Tudor Snowflake Hand Restoration

[Ashton_Horologist]

Hi Guys,

I recently restored some hands for a vintage Snowflake that was done terribly. Thought you might all like to see.

Here are the before pics. A very sad sight indeed.





And here they are after restoration

[MikeyV]

Great photos, thanks for takingthe time to post them.

Can you explain a little about what went wrong originally, and the process that you employ to fix them?

[SearChart]

I see you made some new 'lume' as well. I've done this a few times, and I suspect that the Tudor snowflake hand has to be a complete pain in the @ss to re-lume.

Well done Ashton

[Seibei]

Hand restoration? Why not simply get new hands?

[piratfisk]

Question: In the photos, it appears that the hands sit at an upward angle, coming from the center stem towards the edges of the dial. Is this an optical illusion, or is this how they're supposed to lay? Or are they loose because they're not connected/"anchored" to the movement?

[Lgear080]

Authentic new snowflake hands? $1.5-2k USD? Job looks pretty good. How does it look under crystal in the sun?

[ILuvSubs]

Thanks for sharing OP and well done on fixing those snowflake hands.

You sometimes see snowflake hands for sale on Vintage Rolex Forum. Very hard to come by.

I had a 94110 which I sent in for service at the RSC. The RSC said the hands were scraping against the dial and had to be replaced. Unfortunately the RSC only had luminova snowflake hand sets and no tritium hand sets. The luminova hands would always bug me, because they didn't match the tritium dial. That said, I did appreciate the lume on the hands at night. I eventually let the 94110 go.

[Styles Bitchley]

Looks great Ashton.


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[Ashton_Horologist]

Originally Posted by SearChart

I see you made some new 'lume' as well. I've done this a few times, and I suspect that the Tudor snowflake hand has to be a complete pain in the @ss to re-lume.

Well done Ashton

Oh yes, these are an absolute PAIN to re-lume!

[Ashton_Horologist]

Originally Posted by Lgear080

Authentic new snowflake hands? $1.5-2k USD? Job looks pretty good. How does it look under crystal in the sun?

Yeah, new hands are around $1500. I haven't installed it into the case yet but I am confident it will look great!

[Ashton_Horologist]

Originally Posted by piratfisk

Question: In the photos, it appears that the hands sit at an upward angle, coming from the center stem towards the edges of the dial. Is this an optical illusion, or is this how they're supposed to lay? Or are they loose because they're not connected/"anchored" to the movement?

They are only loosely fitted for the photograph.

[Ashton_Horologist]

Originally Posted by Seibei

Hand restoration? Why not simply get new hands?

I can think of $2000 reasons why...

[Ashton_Horologist]

Originally Posted by MikeyV

Great photos, thanks for takingthe time to post them.

Can you explain a little about what went wrong originally, and the process that you employ to fix them?

They were incorrectly lumed by a previous "watchmaker". Unfortunately, I can't take you through the process, that one is a secret.

[Lgear080]

I’d certainly be happy with the outcome :)

[phillip ridley]

I like it, Ashton.

[037]

Originally Posted by Ashton_Horologist

They were incorrectly lumed by a previous "watchmaker". Unfortunately, I can't take you through the process, that one is a secret.

There seems to be watchmakers and people who happen to know enough to take watches apart.

Well done.