Color Guide

Color Options
for Your
Custom Dial

Choose between a clean painted finish or a premium annealed metal finish. Both can look excellent, but they behave very differently in sunlight, cost, and production time.

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Short version Paint is the practical default. Annealing is the premium choice when you want a metallic finish that reacts to light.
Our recommendation

Most customers should start with painted color.

Painted color is more affordable, easier to predict, and gives you the closest match to the shade you choose in the customizer.

Annealed color is best when the goal is a metal-first finish: reflective, lively, and more luxurious in direct sunlight. It costs more because it takes more testing and setup to do correctly.

Painted vs Annealed

Two ways to get color on a dial

The best choice depends on whether you want a predictable solid color or a metallic finish that changes with the light.

Practical default

Painted Coloring

A painted finish adds color on top of the prepared dial surface. It is the simplest way to get a clean, consistent look across a wide range of colors.

  • PriceLowest-cost color option for most orders.
  • SunlightLooks solid and predictable. It does not have the same metallic flash as annealing.
  • Best forExact colors, brand colors, bright reds, deep purples, and clean high-contrast designs.
  • Extra workSurface prep, careful application, curing, and protective finishing.
Premium metal finish

Annealed Coloring

Annealing uses heat from a precision laser to change the surface of the metal. The color comes from how light reflects through that surface, not from a layer of paint.

  • PricePremium option because it needs more laser setup and test passes.
  • SunlightShines and shifts with the angle. This is the finish paint cannot truly copy.
  • Best forMetallic blues, golds, bronzes, purples, and designs where light movement matters.
  • Extra workMaterial testing, laser tuning, sample validation, and slower production.
Macro view of a reflective custom dial finish
In the Sun

Paint stays steady. Annealing comes alive.

Paint is ideal when you want the color to look almost the same indoors, outdoors, and in photos. Annealing is different. It can look deeper, brighter, or more reflective depending on the angle of the light.

Painted

Think of a luxury car finish: clean, controlled, and easy to understand. The color is chosen for consistency.

Annealed

Think of heated metal or a watch part catching sunlight. The appeal is the metallic glow, not perfect color matching.

Laser Annealing Limits

Some annealed colors need more flexibility

Paint can match a wide range of colors. These limits are about laser anneal coloring, where the shade comes from how light reflects off the heated metal surface.

Red, deep green, and deep purple need flexibility

With laser annealing on stainless steel and titanium, red can lean warmer toward orange or copper, deep green can shift toward teal or a lighter green, and deep purple can come out lighter or more violet. Paint is still the better choice when an exact shade is required.

Material changes the result

Stainless steel and titanium give the best annealed color range. Brass, gold, aluminum, copper, silver, and other metals can be more limited, so we review those requests more carefully.

Red color sample
Orange color sample
Yellow color sample
Green color sample
Deep green color sample
Cyan color sample
Light blue color sample
Deep blue color sample
Purple color sample
Deep purple color sample
Why It Costs Different

The finish changes the workflow

Painted and annealed finishes both need care, but annealing requires more laser testing before the final dial can be made confidently.

01

Painted finish

We prepare the surface, apply the color, allow it to cure, and protect the finish. This keeps the process efficient and makes the final color easier to predict.

02

Annealed finish

We test the material, tune the laser settings, check how the color behaves in light, and adjust before final production. That extra work is why annealed coloring is a premium option.

Need help choosing?

Start with your design. We can help with the finish.

If you are unsure whether painted or annealed is better, send the idea through the customizer. The PiDials team can help turn it into a free digital mockup before you place your order.

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