Adding feet to dial
 

I have found a NOS dial that I want, but the feet on the back are missing. Can they be replaced without damaging the front of the dial?

I've had to add dial feet or just one foot in the past, but it can be tricky. If you inspect the back of the dial where the two dial feet go, you will see a round area where the foot was originally welded to the plate. Those areas have to be sanded perfectly flat. Then new dial feet with their notch at the base have to be laser welded to the plate in the exact locations of the original feet. There cannot be any or very little solder around the base of the foot where it attaches to the dial or the dial will not sit flush to the movement. Layering dial feet is the most professional way to restore your dial, I don't think it's wise to attach a dial without feet.

Hope this helps, post a pic if you can.

The above post is the most correct way. I had a phase in college where I would mod seiko watches, so I learned certain tricks to cobble things together. I've seen dial feet with a flat head on them so they are like a miniature nail, and you would attach it to a prepared dial with epoxy. This option is obviously not something they would teach in cw21 courses, but if you have the clearance and the patience it can be workable. Worse yet, google "dial dots" (I'm fully ashamed of myself for bringing this up on a Rolex forum.) they will only work on nodate pieces, but they can work.

I'm unsure of the application or particulars, maybe post pics?

I was always taught that the heat from soldering new feet on will damage the dial paint. Is this incorrect?

I would imagine it would, laser welding is probably okay, but I wouldn't take a regular soldering iron to it.