A youthful mod watch best fitted for summer

Summer is right around the corner, you begin to feel the sweat streaming down at the back of your body. It is the best season for pool parties and enjoying various water activities. To get ready for the summer, apart from rotating your wardrobe, you'd better give your watch a change as well. It's time to take off the leather strap you wore during the whole winter, and bring a cool and refreshing look to your timepiece! 

What’s on the mod

• Dial: The original DWC D01 luminous dial is replaced with the DWC D03 Matt Silver Sandwich Lume Dial. It's called "sandwich", because the dial has two separate disks where the bottom layer holds the luminous compound while the top layer has the index hollow-outs to allow the lume to shine through. This construction, pioneered by Panerai, allows the dial to store more luminous compounds, which helps improve the lume performance: glows brighter and lasts longer.

  The copper-based dial is coated with a layer of silver through electroplating. Electroplated dials look particularly shiny and lustrous, and they are indeed functionally effective as well. The plated layer forms a protective barrier, protecting the dial against corrosion and rusting, so that the dial is more durable.

• Bezel Insert: The black bezel insert is replaced with the DWC type B Silver Stainless Steel Diver Bezel Insert. While keeping the silvery white tone of the modding, the brushed finish of the insert makes the matt silver dial prominent through contrasting surface textures. 

• Hands: In this mod, we kept the original hour and minute hands, which are the Diver Silver Superluminova C3 ones, yet, we changed its second hand into our Diver Orange Second Watch Hand. Orange is an energetic color, adding a bit of vibrant color brings summer vibes to the watch.

• Chapter Ring: To harmonize with the overall bright tone of this watch mod, we have swapped the original black chapter ring with white markings into our new white chapter ring with black markings.

• Strap: We've swapped the black parachute strap into the DWC navy x black nato strap with khaki centerline. This nato strap makes a great color contrast with the face of the watch, which helps add a visual interest to this mod so that the overall appearance would not be too monotonous. Still, the khaki centerline harmonizes with the orange second hand, bringing out the best of each other. 

Tools Needed

• Case back opener

• A pair of tweezers 

• A screwdriver

• Watch hand installation tool

• Watch hand removal tools and dial protecting plastic sheet

• Watch case knife

Step 1: Open the case back

There are different types of case back opener. You may choose a suitable opener based on the type of your watch case and open it with the opener. For a dive watch, you'll need an opener that opens a screw in case back. Both 3 pins and the 2 pins versions work well for this purpose.

Remove the stem and crown, then you can extract the movement assembly from the case.

Step 2: Remove the hands and the dial

To change the dial, you have to remove the watch hands first before removing the old dial.

You may then place a pair of tweezers in the gap between the dial and the movement and run it underneath the old dial, then the dial will come off.

Step 3: Install the new dial

Align the dial feet with the hole and press the new dial down.

Step 4: Install the hands

Then, you may place the watch hands back on the dial, using the hand installation tool to press the hands onto their respective posts.

Step 5: Close the case back

After installing the new dial and watch hands, you may install the assembly into the case and close the case back. Remember to clean the parts and movement assembly with Rodico and hand pump before closing it.

Step 6: Replace the bezel insert

With the case closed, you can now replace the bezel insert. You can follow the following video guide for detailed instruction:

In short, pry the bezel insert off with a watch case knife by insert the knife into the gap between the case and the bezel. Push it firmly all the way in and the bezel will come off. Then remove the old bezel insert with a screwdriver. Apply adhesive on the new insert, and align it to the bezel. Press firmly onto the bezel to secure the installation.

Step 7: Change the strap

To remove the parachute strap, you need to remove the springbars to take the strap off. 

Then, simply insert the nato strap through the upper springbar, then thread the strap through the bottom springbar.

That’s it!

Try it yourself if you enjoy this watch mod!