Disclaimer: This article was written by The Dialmaker, a professional custom dial artisan and co-founder of RILVI. While the content reflects real production costs and practical insights from hands-on experience, it is presented to help educate watch enthusiasts and prospective clients on the realities of custom dial making.
Custom watch dials captivate enthusiasts with the promise of a unique, personalized timepiece. However, the true cost of creating a one-of-a-kind dial is often vastly underestimated. Many customers expect a custom dial to cost only around €20-30, a price point influenced by some mass-produced offerings where a simple logo print is added for a small fee. In reality, producing a bespoke dial from scratch is a labour-intensive, multi-step process that requires specialised skills and equipment. Each stage – from initial design adjustments to final assembly – carries significant time and expense. This article breaks down every step of crafting a custom dial, highlighting the hours involved and cost implications (using a typical labor rate of ~€25/hour for skilled work, unless otherwise noted). We also factor in material costs, tooling, taxes, and even the amortisation of expensive equipment like lasers and pad printers. The goal is to illustrate why a truly custom dial cannot be produced for mere pocket change, and to compare these real costs with market expectations to underscore the disparity.
Below, we examine each step of the custom dial-making process in detail:
Design Adjustments and Preparation of Artwork
Even if a customer provides a design or logo, the design adjustment phase is crucial. Rarely is a customer-supplied design ready for manufacturing without tweaks. The artwork must be converted into a high-resolution vector format and scaled to the exact dimensions of the dial (often ~28-32mm in diameter for wristwatches). Details like hand hole positions, date window, or indices need to be accounted for in the layout. The designer may need to adjust line thicknesses (so that engravings or prints will be legible at scale) and ensure contrast or colors are planned appropriately. This process often takes on the order of 1-2 hours of skilled work for a straightforward design, more if complex graphics are involved or if the artwork must be created from a sketch or low-quality image.
It’s important to note that professional printing and engraving services typically charge a high fee for artwork preparation. For example, one industrial pad-printing service quotes about $100 per hour for any file changes or design work needed before production. In a small custom workshop, the rate might effectively be around €20-€30 per hour for the artisan’s time, which means design prep alone could represent ~€25-€50 in labor. Even with the design “provided” by the customer, it needs to be checked and often redrawn or reformatted – so this step cannot be skipped or done for free. If multiple revisions are required (perhaps the customer wants to see a digital mockup or tweak the design), the time can add up.
Cost implication: At a modest €25/hour, an hour of design adjustment costs about €25. More complex edits or consultations can double that. If a professional graphic designer’s help is needed, costs may be higher. However, to keep our analysis conservative, we’ll assume roughly €25-€50 for this stage in most cases. (Bear in mind this doesn’t yet include any physical materials – it’s purely labor and software usage. Design software licenses and computer equipment are part of overhead, but we won’t even fully go into those minor costs here.)
File Preparation for Laser Engraving (LightBurn Setup)
Once the design is finalized, the next step is preparing the files for the laser engraving machine. In many custom dial workshops, software like LightBurn is used to interface with the laser. The design (usually in vector form, such as an SVG or DXF file) must be imported into the laser software and arranged correctly. The technician will define toolpaths or engraving settings: for example, setting the laser power, speed, frequency, and number of passes needed to engrave the dial’s material to the desired depth and texture. They must also position the design within the bounds of the dial blank and account for any fixtures or jigs that hold the dial in place during engraving.
This setup phase often includes a test run on a scrap piece or inconspicuous area, especially if the material or design is new. Dial materials (often brass or aluminum, and sometimes with a plating) can respond differently to laser settings, so dialing in the correct parameters ensures a clean result. Testing might involve engraving small sample patterns to check depth and contrast. All of this means additional time spent before the final dial is engraved.
Typically, one might spend 30-60 minutes in the laser software and performing test engravings to get everything right. This includes tasks like focusing the laser to the correct height, defining multiple layers in LightBurn if some parts of the design require different settings (for instance, lighter markings versus deep engraved areas), and aligning the artwork precisely (a tiny misalignment on a 30mm dial can ruin the piece). There’s also the consideration of LightBurn’s license cost (around €60 one-time) – a minor expense amortized over all jobs, but still part of the toolkit needed.
