The Plan

[freddy333]

THE PLAN:

Take 1 of these

Out of 1 of these

Cover it with 1 of these

Throw on a set of these

And put it all into 1 of these

THE DILEMMA:

This dial has been discussed recently in another thread, but now that I have it in my hands I can add a few more details for anyone else considering one.

The factory did a wonderful job on the text -- the 1st time I have handled a non-gen DRSD dial that could have fooled me (at least from the distance of the length of an arm, which is my benchmark for success). Where they faltered (and they always screw something up) is their use of the usual, weird yellowish color that is supposed to mimic 'age' or 'patina' on the index markers. The 6 & 9 markers are also just a bit too narrow. Not so narrow that they stick out as being wrong when viewing the dial through a T39, but they could do with having more meat on their bones.

So, to pull the project all together, the color of the hands will need to match the color of the index markers on the dial, and, if possible, the 2 slightly narrow index markers should be pumped up a bit.

SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES:

The index markers are actually a slightly darker shade of yellow than they appear in the picture -- a shade that most of the older members will be quite familiar with. I guess if the hands matched them, the watch would be passable. But I have never seen a really accurate man-made patina, so I would prefer to stick with white (or off-white/cream) index markers.

My preference (as always) is for white over simulated 'patina', but changing the color of the hands sure would be alot easier. So I need to find a way to darken the hands to match the existing dark yellow color of the index markers on the dial, or whiten the index markers on the dial to match the hands. I have considered 3 options

1. Re-lume the dial with either Night Color or Bergeon lume paste (the latter would provide a more realistic color and weak lume glow).
   
2. Maybe (I have not tested this yet, so, to the best of my knowledge, it is only a theory) bleach would whiten them? I was thinking that maybe if I dampen (not soak) a Q-tip with bleach and then lightly dab the markers, the little droplets of bleach might migrate into & through the granules of the lume and do what they do naturally -- whiten & brighten (remove color).
   
3. Send the dial to the Zigmeister & let an artist practice his arts on it.
   

Any thoughts?