One of the things I have always wanted to do is to design my own watch dial, after getting bored of making Seiko mods, and also after having accumulated a wide variety of old watches.

After months of trial and error with different materials and techniques, I think I have finally got somewhere good enough.

This Baoshihua has a shot dial and some platings on its case has worn off.

A nice test subject.

I borrow designs from USSR watches, and recreate them using Inkscape on my PC.

The designs are then printed onto transparent adhesive paper.

Sticking the printout to an 0.3mm aluminium plate, then it can be cut out to becoming a watch dial.

Anywhere that's white on the design ended up appearing as transparent, revealing the metallic finish underneath.

But not before I drill a 3mm hole in the middle of it.

The dial can be sticked onto the watch movement with dial dots.

By the way this springbar should have been rejected from the factory.

Even though I can now print any dial design, the case and hands still matter.