Sunday, April 5, 2009

The Dial

I needed a tan or cream dial for the desert diver look. Unfortunately, custom dials for the 6105 are pretty hard to come by. I looked around quite a bit and just couldn't find any. However, it turns out that with a few changes (cutting off the dial feet and gluing it directly to the movement) you can use a dial for a 6309 diver, for which custom dials are readily available.

I had seem some already, from Harold Ng (aka Yobokies), so I contacted him and he pointed me to this post. I picked the #6 tan dial. I liked the simplicity and obvious "mod" look of that dial. Not to mention, the other tan dial in that post wouldn't have worked since the 6105 only has a date wheel, and that dial has a window large enough for a day wheel and date wheel. I paid, and it was on it's way.

But, because I was completely obsessing over this mod, I continued to look. I stumbled upon Bob Thayer Jr.'s site and saw some of his amazing work. In particular was this modded 6105 (one of the few I have ever seen). I realized that Bob had custom painted (or stripped) the original 6105 dial to make it much simpler. He removed the minute markers, and all other text except for the "Seiko" signage. It looks really great. I hadn't even considered that could be done to a dial.

I immediately decided to contact Bob and see if he could take an aftermarket 6105 strip all the signage and minute markers from it and paint the face tan/cream. I got a reply very quickly saying that was no problem! I should have a very unique dial, and if it looks half as good as I have it pictured in my mind, it should be pretty slick.

My photoshop skills aren't that sharp, and I did this quick, but the here is an original dial, next to what my custom dial should look like, roughly.

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