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Stains on my Datejust Marker


lhooq

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I recently bought a swell linen DJ dial, which will most likely be stuffed and mounted in a franken within the next few months. The quality is great, but I noticed brown stains on the four o'clock index. It won't come off with Rodico, and it looks to be deeper than a surface blemish. The stain seems to go right through the metal marker, and appears on both sides.

i-R5k7qBg-X3.jpg

i-KM6FCxt-X3.jpg

Has anyone encountered anything like this before? If so, any ideas on how to clean it off?

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If it is a plated marker...it could be the base metal showing through a thin spot in the plating. If it is a solid gold marker, it might be corrosion or yellow gold in the mix bleeding through.

I have seen it before but never could tell for sure if the markers were gold or gold plated over brass.

I saw a 1601 DJ dial last week with two O at the bottom of the dial and the watch owner said the O stood for 'oro' or solid gold markers and that run of the mill 1601, 16000 etc had plated markers. I do not know if this is true or not but 'rolexophiles' claim later sapphire crystal models have solid gold markers.

Considering that 90% of 'rolex facts' are BS, who really knows?

The proper fix would be to replace the marker with an identical marker from another dial.

I would leave it alone for now though.

It sure beats guilt stains... :animal_rooster:

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I recently bought a swell linen DJ dial, which will most likely be stuffed and mounted in a franken within the next few months. The quality is great, but I noticed brown stains on the four o'clock index. It won't come off with Rodico, and it looks to be deeper than a surface blemish. The stain seems to go right through the metal marker, and appears on both sides.

i-R5k7qBg-X3.jpg

i-KM6FCxt-X3.jpg

Has anyone encountered anything like this before? If so, any ideas on how to clean it off?

Superb photography. I have a dial like that in my franken, but I never saw it like your photo. Great!

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I find the brown bits more interesting than annoying, so that marker is staying where it is. I just wonder whether it's something that slipped through QC, or if the stain developed long after the dial was put together.

Thanks for the input, guys!

And thanks for the compliment, preacher! Lately, I've gotten used to seeing super-expensive yet rough-looking vintage sports dials. Recent DJ dials are cheap by comparison, and beautifully put together.

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  • 2 weeks later...

M, if the stain bothers you to much just stick it back in the mail - you know where to send it! :rofl: Some day I'll treat my dial to a gen case but so far I haven't found any "reasonable" ones.

Datejust 1.JPG

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It doesn't bother me--I just wanted to know where it came from, 's all! :)

I snagged a 16000 for $66 a few weeks ago, so that's a big piece taken care of. If I combine it with my $18 ETA 2451, I could end up with something cheaper than some rep DJs!

stilty: Interesting idea, but it's clean as a whistle from behind. It does look a bit hot around the date window, though:

i-jgZRvtq-X3.jpg

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