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Spots on old watch


jdrichard

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Take care with the denture cleaner. It is certainly worth a try on enamel dials provided they don't have any lume paint (or indeed any other decoration painted on top of the enamel) but don't try it with painted, printed, or lacquered dials like the one that @jdrichard has; that way lies potential disaster as the inks and lacquers use are likely to vanish.

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As already stated the method of using denture cleaners is only good for enamel dials and even then extreme caution has to be used, if you tried it on the dial you have jdrichard I fear you may end up with a nice shiny blank disc. I've said before old watch should look old and oxidisation on the dial is better than having a ruined dial. The picture of the dial you have shown looks perfectly exceptable to me leave it and enjoy you cant easly undo any damage you do by trying to clean it, I would as a collector look upon a watch of that period that had a mint nice shiny new looking dial with suspicion.

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It's difficult to give a definitive answer because not all dials are made of the same materials. If attempting to clean always try in a not viewing area of the dial if possible. However if it was me I would leave alone as it is showing its a nice vintage watch. 

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Below is a quick experiment with a denture cleaning tablet (I would like to point out I do have a full set of teeth the tablets where bought to clean white enamel dials which they are very good if used with caution)

This is a old dial from a scrap ladies movement and is typical of the 30's 40's period and is a two tone dial with printed details it is suffering from typical ageing and oxidisation I do wear watches daily that have dials in this condition

DSC_1097_zps79ipyeqk.jpg

As you can see the dial is readable and all the printing can be seen it does however look what can only be described as grimy, so to see if denture cleaners can be used on dials like this to improve the look I soaked the dial for 10 minutes in a solution made from a denture cleaning tablet and deionised water.

DSC_1098_zpsdjgenvro.jpg

Forgiving the fact the photo is not very good the damage done can be seen with the loss of much of the printed fine detail on the dial it has taken only 10 minutes to totally ruin the dial with no improvement in the look of the dial what so ever, it does however smell minty fresh

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I agree with everyone else, I would leave it as-is if it were me.

@wls1971 ouch!!!! 

@jdrichard If you find out that the lacquer is the cause of the stains, I've had good luck with ammonia based window cleaner (windex), gently rubbed on the face of the dial with a q-tip. However, if you were to try that, be very very gentle, go slow, and rinse the dial really well when you're done.

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Take care with the denture cleaner. It is certainly worth a try on enamel dials provided they don't have any lume paint (or indeed any other decoration painted on top of the enamel) but don't try it with painted, printed, or lacquered dials like the one that [mention=1704]jdrichard[/mention] has; that way lies potential disaster as the inks and lacquers use are likely to vanish.

I used the denture method on an old Illinois PW and lost all the numbers on the second subdial, plus my father in law was out a pack of cleaners. I don't trust this technique a bit and agree with mark

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

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