# Blazing Bezels or Lessons in Lume part 2



## Lancman (Jul 1, 2016)

A (sort of) continuation of part 1…..







I realise there probably isn't much affection here for cheap Chinese watches but I often find myself inexplicably drawn to them. The sheer value for money is one factor, but I think it's more to do with my urge to 'tinker' - something I would be reluctant to do with a more expensive watch.

One such watch to catch my eye recently was the Infantry IN-103.










Yours for a fiver on eBay or an extortionate £5.60 from Amazon.

What attracted me was that bezel; it looked to be crying out for a good lume job.

On arrival I discovered that the bezel rotates and is uni-directional, something never mentioned by Infantry. It's a little on the sloppy side but works fine and lines up well with the face markings.

I decided the lume job would be easier done with the bezel off the watch and it popped off without too much effort.










Quite a thick chunk of glass for such a cheap watch.

Using my usual homemade luminous paste (eBay powder + acrylic varnish) the bezel turned out better than expected, but getting it back on again was a bit of a pain; that pesky spring has to be held in place at the same time. (Cue much profanity and hunting around for said spring as it repeatedly flew off in all directions.)










The end result:



















I was now much happier with the look but disappointed with the weak lume of the supplied hands, so the next time I ordered some bits and bobs from Cousins I added a pair of luminous hands.

The movement is a Hattori (Seiko) PC21 so I knew the size required.



















Really liking the look of the watch now and much prefer the size and shape of the new hands but I have to say that the lume on them is rubbish. It's actually worse than the originals because it fades so quickly it's all but gone within a couple of hours. This is the first time I have been disappointed with anything from Cousins, weather it's old stock or just very cheap lume, either way they are not really fit for purpose and I cannot recommend them.

Still, I do like the look of them so they will be staying put until I can find something better.

Is there anywhere else that sells decent quality hands?


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## gimli (Mar 24, 2016)

I have a very interesting 1970s French diver watch with the same type of bezel as yours has and I was wondering if I could do something similar to what you did but perhaps just paint and not lume. Any pointers ? I'm assuming I should use some sort of white paste/paint that thickens over time so that I have time to wipe the excess off and so...

PS: Nice job on the bezel lume!


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## hughlle (Aug 23, 2015)

Looks great imo, although not too keen on the hands  Is it not possible to re-lume the hands yourself?

Is it just me, but in pics 2 and 3, the dial appears to have rotated through 180 degrees.


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## relaxer7 (Feb 18, 2016)

Good effort on the bezel :thumbsup:


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## Lancman (Jul 1, 2016)

gimli said:


> I have a very interesting 1970s French diver watch with the same type of bezel as yours has and I was wondering if I could do something similar to what you did but perhaps just paint and not lume. Any pointers ? I'm assuming I should use some sort of white paste/paint that thickens over time so that I have time to wipe the excess off and so...
> 
> PS: Nice job on the bezel lume!


 Thanks, I would imagine almost any sort of paint would do the job. Here is a video of someone using an acrylic paint pen:






I used a small piece of wood veneer to wipe the excess paste from the bezel surface.


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## Lancman (Jul 1, 2016)

hughlle said:


> Looks great imo, although not too keen on the hands  Is it not possible to re-lume the hands yourself?
> 
> Is it just me, but in pics 2 and 3, the dial appears to have rotated through 180 degrees.


 Yes, I'm thinking I may have to bite the bullet and have another go at re-luming hands. My last attempt did not end well though, so I was hoping to avoid a repeat performance. 

In the pics the movement and dial are sat loose on the table with the case just placed over them to keep the dust off. Things obviously got moved around a bit between shots.


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## Lancman (Jul 1, 2016)

gimli said:


> I have a very interesting 1970s French diver watch with the same type of bezel as yours has and I was wondering if I could do something similar to what you did but perhaps just paint and not lume. Any pointers ? I'm assuming I should use some sort of white paste/paint that thickens over time so that I have time to wipe the excess off and so...
> 
> PS: Nice job on the bezel lume!


 I just remembered I also did the same thing to my own Momentum bezel using a Sharpie permanent marker.


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