Cost implication: Assuming about 0.5-1.0 hour for file prep and testing, we’re looking at roughly €12-€25 in labor. This doesn’t include the wear on the laser tube/fiber source or electricity (the latter is small, but the former – the laser hardware – is expensive and its use contributes to its limited life). We’ll account for equipment amortization separately later, but it’s worth noting here that setting up the job uses valuable machine time and expertise. All in all, by the time we even begin engraving the actual dial, we could already have spent a couple of hours of work (design + laser setup), corresponding to perhaps €40-€75 in costs so far.
Laser Engraving the Dial Design
Now comes one of the core steps: laser engraving the design onto the dial. Using a high-precision laser (often a fiber laser for metal dials), the previously prepared digital file is executed on the physical dial. The laser beam vaporizes or ablates the metal surface in specific areas to create text, logos, indices, or patterns. This can produce extremely fine details – far finer than could easily be achieved by mechanical engraving by hand, which is why lasers are popular for custom dial work.
A custom laser-engraved watch dial featuring a two-tone design (a brass eagle motif revealed under a white painted background). Creating such intricate, multi-tone effects requires precise laser work and careful coordination of plating and engraving steps.
The time the laser takes to engrave depends on the complexity and area of the design. In most real-world custom dials, especially those involving recessed areas or multiple passes, engraving can take 1 to 2 hours in total, not just a few minutes. It is an intensive process both in terms of machine time and attention. The maker typically stays close to the machine to monitor alignment, avoid overheating, and ensure repeatable results across different zones of the dial.
After engraving, there’s often a bit of post-processing: removing any soot or oxide residue from the engraved areas, possibly brushing the engraved sections with a fiberglass brush or ultrasonic cleaning to get rid of particles. At this point, the raw dial is ready for polishing or plating.
While the machine is doing the engraving, the operator’s direct labor might be less (they could theoretically step away briefly), but in a small shop usually the maker will monitor the process to ensure nothing goes wrong (laser settings can sometimes produce unwanted coloration or the piece could shift if not fixtured well, etc.). After engraving, there’s often a bit of post-processing: removing any soot or oxide residue from the engraved areas, possibly brushing the engraved sections with a fiberglass brush or ultrasonic cleaning to get rid of particles. If the engraving revealed the brass beneath a plating (as in the image above), the dial might need a gentle polish to make the brass areas shine and the silver areas contrast nicely (without stripping the plating).
It’s worth emphasizing the equipment cost here: A fiber laser capable of fine engraving is a significant investment. Such a machine can easily cost on the order of €3,000-€10,000 (or more for higher-powered or very high-resolution models). This cost isn’t consumed in one dial, of course, but it must be recouped over the many jobs it performs. If we crudely amortize, imagine the laser will be used for ~5 years and perhaps make a few thousand dials or parts in that time; the amortization per dial might be on the order of a few euros (for example, €5,000 over 5 years might be ~€3 per working hour of machine use if heavily used, or higher if usage is sparse). We’ll include a bit of this overhead in our final tally.
Labor & time for engraving Cost implication: With 1-2 hours of engraving required, we can estimate €25-€50 in labor, plus additional costs for machine wear and consumables (~€5). The engraving cost is therefore roughly €30-€55 per dial, depending on complexity.
(Up to this point, if we sum the rough costs: design €25, software setup €15, surface prep €50, engraving €50 – we’re already in the neighborhood of €140 before even applying any printed details or final assembly. This running total aligns with the idea that a custom dial entails far more work than meets the eye.)
Dial Surface Preparation: Cleaning, Polishing, and Optional Plating
Before any engraving or printing happens, the dial blank itself must be properly prepared. Most custom dials start as a flat piece of metal (commonly brass for its workability and good finish qualities, or sometimes steel or titanium for specific projects). The surface preparation involves several sub-steps:
- Cleaning: The raw dial (or brass stock) should be free of oils, dust, or oxidation. Handling the metal with gloves, degreasing it with a solvent or ultrasonic cleaner, and ensuring no fingerprints remain is important. Any contamination can affect engraving quality or plating adhesion.
