Post by Archer on May 17, 2009 17:14:38 GMT -6
I'm servicing a Tag 2000 for a client at the moment, and before he sent it to me he remarked that it was "a little beat up." Well, I agree and maybe would even consider that an understatement. 
Here is the watch as I received it:
The tabs on the bezel should be polished, and the case finish should be high polish as well. Here is an example of one of the case sides:
Note the big hack down the side.
The bracelet was in a similar condition:
The middle links should be polished, and the outside links brushed. It was obvious that bringing this back to "factory new" finish would not be possible because there was simply too much material to remove to get rid of all the hacks and gouges. I start on the bracelet and work at finding what was the right abrasive to bring back the brushed portion of the links. Here the top set of links has been brushed with 400 grit wet/dry paper:
Looks pretty good, so I went with that and did the other side as well. Then used the same 400 on the middle links. But I kept going there - next was 600 grit, then 1500, then 5 micron paper, then 0.5 micron paper.
The last step was masking off the side links and using my stainless steel polishing compound on a buffing wheel and my Dremel. Here the left side has been done, and the right hasn't:
Not perfect, but the main goal here was to bring back the contrast between the polished and brushed sections, so it worked out pretty well. I then turned my attention to the case. I used the same process - 400, 600, 1500, 5 um, 0.5 um, and then the grey polishing compound. Here is the same side of that case after I was done:
There are a few marks at the left side that would have required a LOT of material removal to get out, so I lived with getting out most of that big, deep, hack.
And here is a shot showing the lugs and the tabs on the bezel - the contrast is back:
I could not do much with the bezel itself as it was sort of a matte finish done with bead blasting or some similar process that I can't replicate. Ideally the bezel would be replaced but it looks pretty good overall.
Anyway I thought I would share the process so thanks for looking.
Cheers, Al
Here is the watch as I received it:
The tabs on the bezel should be polished, and the case finish should be high polish as well. Here is an example of one of the case sides:
Note the big hack down the side.
The bracelet was in a similar condition:
The middle links should be polished, and the outside links brushed. It was obvious that bringing this back to "factory new" finish would not be possible because there was simply too much material to remove to get rid of all the hacks and gouges. I start on the bracelet and work at finding what was the right abrasive to bring back the brushed portion of the links. Here the top set of links has been brushed with 400 grit wet/dry paper:
Looks pretty good, so I went with that and did the other side as well. Then used the same 400 on the middle links. But I kept going there - next was 600 grit, then 1500, then 5 micron paper, then 0.5 micron paper.
The last step was masking off the side links and using my stainless steel polishing compound on a buffing wheel and my Dremel. Here the left side has been done, and the right hasn't:
Not perfect, but the main goal here was to bring back the contrast between the polished and brushed sections, so it worked out pretty well. I then turned my attention to the case. I used the same process - 400, 600, 1500, 5 um, 0.5 um, and then the grey polishing compound. Here is the same side of that case after I was done:
There are a few marks at the left side that would have required a LOT of material removal to get out, so I lived with getting out most of that big, deep, hack.
And here is a shot showing the lugs and the tabs on the bezel - the contrast is back:
I could not do much with the bezel itself as it was sort of a matte finish done with bead blasting or some similar process that I can't replicate. Ideally the bezel would be replaced but it looks pretty good overall.
Anyway I thought I would share the process so thanks for looking.
Cheers, Al
