Thanks guys! I didn't mean to hijack, just pointing out how much fun these cheap watches can be
The case distressing is sort of an evolved thing. One of the old hands here, maybe Nanuq or Ubiquitous, got me rolling on the distressing thing. I look at pics of gens and just try to emulate that. If you look at pics of old gens it's usually more of a "burnished" finished than just scratched up. You have to scratch it up, polish, (I use a buffer on a dremel) scratch, polish, etc. until you get the patina. I use files, sandpaper and the dremel for beating them up. It actually takes a little time to get them looking old.
Here's another of my favorites: