# Any tips for repainting watch dial



## craigant (Jul 31, 2011)

Anyone had any experience on repainting watch dials as I would like some tips. I have questions like if to prime or not, spray or brush, what paint to use, techniques use, clear coat or not after colour. now I know it will look dodgy but I have lots of watches with trashed dials and i am willing to give it go. the dial pictured was white ad the hour markers a gold colour. I think they was just the natural bass. a couple of dials that I have cleaned of the pant an it never looks lie there is primer under the paint.


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## Solar Pilgrim (Jun 3, 2015)

I am not a watchmaker by any means but I have experience in painting small items. 

I would think that the correct way to do this would be to remove the hour markers, paint the dial, and reapply the hour markers. You can remove the dial's paint if it is uneven or chipped to give the new paint an even surface. If it is fairly even you can probably just scuff it to give it some grip and paint on top of it. If you don't want to remove the hour markers you can probably just paint the whole thing and then carefully repaint the hour markers with a small brush. 

Again, I am in no way knowledgeable about the correct way to do this, but this is the way that I would do it if I had to.


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## McHaggis (Jun 12, 2015)

What colours did you fancy painting it? If it was me I would pick a spray primer from army painter as it will achieve a clear coat over a metal base.

I would handle the details with a Winsor and Newton series 7 brush (this is probably overkill but they are the best I have handled)

Pick whatever paint you want from the army painter range and make sure you use the flat of the brush to pick out the raised details.

You could probably pick up some lume and paint that on if you wanted.

Lastly I would probably finish it off with UV protecting spray paint as I don't know how long it would hold its colour, however if you get bored at any time dip it all in brake fluid wash it off and start again with new colours.

Army painter: The Army Painter
w&n: Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Brush - Round [Short Handle] | Winsor & Newton


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## salayc (Mar 29, 2012)

McHaggis said:


> What colours did you fancy painting it? If it was me I would pick a spray primer from army painter as it will achieve a clear coat over a metal base.
> 
> I would handle the details with a Winsor and Newton series 7 brush (this is probably overkill but they are the best I have handled)


There are some well established techniques for watch dial finishing: chemical treatment with clear coat, enamel, spray finish, German silver, etc. Remember, you're placing the finished dial under a lens which will highlight even the slightest of flaws, which is one of the reasons these finishes are popular for watch dials - i.e. with the proper technique the finished dial will be visibly flawless. Aerosol and brush? I guess it depends on how nice a finish you want, but it most likely will not be a professional looking result.


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## craigant (Jul 31, 2011)

anyone got any pics of dials they have pained themselves?


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## Somewhere else (Feb 17, 2006)

I'm a bit baffled by the reply here. I expected someone else to say this, but I guess it is up to me; dials are NOT painted. They are printed with a pad printer.

Here is the sequence: assuming we are talking about a common brass dial, All ink must be removed. The dial is then refinished so that no scratches or abrasions can be seen under the strongest magnification. The dial is then coat with lacquer. There are many ways to do this, but a pretty much fool proof method invented by Dr. Ranftt is to mount the dial on your hand motor tool, whatever it may be, such as a flex shaft or Dremel, and put a drop of lacquer (cellulose lacquer) on the dial and slowly revolve the dial. No need to go over 80 rpm. This will give a perfect coating about one or two molecules thick.When it dries hard, you may want to treat the back the same way. 

Put the dial in your pad printer,which , by the way, can be easily improvised out of a small drill press*, and print you base coat using oil base metal pad printing ink. When that dies or is dried (some of it requires thermal drying in a lehr) then print you numbers, up to several layers. Finally when it is dried hard, give it another coat of lacquer as before. You are done., Incidentally, you will need printing plates for each step, which you will either have to make yourself, or have an experienced pad printing plate maker make for you.

The person that said you should remove the numbers first gave very sensible advice. 

Incidentally, if you want to do this all with a paint brush, there is nothing stopping you. Watch dial makers use pad printing, but if you are doing a one off, there is no reason why you can do this with a brush and some care, though getting any letting on it is a real problem.

*Something else I saw in this forum. Some one's ingenious idea.


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## salayc (Mar 29, 2012)

Somewhere else said:


> I'm a bit baffled by the reply here. I expected someone else to say this, but I guess it is up to me; dials are NOT painted. They are printed with a pad printer.


Watch dials most certainly are painted. Pad printing is for text, but the dial is first prepared which is sometimes by painting and most times with a clear coat.


