Creme Linen
Solid brass, satin creme over linen texture
The most restrained of the three. A warm, chalky creme that reads quietly against a dress shirt or a field jacket alike.
- Diameter
- 28.5mm
- Feet
- Drilled to order
- Finish
- Satin creme
Delali linen dials
My first real contribution.
Most of the watch components I've built to date have been entirely sourced. These linen dials will be the first components I actually make and hand-finish myself.
They start with raw material, specifically blank brass, and end as a beautiful, lacquered linen dial. Each one unique, a fingerprint of its own. Modern watchmaking has gotten very good at perfect: enamel, lacquer, sunray brushing. I'm focusing first on the different register, a dial that still carries the grain of the hands that made it. My hands.
Progress
The experiments, so far.
Experiment 01
The first pass at working a linen grain into a brass blank by hand.
Full dial
The first dial
The first dial from that first experiment. From a distance, the linen texture is still faint — barely visible.
Macro
Up close
The same dial, magnified. Up close you can see more of the woven grain I'm starting to form by hand.
Curing
Out to cure
A pair of dials from that first experiment, set out to cure.
Experiment 02
A slightly coarser brushing pass, sealed under a thinner lacquer, aiming for more texture than the first experiment. Closer to what I'm after, but not quite there yet.
Full dial
The second dial
The full dial from the second experiment, with a coarser linen grain than the first.
Macro
Up close
The same dial, magnified. The weave is deeper, though still not quite the result I want.
Experiment 03
Mixed results, and a turning point. One dial held up well under a thin, clear lacquer. A second attempt at a cream-tinted lacquer bubbled during cure and barely shifted the color I was after — enough to send me back to reconsider the lacquering step, and to start weighing plating in addition to the hand-applied texture.
Raw
Before any work
Two raw blank dials, before any hand-finishing.
Pair
Clear vs. cream
The two results side by side: linen texture under a thin clear lacquer on the left, a cream-tinted lacquer attempt on the right. The cream lacquer bubbled during cure and didn't shift the color as much as I'd hoped.
Macro
The clear lacquer
Close up on the clear-lacquer dial. Texture holds up well, no bubbling.
Macro
The cream lacquer
Close up on the cream-lacquer dial, showing the bubbling that made this attempt a miss.
The finishes
Creme, Champagne, Charcoal.
Renders of the finish I'm aiming for on each colorway — the goal, not yet the hand-worked result. The progress above shows where the real dials stand today.
Champagne Linen
Brass with a pale champagne wash
The softest of the three. A pale wash over the texture keeps it quiet on the wrist while the weave still catches raking light.
- Diameter
- 28.5mm
- Feet
- Drilled to order
- Finish
- Satin champagne
Charcoal Linen
Deep charcoal over a heavy linen texture
The coarsest weave of the set. It holds a near-black that never goes flat, and gives applied indices something to sit against.
- Diameter
- 28.5mm
- Feet
- Drilled to order
- Finish
- Matte charcoal