- Polishing/Finishing: Depending on the design, the dial might need to be polished to a mirror shine or given a specific texture (brushed, matte, sunburst, etc.). For instance, if a silvered dial is desired, one might polish the brass to a high shine before plating. If a sunburst effect is wanted, a radial brushing on a lathe might be done. These finishing techniques are time-consuming: hand-polishing a dial to a mirror finish, for example, can easily take 20-30 minutes of careful work with progressively finer abrasives and polishing compounds. Any mistake (like over-polishing and rounding the edges, or introducing scratches) means starting over.
- Silver Electroplating (Optional): Many custom dials are electroplated to achieve a certain color or material finish. Silver-plating a brass dial is a popular choice to get that classic bright silver-white dial look (common in vintage watches) without using actual silver metal for the whole dial. If plating is requested, it introduces additional steps: the dial must first be “activated” (often given a quick acid bath or electro-clean to ensure the surface is chemically ready), then immersed in a silver plating solution with proper anodes/cathodes, and a current applied. The plating itself might only take a few minutes to deposit a thin layer of silver, but setting up the plating bath, rinsing, and later polishing the plated surface takes effort. Plating chemicals (like a silver cyanide or other silver salt solution) are expensive, and though the amount of silver that ends up on one dial is tiny (fractions of a gram), the solution and equipment costs must be considered. The process also requires careful handling for safety and environmental reasons, adding to overhead.
Cleaning and polishing a dial might be roughly 0.5 hour of labor. If we include silver electroplating, add perhaps another 0.5 hour for the plating process (including setup and cleanup). Let’s say in total about 1 hour for surface prep if plating is done (or 30 minutes if just cleaning/polishing without plating). Material costs here include things like polishing compounds (negligible per piece) and plating chemicals (a small portion of a €100+ plating kit, maybe a few euros worth per dial in silver). There’s also wear on polishing tools or the cost of plating gear – again, part of overhead.
Cost implication: Approximately €12-€25 in labor for cleaning/polishing, plus perhaps €12-€25 if plating is included (since plating might be done by the same skilled worker, we count it in labor). That’s up to €50 labor for this stage in a plated scenario. Add a few euros for consumables (let’s estimate €5 for the silver solution and other materials per dial). We’re now possibly around €50-€55 additional cost at this point (or a bit less if no plating). The dial at this stage is a blank canvas: polished and maybe silver-coated, ready for the real artistry.
Pad Printing: Creating the Cliché (Printing Plate for Dial Details)
Many watch dials, even after engraving, require additional printed details. These could include the brand logo, model name, minute track, or other markings that are best done in paint on the surface (often in a contrasting color). For example, a dial might be engraved with texture but still need painted hour indices or a logo on a smooth portion. The traditional method to add such details is pad printing (also known as tampography).
Pad printing is a process where ink is transferred from an etched plate (called a cliché) onto the dial via a soft silicone pad. For each unique design (say a logo or text layout), a custom cliché must be made. In our custom dial scenario, we likely need a one-off cliché with the customer’s specific text or logo.
Making the cliché is a significant setup cost for printing. The cliché is typically a thin piece of steel (or photopolymer in some cases) with the design chemically etched or laser-engraved into it. A common size for small prints (like watch dials) might be around 50×50 mm stainless steel plates. If outsourced, getting a steel cliché etched can cost in the range of €70 from AliExpress, around €200 within the EU, or up to €600 from Swiss manufacturers — depending on the source, material, and etching method. This wide range directly influences the economics of one-off pad printing. At TheDialmaker, we used to source clichés from within the EU — Swiss-made ones were far too expensive, while the etched plates from China often didn’t meet the quality we needed for our setup. Now, we produce our own clichés in-house, which gives us full control over the process and consistency.
In a small workshop, the dial maker might choose to create the cliché in-house to save on outsourcing costs, but it still incurs time and materials. There are two main ways to make a pad printing plate in-house:
- Photochemical Etching: Coat the steel plate with a UV-sensitive resist, expose it with the artwork (usually printed on a transparency) under UV light, develop it, and chemically etch the exposed design. This requires tools like UV lamps, chemicals (acid etchant), and is time-consuming for one plate, often 30+ minutes of active work and more in waiting/processing.
