Immelmann Diver Mod Thread

  • Please add our email support@horologyboard.com and/or domain horologyboard.com into your whitelist to make sure emails are not filtered or blocked. If you have registered but have not received your activation email, please check you spam/junk folder. If you still cannot find your email to activate your account, please Contact Us. Thank you.

Blue Radish

Content Contributor
Mar 25, 2019
62
144
33
Canada
www.blueradishstraps.com
I always love watching people update a thread with builds in real time. Nice to see the watches take shape instead of someone just posting the finished product.

I have a few build threads I will be doing but for now I’ll throw out a Mod thread.

Picked up this Immelmann diver just before Xmas. It’s one of 9 prototypes, either made of Ti of aluminum (not sure). Either way it’s nice and light. It chimes in at a grossly oversized 58mm if you measure from the widest parts, but you’d never know you’re wearing such a beast.

I bought it and I love it, but I knew I was going to have to mod this bad boy.


As received when I bought it...

Take note of the cool stepped minute hand to get over the elevated indices. Bezel screws are faux.

IMG-3143-2.jpg
IMG-4399.jpg
IMG-4400.jpg


Caseback removal…

IMG-4445.jpg
IMG-4446.jpg
IMG-4447.jpg


No idea how to get this out, I suspected the large rubber gasket was holding everything in place as there were no screws and nothing would come out. As I didn’t want to ruin the gasket I got a tool that could get right under and I pried it off. After that everything just slide out nicely.

She's being powered by a Swiss 2824

Disassembled….

IMG-4448.jpg
IMG-4449.jpg


Heat blued hands with horrible reddish/pink lume - WTF!

IMG-4453.jpg

Dial…

IMG-4452.jpg


PLANS - open to suggestions…

I really want to keep the subtle, modern industrial look of the watch, but I also want to add a tiny bit of pop.

Hands - paint stonewashed grey colour w/ grey lume
Dial - text fill with bright white w/ grey lume.


[UPDATED - MARCH 1, 2020]

Ok, so I've realized this is going to be a work in progress and a test of patience. I really wanted to keep this muted and stay grey, with a bit of 'pop' coming from the white in the text and second hand. Bottom line is there are too many shades of grey trying to work together here. Dial is aircraft grade aluminum, steel grey hands, mid grey lume. The three don't match. I think I may need to go something along the lines of one of my past builds. (pic below.)

IMG-4627.jpg
Mini-Fiddy-Blasted-Grey.jpg

I knew filling the text with oil pastel may be an issue. On a painted dial it's fantastic, but as expected it is causing havoc on the aluminum. Note the shiny sections around the text. I can't get close enough to remove them without affecting the text. Ah well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Rubbed the whole dial with oil pastel to blend it in. That doesn't work either.

IMG-4628.jpg
IMG-4629.jpg

I painted 3 blank dials to see what would look good with the case.
IMG-4633.jpg
IMG-4632.jpg
IMG-4631.jpg


I think that puttering will continue. Really think contrasting is the way to go. [mention]daevildog[/mention] suggested a colourway that would lean to that direction. Maybe white lume on a grey dial?


[UPDATED - APRIL 9, 2020]

Ok, decided to go with a nice diver blue for the minute and seconds with white lume. Indices are going to be white lume as well. 3 coats of lume already, one possibly two more for a nice torch glow.

IMG-5326.jpg
IMG-5328.jpg

[UPDATED - APRIL 14, 2020]

Six layers of Noctilume making this guy glow like a torch.

IMG-5387.jpg
IMG-5399.jpg
IMG-5396.jpg
 
Last edited:
OP
Blue Radish

Blue Radish

Content Contributor
Mar 25, 2019
62
144
33
Canada
www.blueradishstraps.com
Complete

Before and after



So with the lume complete all that remained was the crown. Being that this is a aluminum case painting was going to be a problem as paint doesn't really adhere to alu that well. I looked into cerakote, anodizing and some other options but none gave me the ability to choose a very specific colour. After some research I realized painting could be achieved by blasting the crown and then using special primer. BOOM! All done and complete.

Enjoy....