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Show us your watches with bleached bezel inserts


watchguy51

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Things went a bit OTT with this attempt at bleaching...

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The watch looks pretty different now...

DSCN2704.jpg

(at present, it's actually minus movement, but I might finish it off again oneday, as it's still the most comfortable watch I own :victory: )

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Dang Red, that's a gorgeous Snowflake! Tell me more about it!

Nearly all Gen B! Gen Dial, Hands, Tudor 2874 movement, Gen 702 Crown & Tube, Gen 125 Crystal, Gen Tudor Branded 9315 Folded Link Bracelet, Gen 380B Endlinks. Case, Caseback and Bezel Insert from unknown origin.

You can read about the build here

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This insert took about 15 mins to bleach then I clear coat varnished it

I don't have a pic of my GMT master but that one took only 6 mins

34de8c26.jpg

That's still pretty solid black for 15 minutes, was the bleach watered down?

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That's still pretty solid black for 15 minutes, was the bleach watered down?

I tried taking another picture but the iPhone is making it too saturated. It's not as heavy handed bleaching as others would do. It's got a weathered but not lost at sea for 20 years kind of bezel

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I tried taking another picture but the iPhone is making it too saturated. It's not as heavy handed bleaching as others would do. It's got a weathered but not lost at sea for 20 years kind of bezel

Ahh, I think I know the kind of look you mean :good::drinks:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice SD, any story behind this one? Where you got it, how it was done, etc

Thanks..!

its a 2836-2 powered SSD with drilled lugholes, gen T<25 dial with matching handset and gen faded bezel insert. And the rest made to look like a well used dive watch...

Cheers

P.

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Peaarl of the Orient...................................................

Just kidding! Got it with the Bezel from eBay last year......can't remember the source anymore! Sorry....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mine was really stubborn... even after lightly sanding it, as most people do, nothing happened after an hour of sitting in 2 different brands of un-diluted bleach. It only worked when I heated up the bleach on the stove first. I think most people have to just leave it in diluted bleach for 20 minutes.

What do you guys use to bleach the inserts? Mine is way too black...

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The problem I have with bleaching... is that it leaves the surface optically dead (atleast in my one experiment).

If a bezel insert can really get bleached by time and sunlight, swimming in chlorine... it should still have some gloss to it I would think. After I bleached by 5517 insert, I hit it with a couple coats of a satin spray, should have really used semi-gloss. Not only did it darken it a tad to a more natural look, but added protection... after bleaching you could probably scrape the rest of the paint off with your fingernail.

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I was quite happy with the results on this one. I found polishing it after the bleaching with a cap code lightly gave it some shine. Many gen you see with a natural patina will be faded but still have some gloss to the insert, unfortunately when you bleach one it strips off the glossy finish.

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But there's still nothing like natural aging....

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  • Like 1
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Use "Sagrotan Schimmel-Frei" ;) it is with chlorine and works fine.

Thanks! How long do you have to put the insert in it? Mine has been soaking in there for 2 hours now - no effect at all. I seriously doubt it will work...

Edit: Ouch! 15 minutes after I wrote this the insert was WHITE! Damn, that's really hard to control... I didn't see any effect for two hours and then the whole paint faded away in 15 minutes... well, I guess I have to try another bezel... black_eye.gif

Mine looks kind of "inversed" now... I'll post a pic later.

Edited by Whatever123
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