Another O-review member had a low serial POlished/Blue timebomb that needed to be restored so he sent it to me to be polished.

WHen I got the Timebomb, the original polished finish was well worn and there were scratches all over the face/crystal.





POlishing the band followed the same principle as polishing a Time Tank, so I took the band off the watch and put it through the different grits of sandpaper. The watch case was little more difficult as the shape of the watch makes taping things off more difficult.




It wouldn't be right to have a shiny "new" band but have a crystal that was all scratched so I got a couple of different grits of diamond (dust) polish and went to work on the crystal:





I didn't have a coarse enough grit to knock down the deepest gouges, but I was able to blend them more so it's harder to see without tilting the watch.





Some of the pins were falling out of the band so I took it to a jeweler who tried to "peen" the pins so they don't fall out as easily. So, there it is. Restored and ready to wear again.

D

David-
very nice work...

where did you get your Diamond Dust from? brand?

Thanks...

pretty awesome work bro, I must say...

Now!! That's impressive!! Great work, Dave.

I may send you one of mine, LOL.

geez! That's some great work. Especially on the crystal face!

Very impressed.

Mike

Thanks for the kind words gents. This is the second watch crystal that i've done, but it was in worse shape. If I get anymore to do, I'll have to invest in a few more coarser grits of diamond dust.

@rhlake: It's from a company called "MTI Corp". they sell a lot of stuff for scientific instruments. I think the website is mtixtl.com.

Dave

That's very impressive restoration work. The crystal must've taken you a fair amount of time (I'm assuming...Hardlex is know to be troublesome).

Very nice!

Thanks!
@Oak- the face took about 2 hours. I had to stop every couple of seconds to let the crystal/glass cool down a bit. I didn't want it to crack or get to hot and mess up the watch internals.

D

did you the serial get removed ? also what you charging for the buffing of the crystal ? pm me !

wow, that turned out beautifully. I have the same watch in a similar condition. My watchface isn't quite as bad.

Could you please step through how you cleaned up the band? I'd like to try and breath some life into mine.

Thanks!

@marcel: polishing doesn't remove the serial. It's all there, just shinier. ;)

I'll pm you about polishing the crystal.

@john: the process is pretty lengthy. You'll need to get a watch pin removal tool and get the band apart. Then do the whole sand paper thing, then the polishing wheels and then use the diamond paste on the face. Just cleaning it, I use a toothbrush and "Tom's" toothpaste. It's not a gel and has baking soda as well as silica in it to restore a bit of lustre. However, if it's really scratch, that takes a bit mot more time. shoot me a PM if you want me to just do it for you.

D

Nice David. You are the west coast customs/pimp my ride chop shop of oakley restorations. I didn't really think you could grind down the crystal like that. Good tutorial.

Thanks! I def. Can't say I do any chopping, I'll leave that up to the good Doctor. ;)

When I get some time, I'll put together a step by step tutorial with pics and such and post it. In the meantime, if any one has questions, please feel free to PM me.

D

Great project and awasone final result !
Do you think the Ion Plated Stainless Black version band work with the same method ? Or is it the metal is different ? Thanks for your answer ;)

I'm pretty sure it would wear off the ion plating, this method would work on the polished band