Homage Forum

Hi to all,
One rhetoric question... I was always curious how the heck factories achieve such a nice layer of paint on dials?
Like this seiko, I noticed it at othrr thread, Yoda posted it and it is really eye catcher...


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The pogue had a layer of silver first

[mention]big eebee[/mention] yes, and that dial has a texture applied before the paint, which seems to be translucent.

pretty sure that's a aftermarket replacement dial, it looks very nice but the 6030T should start at 24 not 23.5..could be wrong of course. By the way I was looking to buy a 6139 any one have any suggestions and I'm not at all against replacement parts. I have noticed a guy in Turkey sells lots of these on Chrono24.

Oh and I think the insert is genuine based on the edge bevel.

I guess this dial has received some galvanic coatings as Emilio already mentioned and was then pad printed. The sun burst is done prior to all this by circularly brushing the surface with a large turning wheel with copper or steel brushes.

i believe the ink on flat surface is applied using offset method. ink was evenly distributed on rubber roller or cylinder, then roll it onto the surface. after dried with thermal or uv cure, then the markers will be printed on top of it with pad print.

Yes, it is obvious that sunburst or texture is done becore painting. I'm just wondering about very thin layer of paint... I noticed many seiko dials are made of aluminium so it can be anodized as well.
Recently I was playing with some scrap seiko 7005 dial and it was brass...
However, can offset print distribute such uniform and thin layer?
Pad printing is ok, it comes after that...
Also, let's speak about vintage dials, almost all of them have very tiny layer of lacquer, as final protection. It can be noticed when it goes to yellow or pops up somewhere etc... How did they did it?
Somewhere I found idea of rotational painting, e. g. Dial is rotating slowly and one oe two dots of lacquer are spread bt the impact of centrifugal force ...
Perhaps such thin layer is a matter of painting tool, nozzle on spray gun etc?

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djolemag wrote: ↑March 17th, 2021, 1:50 am Yes, it is obvious that sunburst or texture is done becore painting. I'm just wondering about very thin layer of paint... I noticed many seiko dials are made of aluminium so it can be anodized as well.
Recently I was playing with some scrap seiko 7005 dial and it was brass...
However, can offset print distribute such uniform and thin layer?
Pad printing is ok, it comes after that...
Also, let's speak about vintage dials, almost all of them have very tiny layer of lacquer, as final protection. It can be noticed when it goes to yellow or pops up somewhere etc... How did they did it?
Somewhere I found idea of rotational painting, e. g. Dial is rotating slowly and one oe two dots of lacquer are spread bt the impact of centrifugal force ...
Perhaps such thin layer is a matter of painting tool, nozzle on spray gun etc?

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for small surface such as watch dial, should not be an issue for offset method to achieve thin evenly layer. in commercial offset, we use rubber blanket to cover the cylinder for ink transfer. the hardness of the rubber roll or blanket also determine the quality of ink distribution. in offset printing, there are 2 different types of blanket, conventional and compressible. for flat ink, conventional blanket is the proper one since it contains very little pores on its surface. it's also cheaper than the other one.

but for watch dial, i don't think it requires such high tech machine just to apply flat ink on it. just a primitive rubber roller and a flat surface can do the trick.

the ink properties is the most important item for the ink distribution. the viscosity, rheology, pigment loads, etc.

i have no experience with vintage enamel dial, but i seem to watch somewhere that it is coated with acrylic powder, then baked in oven with hi-temp so the powder is melted and covering the dial surface evenly. kindly refresh my knowledge.

TUFF Stough wrote:

djolemag wrote: ↑March 17th, 2021, 1:50 am Yes, it is obvious that sunburst or texture is done becore painting. I'm just wondering about very thin layer of paint... I noticed many seiko dials are made of aluminium so it can be anodized as well.
Recently I was playing with some scrap seiko 7005 dial and it was brass...
However, can offset print distribute such uniform and thin layer?
Pad printing is ok, it comes after that...
Also, let's speak about vintage dials, almost all of them have very tiny layer of lacquer, as final protection. It can be noticed when it goes to yellow or pops up somewhere etc... How did they did it?
Somewhere I found idea of rotational painting, e. g. Dial is rotating slowly and one oe two dots of lacquer are spread bt the impact of centrifugal force ...
Perhaps such thin layer is a matter of painting tool, nozzle on spray gun etc?

Sent from my P30 using Tapatalk

for small surface such as watch dial, should not be an issue for offset method to achieve thin evenly layer. in commercial offset, we use rubber blanket to cover the cylinder for ink transfer. the hardness of the rubber roll or blanket also determine the quality of ink distribution. in offset printing, there are 2 different types of blanket, conventional and compressible. for flat ink, conventional blanket is the proper one since it contains very little pores on its surface. it's also cheaper than the other one.

but for watch dial, i don't think it requires such high tech machine just to apply flat ink on it. just a primitive rubber roller and a flat surface can do the trick.

the ink properties is the most important item for the ink distribution. the viscosity, rheology, pigment loads, etc.

i have no experience with vintage enamel dial, but i seem to watch somewhere that it is coated with acrylic powder, then baked in oven with hi-temp so the powder is melted and covering the dial surface evenly. kindly refresh my knowledge.

Thanks, very informative
Will do my homework these days

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