~ Case Polishing ~ Nice Tutorial ~

[Greystash]

Nick Hacko,

Posted this today in Australia; it's great. I hope it hasn't already been put up.

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*** Case polishing

Restoring or refinishing a stainless steel watch case is not as difficult as may be thought. Unfortunately most watchmakers are either not interested in doing it properly or were never taught how to do it. Those few who have mastered the skill of hand-polishing would rather die then to revel their secret of the trade! The trick in obtaining mirror-like finish is simple : a/ to use correct polishing medium and b/ to master polishing skills by following the correct procedure.

This tutorial is aimed not only at watchmakers, but also at watch dealers and collectors wanting to familiarize themselves with the process of hand-polishing. The procedure shown below was passed to me by my father (an to him by his brother Mihajlo Hacko, Master Watchmaker since 1948. who still does his own watch repairs!)

Please go to Nicholas Hacko - Case Polishing

I guarantee you'll love it! (And for those of you who are members of other watch forums: feel free to forward the above link further).

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Cheers

[RobbieG]

Great post! I think we all can benefit from knowing how to do small things like this to our watches. As an interesting side note, my local guy here is a fanatic about refinishing and is the greatest perfectionist I have ever seen. He does all his refinishing under 30 power and if it doesn't look perfect under that magnification he won't let it out. I recently saw a 20 year old yellow gold Day-Date he did and the watch looked absolutely new. A true artist. I always said I would like to know how to do this better than the little touch ups I do myself. Thanks again.

[Guest porsche356a]

Thanks for sharing.

[takashi]

A good tip for touching up a SS case. Thanks a lot for sharing.

[jmt]

That's a fantastic tutorial... and so simple. Fantastic! Thanks so much.

[Heywood]

Thanks for sharing the link. That's good info and would be easy to do without a bunch of special equipment.

[pollux1]

Very informative post, thank you!

[TeeJay]

That's fantastic info, thanks for sharing

[freddy333]

Same thing can be achieved with sandpaper, a dremel/green rouge & a Bergeon brush finish pad

[JBond]

I'am very afraid to do that =S

[doctorron]

Great info. I really mean great. Very useful. Thank you very much.

[pokerpot]

Very very nice! Thank you!

[takashi]

it takes a lot of ball... especially when dealing with dremel tools.

I have seen it myself how the process done, hats off to Kelster ... and it is indeed has to be done carefully. My suggestion, practice on a cheap watch first/donor watch.

[TagShmag]

Upon seeing this method and reading more tutorials, I arrived at the conclusion that the same method used to polish/restore modern car paint surface can be applied to watches.

http://www.timezone.com/library/workbench/workbench0018

http://www.squiggly.com/gb/en/special/special/polywatch

I have experience doing this with my car and have all the right materials. I also have an old ESQ with scratched up crystal and SS case. The AD wanted $150 to polish it. I told them to shove it and put the watch in the drawer.

When I get home, I will try to polish my watch with fine sandpapers and rubbing compound and report results.

Hope to take some pics in the process.

~T

Edited August 28, 2008 by TagShmag

[jkerouac]

What I'd really like to do is develop a nice polished finish on some cases that are unpolished between the lugs. My question for anyone who has done this is, how do you polish evenly right up to the lug itself? Would you do this section manually or with a dremel? Brush vertically as opposed to horizontally?

I'm glad that I have a few junk watches to practice on.

[freddy333]

Upon seeing this method and reading more tutorials, I arrived at the conclusion that the same method used to polish/restore modern car paint surface can be applied to watches.

Yes, it is very much the same (I used to be in that business). Many of the procedures that are routinely used in the restoration of high end autos translates over to the restoration of high end watches & vice-versa.

[TagShmag]

Yes, it is very much the same (I used to be in that business). Many of the procedures that are routinely used in the restoration of high end autos translates over to the restoration of high end watches & vice-versa.

Do a dremmel tool with a buffing pad can be used to apply cerium oxide powder to polish mineral crystal? I imagine polishing glass surface by hand is a tedious process?