- Laser Engraving the Plate: If you have a very fine laser (and the right type of plate), you might directly engrave the design onto the plate. Some modern pad printing plates are designed to be laser-engraved. Using the same fiber laser (with adjusted settings) or a special CO₂ laser on a polymer plate could etch the image. This saves some chemical mess, but it still takes machine time and testing to get the right depth. And this is what we do now at TheDialmaker – we only use stainless steel laser-engraved clichés
Either way, creating a new plate for a single dial’s design could easily occupy 30–60 minutes of work (and requires materials like the blank plate itself, which might cost €15–€20, plus any chemicals or wear on the laser). It’s a one-time cost that can be amortized over multiple dials if you were printing a batch. But for a truly one-off dial, all that effort goes into just one piece. As one commenter succinctly put it, pad printing has a high setup cost and “is not designed for one-off printing.” If you only want one piece, expect to pay on the order of $50 or more just for the printing step. In fact, some have been quoted even higher: one watch enthusiast noted they were quoted $160 to pad print a single dial design by a professional – a price reflecting the labor to make the plate and set up the machine (not an uncommon figure given the complexity).
To keep our analysis grounded, let’s assume the dial maker does the cliché in-house, taking perhaps 0.5 hours. That’s ~€12.5 labor, plus let’s say €10 for the plate and misc. materials. This is a conservative estimate; if outsourced, it might be a flat €40–€70 charge just for the plate. But we’ll use the in-house scenario for cost breakdown purposes.
Cost implication (cliché creation): Roughly €20–€30 (labor + materials) for making a pad print plate for the custom dial. This cost is incurred even if you’re just printing a tiny logo or a single line of text. It’s largely independent of quantity, meaning whether you print 1 dial or 50 dials with that plate, you still pay this upfront cost. This is why printing one single dial is so disproportionately expensive per piece.
We should note that some modern alternatives exist: e.g., UV direct printing or decals, which bypass the need for a cliché. In fact, the reason some factories or modding companies can offer a custom logo for as low as ~$30 is often because they use UV printing or digital methods instead of traditional pad printing, thereby avoiding the plate cost. However, UV printing on dials might not match the quality and durability of pad printing, and many high-end or traditional dial finishes still rely on pad printing for its crisp results. For the purpose of this article, we’re focusing on the traditional approach to achieve a factory-like quality.
Pad Printing: Ink Mixing and Dial Printing Process
With the cliché made, the actual pad printing process can begin. This stage also involves multiple steps and careful execution:
- Ink Mixing: Watch dial printing uses special enamel or epoxy inks that adhere to metal and can last for decades. These often come as a base ink plus a hardener, and sometimes a thinner or retarder. For a one-off print, a very small quantity of ink (a few milliliters) must be mixed – enough to fill the pad printer’s ink cup or to cover the cliché area. Mixing a custom color (if not just black or white) can be an art in itself. If a precise shade is needed and the standard colors don’t match, the artisan might have to blend pigments or use a Pantone formula. In an industrial scenario, a Pantone color match might incur an extra fee (e.g., $114 for a custom ink mix plus purchasing a batch of that ink). In a small shop, they might mix by eye in small amounts. This takes time – perhaps 10–15 minutes to measure, mix, and adjust the ink, and to add the appropriate thinner so it has the right consistency to transfer cleanly.
- Machine Setup: The pad printing machine (which could be a manual setup or a semi-automatic one) needs to be configured. The etched plate is secured in the machine and the ink cup (or ink well) is placed over it to flood the etched design with ink. A silicone pad of appropriate size and hardness is chosen and mounted. There’s also often a need for a fixture or jig to hold the dial in a repeatable position so that when the pad comes down, it stamps the correct spot. For a single dial, a custom-made fixture might be as simple as a bit of clay or double-sided tape on a block, but even aligning that correctly under the pad requires attention. If the workshop regularly makes dials of a certain size, they may have a reusable jig that centers the dial under the pad. Otherwise, aligning the dial by hand for a one-off print can be fiddly.
- Test Print: Just like with engraving, a test is wise. The dial maker might do a test print on a piece of paper or a spare dial (if available) to check that the logo/text comes out sharp and in the right position. It’s not uncommon to do a couple of trial impressions, adjusting the pad pressure or ink if needed. If the print isn’t picking up properly, the ink might be too thick or too thin, requiring adjustments.
