Faintest of scratches

Boskowski

I was a bit sloppy and scraped off something the other day. Luckily there was s fleece's sleeve over it but I still have a faint scratch on the glass of my omega seamaster which is very annoying. The hazards of every day wear I suppose.

Would you say it's safe to have a go with some polishing paste? Like something you'd buy in a motor factors? Or even softer like something you'd have for your ceramic hob?

Wibbs

Depends on what the crystal is made from B. If it's acrylic then brasso will clear it. If on the other hand it's glass of some kind you either need more power and tougher grinding paste, or in the case of sapphire a new crystal.

peasant

I've heard of people successfully polishing out small scratches from sapphire glass with 3000 grid diamond paste.


...no experience of it myself ...cant afford diamonds, me

Boskowski

Its a glass that was put in by Michael Swift in Scotland. I really have no idea what type it is. I chanced the mildest of polishing paste that I have which was the stuff you use for cleaning your ceran hob. It came out, I really can't see it all. It was very faint to begin with though. Thanks for your suggestions.

fret_wimp2

From experience, I would advise against polishing the crystal yourself, unless you are 100% sure the compound is fine enough and even then, you can polish an angle into the crystal that will be even more annoying than a tiny scratch, especially if its acrylic.

Watches are meant to be worn and unfortunately that means they will occasionally get a bump no matter how well you look after them.

Think of these tiny little scars as personalizations, making the watch your own.


Its an omega meaning it will need a service at some point, back at the mothership. Just wear it proudly until then. in the 5+ years between now and the service it will probably pick up a few more little marks due to it being worn and enjoyed and Omega can then give it a polishing and sort most of it out for you then.

Wibbs

fret_wimp2 wrote: »

From experience, I would advise against polishing the crystal yourself, unless you are 100% sure the compound is fine enough and even then, you can polish an angle into the crystal that will be even more annoying than a tiny scratch, especially if its acrylic.

Watches are meant to be worn and unfortunately that means they will occasionally get a bump no matter how well you look after them.

Think of these tiny little scars as personalizations, making the watch your own.

That's true FW, though for minor scratches in acrylic a compound like polywatch designed for the purpose(or brasso) will take it right out with little risk of crystal distortion. I'd rate minor scratches as those that don't catch a fingernail run across the surface. Beyond that depth you have to be careful and experience comes into it(and screwups). Flat crystals are much easier and the risk of distortion is low. With domed you need to take care and build up experience. My rule is never use powered tools. All by hand. A dremel can bugger a crystal(or case polish) in a matter of seconds. Beyond acrylic you're into a potential world of hurt and lots more time.

There's also the aspect of how rare/hard to find is a replacement crystal. With vintage that can be an issue, especially as we get into the 60's 70's with oddball shapes, even facets. Though 20's and 30's examples can be equally hard to source. One of the biggest mistakes I made in this watch lark was throwing away my 30's pilot watch crystal because it was heavily scratched. Now I now I could have polished it out. The original crystal being glass, flat and 4 odd mm thick would have given me plenty of wriggle room. Near zero hope of finding an NOS replacement.

If your watch is ten years old or less then a new crystal is the safest bet and it'll likely be glass/sapphire so polishing would be out anyway.

Its an omega meaning it will need a service at some point, back at the mothership.

TBH and personally speaking, this I would not do, not unless it's again a new enough watch. The manufacturers are major rip off artists(often with long waiting times) with servicing and it's worse they're getting. If it's a vintage I'd always seek out independents to service it. The only way it would be going back to the mothership would be in the case where an indy couldn't source a part. Unlikely as in most examples the model and certainly the movement was rattled out on industrial scales.

Omega can be pricey(and can take time to get your watch back), but they're not nearly the worst for it. A crowd like TAG Heuer can be near farcical. EG on another forum there was a chap with a 70's Heuer "BUND" chronograph. It had a problem common to the model - I have the same issue myself - where the winding stem/keyless works had an issue. Now the BUND, like most vintage Heuers, had a bought in movement(Valjoux 230), so spares are easy to source. BUND specific spares far less so, but that's another day's work. Cousins in the UK price the parts required to fix the problem at under 15 quid. On the Bay you'd get them for 20-30. German BUND specialists will charge between 250-300 for a full stripdown service and case polishing(minus parts required).

TAG? They wanted 3000 quid to service/repair the watch. No that is not a typo, nor did my finger slip on the zero key. Three thousand quid. Though prices have strengthened for these you'll get another working BUND for that money, likely with change and flog the "broken" one for 2000(and someone would be getting a good price at that). There was a guy on WUS who was waiting nearly a year to get his TAG back from a service and the posts that followed suggested long waits from many manufacturers was not uncommon. That's before we get to situations like Rolex replacing parts wholesale on vintage examples and massively affecting their value.

In short, with vintage go independent, support these lads and lasses. Hell even with a 5 year old watch if it has an ETA engine I'd be sending it to an indy like watch repairs.ie. As I said my Heuer BUND needs a service and as soon as the German postal strike is over it's going there to a chap who was specifically servicing these watches for the German military for over 20 years(apparently still does as they are still used in some specialised applications). 250 quid. Compared to 3000 for a generic service? Eh… No brainer IMH.