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## randallzadar (Jan 27, 2015)

I have had some success painting dials. I try and save as much of the original dial writing and paint as possible like this Elgin below. Others I remove all the paint and spray a white base coat then paint on that. Here is a Lord Elgin before and after.

















Here is a Gruen before and after. I hand-painted the writing freehand under my microscope. I used some glazes in the paint so the design in the dial was maintained. The paint I use is Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd.

















Here is a Timex that had a completely ruined dial. Decided to do something fun with this one. I get so many comments when wearing this watch.


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## Somewhere else (Feb 17, 2006)

salayc said:


> Watch dials most certainly are painted. Pad printing is for text, but the dial is first prepared which is sometimes by painting and most times with a clear coat.


No they are not. Painting leaves brush strokes. The base color of the dial is done by pad printing. Visit a dial printer some time. These companies produce in some cases thousands of dials a day.
A watch dial is an industrial, mass produced product.


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## Somewhere else (Feb 17, 2006)

randallzadar said:


> I have had some success painting dials. I try and save as much of the original dial writing and paint as possible like this Elgin below. Others I remove all the paint and spray a white base coat then paint on that. Here is a Lord Elgin before and after.
> 
> View attachment 4413666
> 
> ...


This is the exception to the rule where painting does work successfully. When you have a textured dial like this, no one can see the brush strokes. I also assume you diluted the paint somewhat.
Then the brush strokes should not be visible at all. It is a case by case question.

As for lettering with the bush, this is a matter of practice. I have no doubt that if you are working under a microscope and have the patience to practice your lettering you may be able to achieve very good results.

Another way to get your letters if you are working strictly by hand is to cut them out with a jewelers saw. This takes practice, like everything, but they can turn out perfectly. If you go over to some of the engraving sites and look at some of the work that people do with a jewelers saw on such things as Rodeo award buckles, you'll see that there are many ways to do a one off by hand.


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## elusious (Jul 12, 2014)

Randallzadar- great repaints, and that Timex is gorgeous! Did you use Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd on it too? I paint as a hobby, and that dial reminds me very much of oil paints at their best.


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## Somewhere else (Feb 17, 2006)

elusious said:


> Randallzadar- great repaints, and that Timex is gorgeous! Did you use Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd on it too? I paint as a hobby, and that dial reminds me very much of oil paints at their best.


Funny you should mention Alkyd. I was about to mention it as a good paint for metal. I know someone who does very nice silkscreens on watch dials using Alkyd.


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## McHaggis (Jun 12, 2015)

randallzadar said:


> Here is a Timex that had a completely ruined dial. Decided to do something fun with this one. I get so many comments when wearing this watch.
> 
> View attachment 4413650


how did you get that effect, I haven't seen anything like that before?


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## Archer (Apr 23, 2009)

Somewhere else said:


> Painting leaves brush strokes.


Only if you use a brush...


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## salayc (Mar 29, 2012)

Somewhere else said:


> No they are not. Painting leaves brush strokes.


If a watch dial is painted, it is frequently done by spraying although there are some other trade secret ways to paint the dial. Note that many dials are chemically treated brass to get their background color: Rolex, for example.



Somewhere else said:


> The base color of the dial is done by pad printing. Visit a dial printer some time.


I have been to many and I have owned a pad printer and printed my own dials. I have never seen the background pad printed. It would actually pose a problem to pad print a background: how would the dial be held in place and not stick to the pad if the entire surface were to be printed?

You can also view online videos showing the process and the various techniques.

You can see around 3:00 in this video a dial by IWC being pad printed 



 In this case the dial background is already finished. Judging by the look of the dial, it has been chemically treated and then clear coated prior to the pad print, although in the case of many of the flieger watches, IWC paints by spray.

Here's Glashutte: 



 at 1:35 you can see them finishing the background with German Silver.

Here is Quadrance producing for Parmigiani with silver and spray finishing: 




Franck Muller who chemically treat and then clear coat and polish before pad printing and luming with a Zeller Stylograph: 




Might as well throw in a wonderful pad printing example by Hajime Asaoka, as you can see his dials are already finished before printing, and you can also see the physical problem that trying to pad print an entire background would present: 




This is not to say that watches are never or cannot be brush painted. It is done, although rarely, which was my original point. In order to get a professional result, it's advisable to stick with the tried and true techniques.


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