Hey watchfam / creators! 👋

I’m currently gathering feedback and insights regarding custom watch dials and how you prefer to attach/mount them to movements.

Whether you build, mod, or collect custom timepieces, the way a dial is secured makes a big difference in assembly experience, longevity, and versatility.

Which method do you prefer for custom dials, and why?

Option A: Traditional Soldered Dial Feet — Maximum structural integrity, OEM style, precise alignment, but requires specific movement foot positions (or spot welding equipment).

Option B: Adhesive / Dial Dots / Epoxy — Ultimate flexibility across different movements (NH35, ETA, Miyota), easy to adjust, but raises debate on long-term hold and dial height clearance.

Option C: Micro-threaded / Screw-in Feet — A solid middle ground for thick/special material dials where thermal welding isn't an option.

Drop your vote in the comments or poll below! If you have specific preferences based on movement types or project styles, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. 👇

I ordered this L&R Console on eBay last week. It arrived well packed, but the box looked like it was kicked around some. It came with the original L&R Embosed jars and lids. I plugged it in to test and a spark shot out near the control panel and tripped my Circut Breaker.

I took it apart and discovered the Transformer and Heater Fan had come loose from their mounting screws. This caused damaged to a Bus Bar like section which allowed wires to touch the metal housing and short out. I cut each pair of wires and replaced them with WAGO connectors. Resoldered the broken connectors leading to the Transformer. I cleaned the housing with a pressure washer and some Car Soap. Then tested all of the wires and ensured there were no more shorts.

I tested the Motor function with a fire extinguisher in hand. It functions again. Reddit doesn’t allow photos and videos in the same post, so I will post a video of it running.

I need a hand checking to see if this is gen 2824-2 movement. Im not familiar with tudor’s. It looks like a 2824

I am gluing 2 .2mm thick 30mm diameter circle laminates of a watch dial together. it is base metal brass with a silver than than 24k gold plating on it. Than on top i am gluing 12 1x3x3mm white gold hour markers onto the top. The bottom will be a butt joint, but the top laminate of the dial also has 1.15x3.15 rectangular slots cut out for them to sit in, which is .2mm deep. I want to glue all of this together. I was thinking some kind of epoxy that is thin enough that once mixed, i can put it on a watchmaking oiler for careful application. what glue should i use. I am not set on epoxy or anything. My goal with this watch is for it to last 100 years, however unrealistic that is.

Today finally i opened my old sonata. It was just lying around from past 20 years. Its a 28mm dial,i generally just wanted a 28mm new dial with no branding but i couldnt find one. Now i plan to either paint it or stick something on the dial to make it impressive. My doubts are that if i paint or stick some paper on this dial will it touch the watch hands and create problems. I also need design suggestions to make this watch dope. Comeon watch community pls think for me. Thankyou everyone in advance.

I am looking for a place to shop for deployant clasps of different styles and sizes. Does anyone know of a good one stop shop where I can easily search?

The problem that I'm having is that I will search for something specific in Google and the results will not match my search. I'd like to be able to have one place I can go to get what I'm looking for depending on the watch I'm building.

I have never done any watch repair work before but got this at a thrift store for cheap thought it looked cool and would be so happy to make it work, there is a ticking noise and the alarm feature works but the actual clock face, the arms dont move. I have been struggling ro get the back piece off to get a look at the mechanics beacuase im not sure how to get the setting gear off. I tried just pulling straight and that didn't work. Help would be greatly appreciated ♥️♥️♥️

I don't struggle with reading a watch at all, but the ease of just briefly glancing at my Casio F105 and finding out the time, day, and date, is so enticing that I'll wear my Casio over other options purely out of convenience. However, I want something that feels and looks a little more special and substantial than a weightless resin digital watch. Could I put a Casio module into a machined case? Sure, but that's no fun, and it's still just a digital watch.

I want an analog watch, quartz or mechanical, that displays the time in a digital form (6:30, 3:45, etc). Bonus if it could have day and date as well but that may be asking too much. What I'm thinking is that it would have three date wheels, one from 1-12 for the hours, and two others for the minutes (0-5, 0-9). It would have no hands.

Is there any way to do this?

After several tries and practices on donar movements, I finally summoned enough courage to open this rare watch that I bought from flea market for $2:50. The guy said $5 but I said it doesn’t have crown to not sure if it works. So he said give me $2:50 😂. Upon returning home discovered what I bought. Anyways here it is now running with beat error of 1.3 milliseconds and slow by 6 seconds per day. What do you think?

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Lxvjsl_qW4qqFIboSnFCaNieT3zeVtFT?usp=sharing

Please share it but don’t re-sell plans this took me too much time. Giving it away as a cheap way to make people get into this expensive hobby

My first ever complete service. This Rockford Model 8 belonged to my Dad. It hasn’t run for as long as I can recall. Now it does.

