How to tutorial: re-brush/re-finish a bracelet (SMP as an example)

[NaviChief]

Every bracelet could use a little restoration after awhile. If you get your watches from sales forums and m2m like I mostly do, you'll want to freshen up things when they come in, and make them look their best before you sell them again. A bracelet that is all scratched up can mean a great discount when buying, and likewise a little bit of work on your part before a sale can net you a better return on your sale. 

 

I've worked on several bracelets in the past couple weeks so I figured a how to thread might interest some folks. 

 

First off, these two threads are what originally I read to know what I'm doing. Frankly, they are all the tutorial you will need. 

 

http://www.chronomaddox.com/article/mason_a/bracelet_refurb.html

 

http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?66280-Refinishing-a-Bond-Omega-Seamaster-bracelet

 

I've found that the polishing step isn't always necessary, because if you do enough brushing, small surfaces scratches will get erased anyway. For deeper scratches, I do use a dremel and polishing compound to take the scratches down as far as I can. 

 

The best advice for rebrushing is to figure out a way to keep each pass straight and parallel. If I don't use some sort of guide, I found that at the ends of my pass, I would always hook in one direction. The results would look terrible. 

 

My favorite way is to set up a right angled surface and wall. In the picture, I am just using two different sized cardboard moving boxes. I taped the bracelet down so it won't move and is parallel to the vertical wall. The parts I don't want to brush are also taped over. I then use a sanding block (made for sanding paint off of walls usually). I make sure that one side of the sanding block is always along the vertical wall, that way the right angle is always maintained and each pass I make is perfectly straight. If I need a different grit of sandpaper, I just tape a piece onto a sponge or something else that is easy to hold but has a straight edge to line up against the wall. I've read many times that scotch-brite pads are the way to go. I tried it, and frankly I didn't find it did things fast enough for me. I couldn't see any difference after about 10 minutes of passes. Perhaps I had the wrong kind. 

 

 

Be sure to wash the bracelet afterwards to remove all of the little particles.

 

Here is the before and after of my gen SMP bracelet.

 

 

 

On my modded closed factor SMP:

 

 

 

 

Good luck! If you screw up along the way, just keep going and usually your mistake will be erased. At least they have for me!

[B3nj4min3]

This is very useful, thanks for posting!