- Printing the Dial: With everything set, the actual dial is printed. The pad presses into the inked cliché, then down onto the dial, transferring the design. This part is over in seconds. However, if a second pass is needed (for example, some printers do two hits to build up opaque color, or if a mistake happened on the first try and the ink was cleaned off), it could take a bit longer. Usually, you aim to nail it in one go to avoid registration issues. For multi-color designs, multiple clichés and pads would be needed (increasing complexity dramatically), but let’s assume a single color print for our custom dial (most often it’s black or white text/logos).
- Drying/Curing: Once printed, the dial might need to dry. Some dial inks air-dry in 10-30 minutes; others might be baked at low heat to fully cure. The time the piece sits drying isn’t active labor, but it does mean you can’t handle or proceed with that dial until the ink sets. In a one-off scenario, this just adds a bit of waiting.
- Cleanup: After printing, the remaining ink in the cup should be cleaned out and the pad wiped, especially if it’s a 2-part ink that will harden. Solvents are used to clean the cliché and cup. The pad printer must be reset to neutral. Cleanup can take another 5-10 minutes.
All told, the active time spent on the pad printing stage (including ink prep, setup, printing, and cleanup) is on the order of 30 minutes to 1 hour for one dial. Let’s say roughly 0.5 hours (30 minutes) of actual labor if things go smoothly. In practice, it could easily be longer if any troubleshooting is needed. For example, printing extremely fine text might require tweaking the ink or making multiple attempts. But we’ll use 0.5 h for our estimate.
From a cost perspective, if we’ve already accounted for the cliché creation separately, this 0.5 h of printing labor is another ~€12.5 (at €25/h). Material costs here include the ink (a few euros’ worth at most for a tiny quantity) and perhaps some pad wear (pads last a long time, but eventually need replacing). We might assign €2-€5 for consumables used in printing (ink, solvent, etc.).
It’s interesting to compare how cost per piece drops if you were doing more than one dial: Once the plate is made and the ink mixed, printing additional dials in the same session is relatively quick. The first dial might effectively cost €50+ (plate + setup), but each additional one might only cost ~€15 as one community member observed. However, for a one-off, you don’t have that luxury – you’re bearing the full setup for a single item.
Cost implication (printing stage): Approximately €15–€20 (like €12.5 labor + a few euros materials) for the actual pad printing step for one dial. This, combined with the cliché-making cost, means adding a custom logo or text via pad printing on a single dial can easily be in the €60–€70 range of cost. Indeed, when hobbyists see quotes of about $30 extra to add a custom logo on a dial, that’s actually a bargain made possible by volume or alternative tech – traditional pad printing of one-off logos usually costs notably more.
By now, if we tally our cumulative cost approximation, we’re on the order of €210 in total. Let’s recap the running total in a simple breakdown before the final step:
- Design & File Prep: ~€40 (design adjustments ~€25 + laser setup ~€15)
- Polishing & Plating: ~€50 (labor) + ~€5 (materials)
- Laser Engraving: ~€50 (labor+equipment)
- Pad Printing: ~€50 (cliché making) + ~€15 (printing labor/material)
- Subtotal so far: ≈ €210 in combined labor, materials, and equipment usage costs.
This subtotal is already far above the naive €20–€30 expectation some might have. And we have one more crucial step to go: attaching the dial feet.
Soldering the Dial Feet
A watch dial is not just a decorated disc; it typically needs tiny support posts (dial feet) on its underside to secure it to the watch movement. These dial feet are usually located to match specific movement plate holes – for example, many dials for Seiko movements have two feet at particular angles. When creating a custom dial, especially if starting from a plain brass blank, you’ll need to add these feet manually after finishing the dial face (doing it after ensures they don’t interfere with engraving or printing, and they won’t accidentally get in the way of flat processing like laser work).
Soldering dial feet is a delicate task:
- Preparation: The positions for the feet must be measured and marked accurately on the back of the dial. This often involves using the target movement or a template as a guide. If the positions are off by even a millimeter, the feet might not fit into the movement, or the dial could be rotated incorrectly when installed.
- The foot pins themselves are usually tiny pieces of brass rod, often ~1 mm in diameter and a few millimeters long. The ends might be slightly flattened or notched to help secure them.
