Jump to content
When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Resistor

Member
  • Posts

    187
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Resistor

  1. You can remove AR coating with red Scotchbrite and elbow grease. I much prefer the appearance of an AR'ed crystal, both as reflectivity reduction and the effect it has on the dial's look. If your original coating gets scratched, it can be replaced, but it's not easy to find someone who's available to do it (most crystals have to be coated in multi-piece runs).

  2. Almost everyone will say to choose the Asian clones, and for good reason. Even if the dealer says a particular movement is Swiss, he'll either not be sure or you'll receive a piece of Swiss crap which has been run through the ringer, contain Chinese parts, or be a clone which was stamped as an ETA. The radiused baseplate on the Swiss ETA's used to be a hallmark of a genuine movement, but even that has been detected on clones. I always choose clones and my watches run great, without the added cost of a "Swiss" movement.

  3. Not to hijack but i have read also a lot... Noob or bp crpo ? Any thoughts about miyota ... is the premium for noob worth it ?

    Noob, if you can find one. There's nothing particularly wrong with the Miyota versions, but the noob with the ETA clones are just so nice. I've had two and they have both been outstanding build quality-wise.
  4. You ain't been around that long mate I am in the minority here , guys who went went for the empty suit in the White House pretty quiet these days though. ;)

    Like you, I try to stay out of political discussion, as my views are not in line with the majority and I'm not well versed enough to argue. I don't see any viable options for fixing our government, as long as money and power are the only things that matter. The entire system needs flushed, but the replacement will last for only 100-200yrs before the same shiz creeps right back in.
  5. I am guessing this won't work with a ceramic insert?

    Likely not. The principle behind fading aluminum inserts is the degradation of the anodize dye, or in Nightwatch's case, complete removal of the anodize coating with a highly alkaline solution. Ceramic is not colored with a dye (I believe pigments are added to the precursors during manufacture of the material) so it is probably impervious to attack - one of the reasons manufacturers switched from aluminum to ceramic for their bezels.

    Don't quote me on this as my only experience with ceramics is the application of non-colored aluminum dioxide via plasma spray.

    • Like 1
  6. A lot of the variation in the reaction of the insert to the aging process comes down to the thickness and pore size of the anodize and whether or not it was properly sealed following the dye step. Colored anodize generally runs from .0004" to .0008" thick; thicker anodize will hold more dye and will be somewhat more resistant to fading. Similarly, properly sealed (with hot deionized water or nickel acetate) will resist aging since the coating features additional protection from attack by the elements (in this case bleach or saltwater).

    The bleach actually attacks and dissolves the anodize coating, creating a lighter and lighter color as the dye is leached out and the coating itself is destroyed. There is no way to predict how a particular insert will react so it will be important to start off slow and gradually re-expose the insert to your bleach solution (rinsing in between each step) until your desired color is achieved. Alternately, you can use a strong UV light source to fade the color - this will degrade only the colored dye without harming the anodize itself.

×
×
  • Create New...
Please Sign In or Sign Up