text: This posed a problem for me because the luminous paint on my dial had blackened. This occurs when the paint is exposed to high humidity for a prolonged period of time (years). Old Navitimers are not waterproof so simply washing your hands regularly or living in a tropical climate can result in this metamorphosis. New luminous paint comes in many colors but significant tinting dulls its luminescence; black luminous paint simply isn’t an option.
  So what to do? Remove the paint and redo the dial as well? As much as I didn’t want to face this reality, I felt it was the only real option.
  Fortunately, I did have prior experience as I had earlier repainted a dial for a trench watch. In that case the dial was smaller and all the makers were Arabic numerals (requiring quite a steady hand) but since the dial was enamel, mistakes were easy to wipe away. The project took enough time that I had to add thinner to the paint to keep it from setting. Still, the end result was quite good and this triumph gave me confidence.
  The first step to “relume the dial” is to remove the old luminous compound with a bit of pegwood. The compound was dry and brittle and came away easily. In fact, even before I started the compound had fallen away from the seven and eight o’clock markers.
  Next I mixed some white luminous powder with a bit of brown tint to produce a faux patina. The binder was added to transform the powder to a paint. This was applied to each marker using an oiler under the microscope. A drop of paint was applied to the center of the marker then spread to the perimeter. If it was too thin a second or third drop was added and again spread to the edge. The last marker was the Arabic “12” at the top of the dial. This one was a little more difficult requiring a bit more paint and patience but it came out looking just fine. The last bit of paint was used on the hands.
  At this point I had serviced the movement, fixed the hour and minute hands, and relumed the dial and hands. I didn’t state it above but I had also fixed the lip on the case with some carefully placed taps from a jeweler’s hammer. However, there were still problems to resolve- the greatest being the missing bezel. I’ll cover this in Part 3.
  
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