I had a problem with my sub dials as in they were very dirty my pics don’t actually capture how dirty they were but in the before picture you can see blobs of dirt on the 6 & 9 o’clock subs. A bit anorachy I know but when things bug you they bug you.
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][/url]So I asked advice from Roff & Dracha on how to go about this, I could sense the fear in Roff’s reply, fully understandable really, never the less I was going to have a bash. I have been tinkering for a while now and can service a few of my watches mainly Seiko 7a28’s and ETA 2824-2’s.
Many of you may have done this before but to a relative newbie like me it was still quite daunting. So having teased the bezel off with no more than a firm grip and your fingernails sitting under the rim, a squeeze and gentle rotate either way it began to lift and popped off (thanks Dracha).
On inspecting the dial it was still in pretty good shape and I found that the marks next to the 4 & 5 hour markers were not tritium spillage from the decaying lume but perhaps the result of decay that has eaten into the black of the dial and so I could not remove any of the damage, no great deal really.
So I set about the subs at first with my Rodico, not much joy there, after a cup of tea I decided to use a toothpick and this was perfect. When following the grooves of the subs very gently the dirt started to disperse and the black blobs were easily removed, I think the blobs were from the old lume in the hour hand as you can see it’s all gone. There is still old lume in the minute hand so I will no doubt have to repeat this procedure in a few years.
The sliderule was a different matter, this I found was much more delicate and you can easily rub off the numbers/markers, I know this as I did remove a tiny part of a marker, I had a go at one of the more damaged ones so I then decided to leave them. I did however manage to get the dirt out of a 4 and 9. Not really that noticeable.
With the sliderule in place the bezel pops back on with a little pressure and a reassuring snap.
I just thought I would document this for anyone else who has a similar problem and to show that you can actually do this without having to pay for it
Thanks Phil
. I am toying with reluming my hands 
. I have done this before once and used a matte clear nail varnish to mix my powder with.
Craig 