Yep! True gilt, negative recess, inimitable.
It all started in August with this @Phaedros’s post : Dissecting the gilt dial.
We had very interesting discussions, investigating the old recipes and trying to find out Rolex process. This kind of fascinating collaborations you can only have here on HF.
Unfortunately, Phaedros suddenly became totally unreachable since end of September…
-Chris, hope you’re doing right buddy, I have your Speedking gilt dial ready, please send us a sign.-
So I’ve continued to research and experiment by my side,
spending weeks and weeks to collect information and try various processes, chemicals, setups…
I was close to giving up several times, but each time, a new idea came and I had to try it.
I’ve probably ruin 30+ dials ☹
--Sorry fellow members, this process cost me really too much time and money, please understand that I don’t want to publish it. Anyway, it involves expensive professional machines and you wouldn’t be able to reproduce at home--
I particularly want to thank @Madasboot for introducing me to Rolex’s world and always willing to share his huge knowledge and experience. M has been a great help to improve my designs.
Here are a few examples,
as you can imagine, now I’m totally addicted to this inimitable gilt shine, so I’ll have to redo most of my builds…
(These dials are not lacquered yet, and I’ll let the luming work to the experts)
You may find that the letters are too bold, this is due to light reflection. Once coated, it looks thinner.
Please feel free to share any remark/idea to improve this work.
