316 "L" Steel

[slickdick]

On the discussion of corrosion and what we actually get, who remembers "the muck"s test of the SSD against the gen during a saturation dive, the rep did start to corrode and it pinged up the question as to what steel it was made of!

I remember the thread. The rep was waterthight however shown spots of corrosion. And you make a good point. With all the talk about gold quality 10k,14k, wrapped, solid, plated etc... we never seem to stand still and ask ourselves what type of steel we're acutally getting.

[Bike Mike]

PS: As Dems said, there really can be some difference in steel quality between the TW/WM9 models and the standard Chinese versions. Not aesthetically but many people have reported how much harder the steel is (when they have drilled the lug holes). I guess Tribal and Ubi can verify this.

By-Tor, I can vouch for the wide variation, in at least hardness, even in the super cheap reps. Some will, as you say, drill like butter wile others are real "bit busters"! It's a lot easier on the tooling budget to drill lug holes in the "soft" ones...

It actually may not be the difference in material types as it is more then likely is large saturation of carbon inclusions in areas. Just happens to be in the areas you are working on. This is due to poor QC again, relative to manufacturing of the raw material ingots as well the watch components. Operations such as forging (how they make cases) can further compress the inclusions into localized areas.

Think of it as drilling through a piece of wood and you hit a knot.

[jmb]

So, the lug tips just might take on a bit more carbon content during forging? I never thought of it that way

[fakemaster]

Agree with mike. I've seen pitting appear on watches that were no where near water. Rust spots that once sanded off never returned. It's so rare though. Maybe a few out of God knows how many watches over 20 years. I've seen more defects on gens than reps. So it's hard to get bent about it especially since the investment is so small.

[Bike Mike]

So, the lug tips just might take on a bit more carbon content during forging? I never thought of it that way

Potentially yes. The entire case could be riddled with carbon inclusions. Just know way of knowing unless you slice into it and take a look at the cross section of the centered-cubic structure. There could be all kind of garbage in there, like Fakemaster said, rusting that when removed never returns. Lower grades of stainless steel can actually rust and corrode.

[trailboss]

None of us are completely sane (when it comes to watches)

Fixed

BM: This should be interesting. Anyone got some swarf from one of these so called 316F cases to donate?

Anyone know what steel Seiko were using in the 70s? All my old Seikos have a deeper, "bluer" shine when prperley poliched than the moden watches I own, rep and gen.

I wear my beater reps around reasonablely harsh acids all the time (my skin is used to it and tougher than most) and have never seen a problem.

It would be intertesting to get a collection of junk cases and do a real world exposure test in different harsh enviroments and see what happens just for the hell of it.

Col.

[Bike Mike]

BM: This should be interesting. Anyone got some swarf from one of these so called 316F cases to donate?

I can test it, if someone has one to donate but it is going to get destroyed in the process.

[ironmarshal]

Couldn't agree with By-Tor's comments any more highly. The difference that most people point to have to do with poor finishing of links than the composition of the steel. I started off in love with Rolex, the fell out of love, and now I'm feeling it again. Can't go wrong with the classic styling of a Rolex.