- Soldering: A common method is to use a soldering iron or micro-torch with a jeweler’s solder. The dial is usually placed face-down on a clean surface (sometimes on a piece of charcoal or a soldering board). Flux is applied to the spot, a tiny chip of solder is placed, and then the brass foot is set in position. Heat is applied until the solder flows, bonding the foot to the dial. This must be done carefully: too much heat can discolor or damage the dial’s finish on the other side (for instance, it could burn the plating or paint if the dial got too hot). Ideally, a low-melting-point solder is used to minimize heat (for example, some use soft solder alloys that melt around 150-200°C).
- Some watch dial makers use a resistance soldering unit, which localizes heat very precisely to the joint, further protecting the dial’s face. Others might even use laser welding for dial feet in high-end settings. But for our scenario, let’s assume a careful hand-soldering job.
- In our workshop, we use a dedicated dial feet soldering machine, which ensures precise, localized heating and reduces the risk of damaging the dial face. This method is more repeatable and safer for delicate dials than general-purpose soldering tools.
- Cleanup: After soldering, any flux residue must be cleaned off (often with isopropyl alcohol or a specialized flux remover). The solder joint might be inspected and lightly filed if there’s excess solder blob (ensuring a flush fit on the movement). The front of the dial is checked to ensure no visible effect (hopefully none, if done right). If any discoloration occurred, it might require a gentle polish or touch-up.
Aligning and soldering two tiny feet might sound quick, but in practice it can take 10-15 minutes or more, especially to ensure precision. The artisan will likely do a test fit of the dial on the actual movement after soldering, to make sure everything lines up and the dial sits correctly. If a foot is misplaced, one may need to desolder and redo it (which is tedious and can risk cosmetic damage). Thus, careful measurement initially is key.
Materials: The brass foot pins are very cheap – perhaps a few cents each (or often recycled from donor dials or made from brass stock). Solder and flux cost is negligible for two tiny joints. So material cost here is minimal (<< €1). It’s really the labor and skill that matter.
Cost implication: Let’s estimate about 0.25 h of skilled labor to attach the dial feet properly, which at €25/h is roughly €6. In many ways, this might be considered part of assembly overhead rather than a separately billed item, but it is indeed a necessary step in the one-off process that takes time. (Some cheap custom dial offerings actually skip this: for example, they might deliver the dial without feet, expecting the end-user to use adhesive dial dots to attach it to the movement, which is a shortcut used in some modding communities to avoid soldering. However, using glue instead of proper dial feet is a makeshift solution and not as robust or precise. Here we’re assuming a quality-focused approach with proper dial feet soldered on.)
With dial feet attached, the custom dial is finally complete: it’s been designed, engraved, printed, and fitted for installation. Now, let’s sum up all these stages clearly and then discuss the total in context.
(Note: While we’ve listed dial feet soldering last for the sake of economic breakdown, in our actual workflow it takes place immediately after laser engraving, before polishing and printing.)
Summary of Time and Cost Breakdown per Dial
Below is a breakdown of each major stage in the custom dial-making process, with rough estimates of the time involved and the corresponding costs. We use a labor rate of €25/hour for calculations (a reasonable rate for skilled craftsmanship, though some specialists might charge more). Material and equipment costs are estimated for each step where applicable. Note that these figures are approximate and will vary with complexity, but they illustrate the order of magnitude of effort required:
| Stage | Labor Cost | Material/Tooling Cost | Total | Notes |
| Design & File Prep | €25 + €15 | – | €40 | Design adjustments + laser setup |
| Polishing & Plating | €50 | €5 | €55 | Manual polishing and silver electroplating |
| Laser Engraving | €50 | – | €50 | Engraving on raw brass (1–2 hours) |
| Pad Printing | €30 | €35 | €65 | Cliché making + ink mixing/printing |
| Dial Feet Soldering | €6.25 | €1 | €7.25 | Feet attachment with precision soldering tool |
| Total | €176.25 | €21 | €217.25 | Approximate real production cost for one dial |
Table: Rough time and cost breakdown for a single custom dial (one-off). Labor is calculated at €25/hour. Material costs include consumables and one-time use items. (Equipment amortization and business overhead are addressed below.)
As shown above, the direct labor time for a one-off custom dial easily reaches 6–7 hours, even with a fairly straightforward design and single-color printing. At a skilled labor rate of €25/hour, this adds up to about €175–€180 in labor costs, including design prep, polishing, engraving, pad printing, and soldering. Add to that around €20–€25 in consumable materials — like polishing compounds, plating chemicals, ink, solvents, and a share of the cliché — and the real out-of-pocket production cost is roughly €205–€240 per dial.
But we’re still not done – to get a true picture of the price, we must consider equipment wear, overhead, and taxes or margins. The figures above largely reflect production cost to the maker, not the final price to a customer.
• Equipment Amortization:
Tools like a fiber laser and a pad printer don’t last forever — they cost thousands to acquire and must be maintained. In our calculation, we included only symbolic “laser wear” for engraving, but in reality, the business might allocate €5–€10 per dial to cover the depreciation and eventual replacement of equipment like the laser source, pads, clichés, or fume extractors.
• General Overhead:
Running a workshop involves many small but necessary costs: electricity, consumables, workspace rent, safety gear, customer support time, packaging, and post-sales care. These overheads, while hard to itemize for a single dial, can easily add €10–€20 per piece to cover the full business burden.
• Taxes and Fees:
If the maker operates as a business, sales tax/VAT is a legal obligation. In many EU countries, this adds around 21% to the final price. For example, if the production and overhead costs bring the dial to €220, and a modest margin is added, the retail price may be €260–€270, of which about €40–€50 goes directly to taxes. Payment processor fees (2–4%) or marketplace commissions can also reduce what the maker actually receives.
Finally, a business must include a profit margin — not just to reward the maker’s skill and time, but also to allow for reinvestment into better tools, future development, or simply to keep the workshop running sustainably. Even a modest 20% markup on a €200 production cost brings the price to €240, and when VAT (e.g. 21%) is applied on top, the final customer price could easily reach €290-€300.
It becomes clear that a realistic price for a truly custom, one-off watch dial often lands in the €250-€350 range, depending on complexity and printing. This aligns with anecdotal evidence: enthusiasts who have approached dial manufacturers or print shops for a single prototype often receive quotes in the hundreds of euros or dollars. For example, one user was quoted $200 to $750 by different suppliers for a single custom dial sample. These high quotes reflect the same reality we’ve detailed here: the setup time, design processing, and tool calibration are substantial, even for one dial.
As one watch community commenter famously summarized:
“One dial, two grand. A thousand dials, five grand.”
In other words, when you ask for a single dial, you’re absorbing nearly all the setup costs that would normally be spread over a full production run. That’s the true price of bespoke craftsmanship.
Why a Custom Dial Isn’t €20-€30: Expectations vs. Reality
By now, the cost disparity should be evident. The expectation of a €30 custom dial usually comes from seeing mass-market solutions or simplified customization options. For example, some Chinese watch brands and modding services will let customers add a custom text or logo onto a dial for an extra $20-$30. However, it’s crucial to understand what those offerings entail: typically, the customer is buying a watch or a batch of dials, and the manufacturer is simply swapping a logo on an otherwise standard dial design. They likely achieve this low cost by either printing the logo with a quick digital method (like UV inkjet printing) or by already having a pad printing setup running for that model and just changing the cliché for the logo. In essence, the base dial is not custom-made for €30 – only the branding is, and it’s done in the context of a larger production workflow.
In contrast, a ground-up custom dial like we detailed involves making something from scratch, to the customer’s specifications, not piggybacking on an existing production line. It’s the difference between ordering a stock car with a custom paint job versus commissioning a hand-built car part. The latter will always be more expensive.
Let’s consider a real scenario from an enthusiast community: A user thought getting a single dial made should cost “no more than $50” and was taken aback by quotes of $200+. The replies pointed out that expecting $50 was, frankly, wishful thinking, and the quotes of a couple hundred dollars for a one-off were actually reasonable when you factor in setup costs. Our step-by-step breakdown validates this – even doing everything in-house on a small scale, the cost of labor and materials adds up to well over $50. And this was still at Alibaba – AliExpress level.
Another common comparison: dial refinishing services (for restoring vintage watches or changing dial color) often charge on the order of $100-$200 per dial. That might not even involve custom artwork, but just repainting and printing an existing design. The price is driven by the painstaking work to strip and refinish a dial and the low volume nature of the work. Custom creation is at least as costly, if not more.