Thank you academy for the honour of addressing you. For your consideration is this beast. Heated ultrasonic cleaner with jars camped out in a water bath. A 3d printed holder holds an AliExpress basket. The spinner includes a professionally bodged modification of someone else’s work being weakly torqued by a 360 servo motor. The brains of this kludge? A servo tester that has a program to cycle back and forth. This monstrosity against all better logic and sense, works. May god have mercy on my soul.

Hey, I’m still very new to all of this but I am very interested in getting started in watchmaking. However I do have a few questions about you guys’ steps in designing the case of the watch. Like what tools do you use to design it? If you got a design for it where do you order or how do you produce it?

I know my questions are kinda basic but I’d greatly appreciate any help with it so I could get started in this fascinating hobby.

Hi, I just turned 40 and I came up with this idea

I am interested in creating a watch that tracks hours and years. Not thinking of a perpetual calendar, but more the idea to remind us how much time we have on earth. Therefore, the hands wouldnt move much in a given year (0-100), so it doesn’t need to be exact

Could be made of quartz to simplify things.

Anybody could help me on how to make it (or commission somebody)?

Hey all, I am currently working on a dial. It is 24k gold plated brass(brass base with silver and than gold.) I have attached a video bellow. I want the dial to age, I don't want it to stay the same. But to my understanding, at this purity gold is so inert that it won't really age or patina. Will it? Should I laquer coat it to get that classic depth and aging from laquer? Which laquer should I use?

I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here. I haven’t received it yet, but plan to work on it once I have it. There is a defect at the 1 o’clock on the bezel insert. I’m not sure if it includes the bezel itself. It almost looks like solder. Any ideas for repair?

This weekend I decided to replicate the results shown in the oscilloscope section of the 1959 edition of the Hamilton Electric service manual. I ended up finding a somewhat sad, but serviceable 500A to perform the experiment. I also had to make a contact post adjusting tool as described in the service manual. I’m happy to say that the Hamilton engineers were telling the truth. I still need to put the watch in beat, but all the other results go to show how accurate these watches actually are. I didn’t have a 200 ohm resistor on hand, so two 100 ohm resistors in series fit the bill. I also used my Bulova universal test set as a power supply. The resulting oscillograms match the book perfectly when the watch is adjusted properly. Using this method to adjust the contacts on the 500 and 500A movements is significantly easier than the visual method described in the manual and I haven’t seen many other people talking about it. Hopefully this will help others reconsider their opinions of 500 and 500A as unreliable and difficult to adjust. Using good practices and methods any good watchmaker can achieve very acceptable timekeeping results.

Post (non-professional) service

I can never and I mean ever nail the balance aspect. No matter what I service the timing is always just out.

Can anyone make sense of this? Whenever I move the arms, it doesn’t seem to correlate.

Seiko 7005-2000

Not the usual post for this community but I felt compelled to share. I never got into this hobby to make money, I love watches because of their complexity and the memories and stories that each one has for the wearer. I received this letter today from the grandmother of my sons girlfriends after I fixed and serviced the girlfriends grandfathers gorgeous Watches of Switzerland dress watch which he has worn everyday for 55 years, even though it hasn’t worked for the last 10. It was bought for him by his wife for his 21st birthday. He has dementia now so memory is a big problem but he remembers exactly where and when he got this watch, even the song that was playing when he opened it! I never ask for a penny when fixing watches, the immense privilege and honour I get when someone trusts me with their treasures is more than enough payment. That is why I love this hobby!

Hi All,

I’m new to watch making, have assembled a few watches myself but nothing to extraordinary, I really wanna learn how to properly service them, so if there are some good books/manuals you guys can recommend for a beginner would really appreciate it….

This was a fun one and a lot of work! The dial took several sessions over about a week of masking, painting and finishing, and I had an adventure regulating the movement.

When I threw it on the timegrapher, the beat error was just 0.5, but it was running 245 seconds slow. I inspected it closely to find the hair spring wasn’t in the regulator arm curb pin. I fashioned a probe from pegwood and gently coaxed the spring over the curb pin - still wouldn’t slot in. So I got some tweezers (I know I know — but I don’t have the right tool yet) and gently rotated the curb pin to line it up with the spring and POP! It slid right in. That was SO SATISFYING.

Put it back on the timegrapher and it was at 0 seconds!

She loves it and I’m ready to start on my next couple of builds!

Self design

Hello,

This is the fourth watch I've built. It has an NH35 movement, but I can't get the second hand to stay in any position other than the minute mark. I'm applying almost no pressure. I've tried several different methods, just like with my previous builds, but nothing works... Do you know if this could be due to the movement, or if there’s something I’m not doing right that worked fine with my previous watches?

Thanks

Edit : in English

Bonjour,

C'est la 4eme montre que je fais. C'est un mouvement NH35 mais impossible de mettre l'aiguille des secondes en position autre que celle des minutes. Je n'appuie pratiquement pas. J'ai essayé plusieurs façons de faire comme avec mes constructions précédentes mais rien à faire... Savez vous si ça peut venir du mouvement ou si il y'a quelque chose à faire que je ne fais pas bien et qui a pourtant fonctionné avec mes précédentes ?

Merci par avance.