So as most of us already know, Gil_m is the go-to guy here for all our decal needs when restoring an old frame. I've used him in the past and his service and quality is top notch.
A few on here might also know that my other retro passion apart from MTB's is old wrist watches and the restoration and servicing of them, so a few months back when I was sent a vintage Squale divers watch from the 60's Gil came to the rescue. This is what the watch looked like when it arrived -
The gasket in the crown had disintegrated over the last 50 or so years and the watch had filled with water and stopped working. I pulled it apart and the movement cleaned up remarkably well with only a couple of rusted parts needing replacing. I was able to replace the gaskets and add new luminous compound to the dial and hands but the minute track that was printed on to the underside of the crystal was flaking off badly -
Being an old and quite obscure watch sourcing a NOS crystal was going to be impossible, so that's where Gil came to the rescue. Two decals were printed, one clear with the minute markers printed on it which would be applied to the crystal, and then another in white to go over the top of the clear one. This is the final result -
I was happy with the result and more importantly the owner of the watch was blown away with it. Its always nice to take an old non-working watch and give it a new lease of life and Gil was instrumental in the restoration.
A few weeks later the owner emailed me to say his mate had seen it and had another project for me, this time a rare Seiko quartz from 1983 that had suffered water damage to the dial -
The watch was working fine but the dial was a mess so the owner had a few options, spend years possibly searching for a NOS or S/H dial, send the dial off for a professional restoration that could cost more than what the watch is worth, or get a decal printed and applied over the dial. I knew we would never get the sharpness of the original dial on a decal but the owner was happy enough with that and the dial was sent to Gil for scanning -
Applying it to the dial was tricky getting it aligned up perfectly with the holes for the hands, thankfully Gil sent several decals and after a few attempts it was on. I then had to cut out the applied hour markers with a scalpel plus a gap above each one to be filled with new lume -
The hands were re-lumed to match the dial and this is how it looks now -
So a massive thanks from me and the two owners of the watches to Gil for getting these rare pieces looking good again
A few on here might also know that my other retro passion apart from MTB's is old wrist watches and the restoration and servicing of them, so a few months back when I was sent a vintage Squale divers watch from the 60's Gil came to the rescue. This is what the watch looked like when it arrived -
The gasket in the crown had disintegrated over the last 50 or so years and the watch had filled with water and stopped working. I pulled it apart and the movement cleaned up remarkably well with only a couple of rusted parts needing replacing. I was able to replace the gaskets and add new luminous compound to the dial and hands but the minute track that was printed on to the underside of the crystal was flaking off badly -
Being an old and quite obscure watch sourcing a NOS crystal was going to be impossible, so that's where Gil came to the rescue. Two decals were printed, one clear with the minute markers printed on it which would be applied to the crystal, and then another in white to go over the top of the clear one. This is the final result -
I was happy with the result and more importantly the owner of the watch was blown away with it. Its always nice to take an old non-working watch and give it a new lease of life and Gil was instrumental in the restoration.
A few weeks later the owner emailed me to say his mate had seen it and had another project for me, this time a rare Seiko quartz from 1983 that had suffered water damage to the dial -
The watch was working fine but the dial was a mess so the owner had a few options, spend years possibly searching for a NOS or S/H dial, send the dial off for a professional restoration that could cost more than what the watch is worth, or get a decal printed and applied over the dial. I knew we would never get the sharpness of the original dial on a decal but the owner was happy enough with that and the dial was sent to Gil for scanning -
Applying it to the dial was tricky getting it aligned up perfectly with the holes for the hands, thankfully Gil sent several decals and after a few attempts it was on. I then had to cut out the applied hour markers with a scalpel plus a gap above each one to be filled with new lume -
The hands were re-lumed to match the dial and this is how it looks now -
So a massive thanks from me and the two owners of the watches to Gil for getting these rare pieces looking good again