For those wondering “but how can Brand X do it so cheap?”, the answer is usually economies of scale or alternative methods. If a factory is already set up to print hundreds of dials, adding one more with a different logo is trivial – the machines are in place, workers are on salary, and materials are bought in bulk. The incremental cost is low, so they can charge $30 and still cover the minor extra labor (one Reddit user noted that $30 was actually pretty good for a first-time pad print given that the shop likely will reuse the plate for any future orders). However, if you approached the same factory to make just one dial design that they’ve never done before, they’d charge you all the setup: custom plate, minimum paint quantity, machine calibration – hence quotes like $200 or $750 for a one-off sample.
It’s also worth noting quality and scope differences. A €30 add-on logo might be a single-color print on an otherwise standard dial base. Our custom dial example included extras like engraving, plating, etc. Each additional complexity (multi-color prints, lume application, guilloché patterns, exotic materials like mother-of-pearl) would further raise the cost. So a €300 price could climb higher for more intricate requests.
Bottom line: A truly custom dial is an artisanal, almost miniature-manufacturing project. The perceived simplicity (“it’s just a small disc, how expensive could it be?”) belies the many hours of design and fabrication work behind it. Expecting it to cost the same as a mass-produced dial (which benefits from division of labor and scale) is like expecting a tailor-made suit to cost the same as one off the rack. As the breakdown above shows, even very modest hourly rates and material estimates push the cost well beyond €20-€30.
Value in Craftsmanship
When you pay a few hundred euros for a custom watch dial, what you are really paying for is the time, expertise, and equipment required to turn your unique vision into reality. Each step – design adjustment, laser engraving, hand-finishing, printing, assembly – is done with care and precision on a one-off basis. The final price reflects not only the tangible components (metal, paint, etc.) but the specialized knowledge and setup effort needed at each stage.
For watch enthusiasts, understanding this breakdown provides insight into why custom dial makers charge what they do. It isn’t a matter of huge profit margins or unnecessary steps; it’s that making one dial is almost as much work as making dozens. The economies of scale only kick in when producing in quantity. If a customer only needs a single dial, essentially they bear the full brunt of all the preparation work.
To put it into perspective: imagine a customer’s surprise when their €30 budget doesn’t cover a custom dial — but even if the craftsman only paid themselves minimum wage (~€10/hour) for 6–7 hours of work, that’s already €60-€70 in labor, well over that budget before touching any materials or equipment. In our actual breakdown, we used a modest €25/hour (reasonable for skilled manual work), and arrived at €175-€180 in labor costs alone. This isn’t “extra fluff” — it reflects the real, hands-on time and precision required to design, polish, engrave, print, and solder a truly custom dial.
When comparing services, be sure to compare like for like. A cheap offer might not include certain steps (maybe it’s just a printed overlay or a decal, or the dial feet aren’t attached, etc.). A more expensive service likely ensures a durable, high-quality dial made to spec. For example, The Dialmaker (a custom dial service in Spain done by the author of this article) emphasizes that each dial is handcrafted with lasers and hand-finishing, with no minimum order. Such a service is catering to exactly these one-off or small-run projects, and our pricing has to cover the comprehensive process we discussed. Indeed, paying a couple of hundred euros for a bespoke dial starts to sound reasonable once you know what goes into it.
In summary, the real cost of making a custom watch dial involves much more than the raw materials. It’s a sum of many meticulous steps, each with its own time and expenses. While a mass-produced dial’s cost per unit might be just a few euros when made in the thousands, a one-off dial’s cost is inherently higher because you’re essentially funding a mini production line that runs for just one piece. The next time you see a beautifully crafted custom dial, you’ll now recognize the multitude of stages and the skill behind it – and why that level of personal craftsmanship carries a corresponding price tag.
Ultimately, for those who desire a unique dial that perfectly matches their vision, the cost is justified by the exclusivity and personalization achieved. As the saying goes, “time is money,” and a custom dial involves a significant amount of a craftsman’s time. The result, however, is a watch dial like no other – a piece of functional art that can be the pride of your watch and a testament to genuine horological craftsmanship.
The above cost analysis is informed by real-world data and stories from the watchmaking community. Links to sources were added in the article.
Note: All prices and cost estimates in this article are based on typical workshop economics as of June 2025. Actual costs may vary over time due to changes in material prices, labor rates, taxes, and other business factors.