A Dial Comparison of the Best Available DRSD Dials

[freddy333]

Some members might find this informative --

The DRSD dial at left was purchased on ebay a couple of months ago. The seller told me he purchased the dial from another seller who did not know the original source, but said it was not NDTrading. I have purchased dials from NDTrading & know their products fairly well & I have never seen this version of the dial available from them or any of the other usual dial sellers.

Ziggyfied Preciouswatches at left, unmodified NDTrading at right

Version 1 Gen

[cskent69]

That one on the left looks pretty good to me. I am always on the look out for a good 1665 dial. Still have not found one. Nice coronet on the left. I would like to know where it came from too...

[bwhitesox]

The Zigmeisters aged lume gets me everytime...So so good.

What are your thoughts on the size and shape of the coronet?

[freddy333]

Ziggys aged lume gets me everytime...So so good.

Ziggy is definitely the lume master as far as I am concerned. No one does vintage lume quite like he does. But then he is an artist, so I guess that should not be so surprising. Unfortunately, he is unable to widen the 6 & 9 index markers on the dial, which is the only thing that gives it away as a non-gen dial. If those index markers were the correct dimensions & I saw it in an otherwise gen-looking watch, it would certainly have fooled me. Not that the index markers are 'wrong', but I have seen only 1 other early gen DRSD dial with similarly narrow markers. Rolex fitted a handful of these narrow marker dials into watches given out to a small number of divers to field-test during the initial design phase of the DRSD model. Of course, today, those early pre-release versions are as rare as red dialed Newman Daytonas, which makes my dial a little tough to pull off since so few exist & even fewer have been seen (I have only seen pictures of it in books & no one on TZ, to my knowledge, owns 1 or has ever posted a picture of 1 there). But, then, so few people know they even exist that it may be a moot issue anyway.

I spent most of this evening trying to widen the 6 o'clock marker, but it has not been going well at all. So unless I have a brainstorm (or someone has a brilliant idea), I might just leave it as is until something better comes along (as I am sure it eventually will). Which is not terrible since, even in its present Ziggified form it is still, overall, the best aftermarket DRSD dial I have seen.

What are your thoughts on the size and shape of the coronet?

As far as the coronet goes, that is what originally caught my eye when I saw this dial. It is the 1st (&, so far, only) aftermarket DRSD dial I have come across that got the coronet (& text) about right. But, as always, they had to screw something up to keep it from being perfect & in this case it was those slightly too-narrow index markers at 6 & 9.

[Nanuq]

Here's what a MKII coronet should look like. Also check out the "O" in ROLEX. It ought to be thinner at the top and bottom.

[freddy333]

Here's what a MKII coronet should look like. Also check out the "O" in ROLEX. It ought to be thinner at the top and bottom.

Thanks, Nanuq. The coronets look about the same & you are right about the 'O' in the MK II. But the dial I have is based on the MK I version (the only obvious differences between my dial & the gen are the width of the index markers & the pink (faded red) color of the gen dial). Hopefully, someday someone will make an accurate MKII or MKIV, but, for the time being, the MK I is the model I have to use as a guide & I think they got just about everything (except for the 2 index markers) within specs.