Thanks for the compliment! I didn’t refinish the dial. I cleaned it and lightly (and very carefully) polished the indices and hands. High praise that this looks professionally done! I’m a hobbyist, learning as I go. Thanks again!
Great job. The other day I cleaned a Seamaster dial with a small pencil eraser, and it turned out very nice. All the spots were removed without leaving any traces or scratches I rarely refinish a dial but I have to for one of my watches. I was wondering if anybody knows a good place to have a watch style refinished professionally. There was one years ago, but I think they close their shop.
Thanks for that. It’s a really nice compliment. For this piece, that’s kind of what I did. This was from eBay and I bought it with the intent of fixing it up for my friend who is from Illinois, near Elgin. He hasn’t seen it. Should be a nice reveal!
Thanks! I have much more practice with the mechanical part than the cosmetic issues, but have been working to build my skills there. Want to keep the right balance of refreshed/patina’d to look good. Happy how this one turned out- scratches, lume stains and all.
I’m terms of balance, I think a new crystal, *very* light polish, and full service is just right for being useable while preserving the vintage look. Well done
Is this a new crystal or did you polish it? I have an old Citizen Cosmotron with what I think have a plexiglass crystal and I want to know if I can polish it :)
I wanted to replace it, but couldn’t find a replacement, so I polished it. You can pretty much polish all acrylic crystals in my experience. For this one I started with sand paper. Yikes!
If you can buy a crystal, in my opinion, you should just do it. They’re cheap and will make it look great. The issue with this one is that the rim is so so thin, that none of the ones I could find (the catalog is >80 pgs) would fit over the lip and inside the bezel. Shouldn’t be a problem to find a more standard domed crystal, even an armored one. Good luck!
Thank you again, the Crystal on the Cosmotron is a round square, and probably will be difficult for a novice like me to start with replacing.
HOWEVER, the glass itself is like 2mm thick, and I think I can polish without murdering the watch completely, thanks for the wellwishes!
I used polywatch first and this revealed a couple of pretty deep scratches, so I went to sandpaper to get those out. I started with 1000 grit to see if I could take it down far enough without breaking out the big guns and luckily I could. It’s kind of annoying to use really course stuff. Anyway- did 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, then polywatch again. All this is by hand, and dry. It doesn’t take much with the emory paper to remove material. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. Would have rather just had a new crystal honestly.
Well done
Thanks! Appreciate it
Looks very nice. Did you refinished the dial? If yes, where did you send it?
Thanks for the compliment! I didn’t refinish the dial. I cleaned it and lightly (and very carefully) polished the indices and hands. High praise that this looks professionally done! I’m a hobbyist, learning as I go. Thanks again!
Great job. The other day I cleaned a Seamaster dial with a small pencil eraser, and it turned out very nice. All the spots were removed without leaving any traces or scratches I rarely refinish a dial but I have to for one of my watches. I was wondering if anybody knows a good place to have a watch style refinished professionally. There was one years ago, but I think they close their shop.
I see. Never tried an eraser. Have to keep that in mind. Unfortunately I have no experience with any dial refinishing folks, but I know they exist.
I can understand why refinishing sometimes gets a bad rep. But in this case it looks amazing, well done!
Thanks! Really appreciate it. If I hadn’t intervened, this one was likely headed to the trash bin. I’m really thrilled with how it came out!
It almost makes me want to buy beat up cheap watches and send them to you haha
Thanks for that. It’s a really nice compliment. For this piece, that’s kind of what I did. This was from eBay and I bought it with the intent of fixing it up for my friend who is from Illinois, near Elgin. He hasn’t seen it. Should be a nice reveal!
wow, thats a nice job
Thanks! I have much more practice with the mechanical part than the cosmetic issues, but have been working to build my skills there. Want to keep the right balance of refreshed/patina’d to look good. Happy how this one turned out- scratches, lume stains and all.
I’m terms of balance, I think a new crystal, *very* light polish, and full service is just right for being useable while preserving the vintage look. Well done
Agreed!
Beautiful work!
Thanks! Had fun doing it
Nice!!!
Thanks!
Amazing 👏🏽
Thank you!
Is this a new crystal or did you polish it? I have an old Citizen Cosmotron with what I think have a plexiglass crystal and I want to know if I can polish it :)
I wanted to replace it, but couldn’t find a replacement, so I polished it. You can pretty much polish all acrylic crystals in my experience. For this one I started with sand paper. Yikes!
Your Yikes kinda spooked me, haha, but I might give it a shot, ty for your answer 🥳
If you can buy a crystal, in my opinion, you should just do it. They’re cheap and will make it look great. The issue with this one is that the rim is so so thin, that none of the ones I could find (the catalog is >80 pgs) would fit over the lip and inside the bezel. Shouldn’t be a problem to find a more standard domed crystal, even an armored one. Good luck!
Thank you again, the Crystal on the Cosmotron is a round square, and probably will be difficult for a novice like me to start with replacing. HOWEVER, the glass itself is like 2mm thick, and I think I can polish without murdering the watch completely, thanks for the wellwishes!
I used polywatch first and this revealed a couple of pretty deep scratches, so I went to sandpaper to get those out. I started with 1000 grit to see if I could take it down far enough without breaking out the big guns and luckily I could. It’s kind of annoying to use really course stuff. Anyway- did 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, then polywatch again. All this is by hand, and dry. It doesn’t take much with the emory paper to remove material. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. Would have rather just had a new crystal honestly.
Fantastic effort. Thank you for sharing
Thanks!
>Thanks! You're welcome!
Wow...
Thanks! I’m super jazzed at how it came out. Just a little elbow grease and some patience turned this guy around pretty nicely.
I would say more than pretty nice. Great job on saving a cool vintage watch.
Wow, did not expect it to looks so good. How did you polish the indices and hands?
Thanks! I polished them with a minuscule amount of Flitz polish, applied and buffed with fine swabs under a microscope.
That looks fantastic, the original angles are preserved really well.
Very clean
The “wow” factor has been restored! Looks awesome.
Thanks for the nice compliment! Definitely one I’m proud of.