MoT's Watch Deal Forum Watches

[watchpalooza]

The full lume is my favorite...but they all are impressive.

[Sporkboy]

A double pass through the printer works great for getting a deep black, but the registration is off.

[BostonCharlie]

Regarding the registration problem, one compromise might be to create new artwork for the second pass. This 'second pass' artwork would omit small details like the text and small indices, and the remaining art would be reduced a little bit from the original border. The result should darken the solids, but details and some borders would remain the same.

Riffing on this idea, maybe create an alternative dial design just for this purpose that omits fine details entirely.

Another idea: since these are clear, maybe make two prints and apply one on top of another, so you can align them by hand.

[Sporkboy]

Regarding the registration problem, one compromise might be to create new artwork for the second pass. This 'second pass' artwork would omit small details like the text and small indices, and the remaining art would be reduced a little bit from the original border. The result should darken the solids, but details and some borders would remain the same.

Riffing on this idea, maybe create an alternative dial design just for this purpose that omits fine details entirely.

Another idea: since these are clear, maybe make two prints and apply one on top of another, so you can align them by hand.

Thank you BC, those are great ideas. After this post I did flirt with the idea of hand alignment, but the prospects of that sounded like a battle that I didn’t want to take on.

The other two ideas are novel to me and are worth exploring. I did try printing on full sheets of paper as opposed to half sheets and the results were many times worse, though I can’t fathom why. That test was on thinner stock though.

I can easily eliminate the minute markers from the design and slightly increase the size of the other features in the design to give them more heft and thus be more able to hide a slight register shift. They would lack the precision of the black in white dials, but would probably be a reasonable trade off.

With leaving an outline around features, that could work, but there would be ‘fuzzy’ artifact. There is no way to know if this will be noticeable until it is tried. Which will be more acceptable? I haven’t a clue, but getting to a much blacker black will allow for a black dial to actually look good. Who would have thought that printing black would be a problem?

[BostonCharlie]

What would help with hand alignment would be registration marks. Just make some cross hairs and place them just outside the dial. OTOH, maybe that gets cut before you apply it :-/

There was actually a time when I found myself testing the dimensional stability of laser prints on paper. I was surprised at how much -- and how unpredictably -- sheets were distorted by the process (due to the heat, I figured). I bet that your material is much more stable -- paper is really pretty coarse, and being organic probably doesn't help -- but I wanted to pass along my experience in case it helped.

[Sporkboy]

While registration marks are generally very helpful, I don’t think they would help too much here as the decal is thin enough when off the backing that it can stretch here and there. This is where my dread of overlaying decals is coming from.

With the backing, it is pretty stiff, so that might help the registration problem right there. If all goes well then all the problems will resolve themselves nicely and I can get to making some dials for people.

I really love that we can all bring a little something to contribute to a project as we all have different experiences and are willing to share that knowledge. I know I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as far with the project without everyone adding their thoughts along the way.

[Sporkboy]

Fully charged comparison of the MoT dials and the Lorus Lumibrite, which many describe as being a ‘torch’. This is my standard for comparison. Freshly charged by UV flashlight.

As you see, my dials are brighter. Using a light detector, I found:
Lorus: ~3cd/m^2
MoT: ~4cd/m^2

In other words, they are 33% brighter initially. I am guessing that I am putting on way more lume as it is a thick paste and not paint. Sporkboy- Using lume like it is going out of style.

[Sporkboy]

OK BC, an overlaid decal is not impossible. The minute marks would need to be removed, but it mostly works.

Edit: adding a lume shot.

[watchpalooza]

Fully charged comparison of the MoT dials and the Lorus Lumibrite, which many describe as being a ‘torch’. This is my standard for comparison. Freshly charged by UV flashlight.

As you see, my dials are brighter. Using a light detector, I found:
Lorus: ~3cd/m^2
MoT: ~4cd/m^2

In other words, they are 33% brighter initially. I am guessing that I am putting on way more lume as it is a thick paste and not paint. Sporkboy- Using lume like it is going out of style.

<drooling>

[Stretch44]

Loving that black dial with the lume. Great work [mention]Sporkboy[/mention]!

[yinzburgher]

OK BC, an overlaid decal is not impossible. The minute marks would need to be removed, but it mostly works.

Edit: adding a lume shot.

To my eye, that definitely fixes the color/saturation of the black dial. The minute marks aren't as defined or legible as the lume dial or white dial but still not back. Would making the minute marks larger help, or no?

[MoT]

Loving that black dial with the lume. Great work [mention]Sporkboy[/mention]!

Yup, me too. I know what I want as a dial for my next Sporkboy Special.

[Sporkboy]

OK BC, an overlaid decal is not impossible. The minute marks would need to be removed, but it mostly works.

Edit: adding a lume shot.

To my eye, that definitely fixes the color/saturation of the black dial. The minute marks aren't as defined or legible as the lume dial or white dial but still not back. Would making the minute marks larger help, or no?

Making the minute markers a little wider should help the problem. In looking at this closely, it still isn’t black, black and you can see splotches around. Maybe that it just texture right? Sure it is.

These are all made workshop style as I can fit them in. I am not a manufacturer so there will be variability from dial to dial. I have fairly high quality standards, but people have to embrace the wabi sabi of these dials in order to enjoy them. They will never be perfect, but for less than a year out in this adventure that is MoT I don’t think they are half bad.


These are presently 28.5mm dials for manual watches (Invicta, Seiko and Vostok) since I need the hour hand clearance to allow for the thick lume. I don’t think that I will be able to get these fully lumed dials on any quartz watches.

I think it might be time to open up that wait list for dials, what do you think? I know there was already a spot on the list taken by somebody (I will need to check the archive for that. Anyway, once my procedures are down I was thinking of doing 5 black and 5 white full lumed dials. I think that will be enough for current demand and then some. I like the idea of inherently limiting the number of dials out there to keep them special.

Now I am doubting that anyone would want the non-lumed versions, but I guess that is how it goes.

Some of these I may put as pay what you like directly to me so that I can buy additional materials, like blue lume and more dials.

Maybe we will do something fun for fundraising for the rest of them, I don’t know.

Thanks for all the encouragement guys. It really keeps me going.

[Sporkboy]

Registration shift is variable, so I think that it will have to be double decals as the solution.

[Sporkboy]

A couple clear coats went on the full lume dials yesterday and that went well. I tried to paint a pair of hands and it went OK I suppose. Anyway, here is what I have.

I will clear coat the other dial today.