andreww Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 I am a stickler for perfection in appearance in my watches. Desk dive marks are polished out as soon as they appear. I always buy sapphire because if there is one thing that will stop me from wearing a watch, its a scratched crystal. Anyway, I recently picked up this Silix PO that has aftermarket AR from one of our AR providers. As you can see, it makes the crystal vanish and really helps show the dial nicely. But, look around the edge of the crystal. The AR is wearing off and just look terrible from certain angles. My question is, how has your AR held up? I'm not talking about watches that spend most of their life in the watchbox, I want to know how it stands up to daily wear, water, soap, etc. I'll let you decide if I re-coat, strip, or leave this one as is! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takashi Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Well... a gen watch with double AR may exhibit this too (I have a Sinn 756 with similar problems). It's either recoat or leave it as it's. By the way, my watches with aftermarket AR coating are holding up well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephane Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Hi Andrew, I understand your concern but I voted "Keep it". I am the opposite of you in fact: I love signs of wear as it trully adds character to the watch. Of course, no deep scratches/dents nor serious damages. But a pristine - LikeNew watch, specially a rep of course, just scream "to good to be true". And by the way, for you Breitling fan, did you notice how fast the genuine AR of a genuine Breitling is damaged. My friends one is worse than your PO . Cheers Stephane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k2222 Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Recoat or at least strip it, it doesnt look good though. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HauteHippie Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 I don't understand how this happened since the PO AR is only on the interior. Is it a surface defect in the crystal itself? Hard to tell from the pic. If it's somehow the AR itself, then I'd strip and recoat. The PO doesn't look good without AR. And I can tell you that, unless you're a gorilla, a coating like mine is going to withstand most of what you throw at it. EDIT: Oh, you said aftermarket AR... Something must be wrong with that coating. PM me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UB7 Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Hmm..Doesn't look good. Have you used any cleaning products like cape cod, that might of got on the crystal accidentally? The double AR on my watches have held up great, very unfortunate to have this happen - sorry to hear this friend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 I've heard people with Gen POs complaining about the outer AR coating stripping, so it's not a situation because it's a rep, but, something which 'just happens'. They said that they removed the outer AR and just kept the interior single-sided AR. That'd be my recommendation for this situation as well. Any re-coat could eventually strip again (even if it lasts years) and you'd be left with the same problem... Far easier to just keep the single-sided AR. Not strictly 1:1 accurate to the gen, but, certainly the more practical option, and, as it's something which has been reported with gen POs anyway, there are likely quite a few gen POs floating around out there with only the internal single-side AR, and I doubt anyone accuses them of being reps Best of luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreww Posted March 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Well, looks like you guys are pushing me to re-coat it, sooo.... Maybe this is a good opportunity to to get a good look at how AR effects the look of the watch. Should I mask half the crystal, strip one half of it and take some pics? Let me know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreww Posted March 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Here are the astounding results... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HauteHippie Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Hehehe you're like a kid in a candy store discovering AR for the first time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephane Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 That confirms why I love it so much since it's AR coated. A uPO without AR is a ...hmmm, an average watch? Thanks Andrew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreww Posted March 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Here are some better comparison shots! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avitt Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 So that's basically a single- vs. double-sided AR comparison? That's much more of a difference than I would have expected... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HauteHippie Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 @avitt - single AR is hardly distinguishable from no AR. You get less reflections off the dial, and things look a little sharper, but overall with the exterior surface uncoated, reflections off the crystal are prominent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now