels on. I would have compared it to a 1950, but I dont' have one in house at the moment.

Here is the hand on the 111

Another view,

It certainly gets rid of the recessed pin problem, whether you like the look of the cap or not is a personal choice, given the difficulty in gettting the longer cannon pin and hour wheels, this is a solution for those who don't want to do the cannon and hour wheel.

Thanks for looking,

RG

[watchpt]

Thanks Rob for doing a review on davidsenjen's hands,

I ordered a set of hands for my pam 196 with 7753 movement and am eagerly waiting for it's arrival. I hope the shape of the hands look more like OEM than the rep hands.

david

[woody]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the post. Did you happen to have David's 127 dial and hands (without cap) and see if this address the non recessed pin issue? Finepics said that he had ordered the standard hands and worked with them, and it got rid of the recessed pin issue, so was wondering if you had luck on sourcing those for experiment. Thanks!

[Finepics]

I have indeed had a set of the black capped hands through here. Like The Zigmeister say's they do an admirable job that is a good solution (permanent or temporary) for the less fussy among us to the cannon pin problem.

I will add that I re-lumed another fiddy this week and was able to get rid of the pin problem just by filing the minute hand tube down and having a very slight angle (but not noticeable) on the hands - works a treat and under close scrutiny looks better than the cap. One thing about Davidsens fiddy hands is that the circular end of the minute hand is a larger diameter than the rep one which is much more accurate, so I would be getting a set of them cap or no cap anyway - also the finish of them is much better than the rep ones too - they are a must have mod!!!

[8o8]

I asked davidsenipn about the lume on his hands and dial and he mentioned that he used TRITEC NEWLITTE and not the super luminova. Is that what is on the hand or the dial?

[RWG Technical]

I am not sure what the hands or the dial are lumed with.

There is a noticeable difference between the hands and dial I received, and the hands sure look like Super Lume in intensity and lasting glow...what the hands or the dial have on them for lume I have no idea...

I am not sure what Newlitte is??

RG

[Finepics]

Newlite is another product from RC Tritec. It's like Luminova without the super!! I think the glow time is slightly less and it's cheaper.

[woody]

I have asked David on the lume on the hands and the dials, he did confirm it with me that his dial is not super lumed, his hands however, are superlumed. So I think I will get the hands (no cap) and have Rob to relume the dial so the hands and dial will match, and hope Rob can apply what Finepics had been saying, maybe filing down the minute hand tube. Thanks everybody for their feedback.

[Finepics]

I have asked David on the lume on the hands and the dials, he did confirm it with me that his dial is not super lumed, his hands however, are superlumed. So I think I will get the hands (no cap) and have Rob to relume the dial so the hands and dial will match, and hope Rob can apply what Finepics had been saying, maybe filing down the minute hand tube. Thanks everybody for their feedback.

No need to file them down if you ask Davidsen for the short tube hands - they come already in .44mm - perfect fit on the pinion. The only ones I have definitely not been able to do without changing the pinion is the 183. The fiddy is the perfect candidate as a slight angle on the hands is almost impossible to see because of the optical distorting effect of the thick crystal.

[eunomians]

Great review. Thanks yet again for your insight and great pics.

David's hands are finely executed. I, too, am most pleased with them. I believe the hands upgrade to be an essential mod for PAM owners.

Cheers all!

[woody]

So finepics,

short tubed gold 127 hands, no cap. sounds about right?

as for 11 hands, will they work as well, if I order short tubed, or no? Thanks in advance.

[archibald]

The Zigmeister, can you (or anyone else who has seen a Davidsen dial) comment on the printing? It's difficult to tell on the pics but it looks like the printing on all of his dials are as crisp, bold, or straight as the dials that come on our reps.

Also, does anyone know if the "A" crossbar on the Pre-A OEM dials is as "high" as the current ones, or if they are "low" like the A crossbars on our reps?

[thedoctor]

Now you guys have me worried about the lume on the pvd 009 I ordered from him. He advertises it as "SUPER LUMINIOUS DIAL 009/202A WITH SUPER LUM HANDS" which implies superluminova to me. I was hoping that it would glow like my superluminova reluming by The Zigmeister of my 029. Well, I hope it's better than the standard rep. lume.

[mikellem]

Thanks Rob, Another great post. I agree with you! Davidsen has brought us mostl the items we needed to complete or Panerai's. Thanks again my friend!

Mike

[8o8]

Now you guys have me worried about the lume on the pvd 009 I ordered from him. He advertises it as "SUPER LUMINIOUS DIAL 009/202A WITH SUPER LUM HANDS" which implies superluminova to me. I was hoping that it would glow like my superluminova reluming by The Zigmeister of my 029. Well, I hope it's better than the standard rep. lume.

hi doc, i dont think you have too much to worry about. as seen in the pix above posted by The Zigmeister. I was asking some very specific questions because I was getting myself confused.

[speedy1]

Now you guys have me worried about the lume on the pvd 009 I ordered from him. He advertises it as "SUPER LUMINIOUS DIAL 009/202A WITH SUPER LUM HANDS" which implies superluminova to me. I was hoping that it would glow like my superluminova reluming by The Zigmeister of my 029. Well, I hope it's better than the standard rep. lume.

I don't like to post very often because I think most of the questions I have are probably stupid and I can ususally find the answers by using the mythical "search" button.

But since I am shortly going to pull the trigger on on of the 029 I do have a question........

Wouldn't a person NOT WANT the dial to be super luminous as it is supposed to be a Tritium dial on a 7-8 year old watch? The Tritium should be spent by this time in it's life span and not very bright at all correct?

Edited April 26, 2006 by speedy1

[sssurfer]

Wouldn't a person NOT WANT the dial to be super luminous as it is supposed to be a Tritium dial on a 7-8 year old watch? The Tritium should be spent by this time in it's life span and not very bright at all correct?

I seem to remember that Tritium half-life is about 13 years. So in 7-8 years its radioactivity would decrease to about 70% -- not so bad after all.

[speedy1]

I seem to remember that Tritium half-life is about 13 years. So in 7-8 years its radioactivity would decrease to about 70% -- not so bad after all.

If I am wrong please tell me,

Half life is 12.3 years. But at 12 years, even though still radioactive, tritium does not emit enough particles to be seen glowing by the naked human eye, or so I thought. So at 7-8 years wouldn't tritum have only 30%-40% of it's inital glow? (unless the phosphors that were probably used in the tritium paint are recharged by a light source that is.)

again if I am wrong I apologize.

Edited April 26, 2006 by speedy1

[sssurfer]

If I am wrong please tell me,

Half life is 12.3 years. But at 12 years, even though still radioactive, tritium does not emit enough particles to be seen glowing by the naked human eye, or so I thought. So at 7-8 years wouldn't tritum have only 30%-40% of it's inital glow? (unless the phosphors that were probably used in the tritium paint are recharged by a light source that is.)

again if I am wrong I apologize.

No apologies needed. Actually I am unsure on how Tritium's glowing relates to its radioactivity -- whether linearly, inverse-exponentially, or what. Since you seem quite informed on it, do you have by chance any reference about?

[speedy1]

I got my info from a post in the Time Zone Omega forum. My 1966 Speedmaster has a tritium dial, and when I asked for some info I got smacked about the head and shoulders with all the info I could have wanted about tritium and its use in watches by the avid vintage collectors i.e. WIS on that forum.

I probably sounded smarter than I am on the subject, but I didn't verify all of the info that was spouted to me either. So it may have been wrong and that is why I was seeing if any one had any info to the contrary.

I will see if I can find the original thread but it was posted some time back.

Edited April 26, 2006 by speedy1