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Cleaning the copper plating on Omega movements

mikepilk

By mikepilk
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

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mikepilk Distinguished Member

mikepilk

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I bought an Omega 1022 for parts, and the bridges and plates are discoloured.

From what I've read, the coating is copper, over a beryllium bronze base. 

Apart from ultrasonic cleaning, is there a way to safely clean/polish these parts ?

Acid is usually used to clean copper (vinegar?) but I don't know how thick/robust the plating is.

Any suggestions ?

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wls1971 Distinguished Member

wls1971

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The Jury is out on what Omega actually used to plate their movements one side of the argument says that they used a beryilium copper alloy on the brass plates and the other side says that the movement where plated with pink gold. It is most likley a copper alloy because gold cannot be plated directley on to brass without using a barrier layer of nickel.

There is somone one who sent parts of for analysis to determine exactly what the coating was but a lot of people have argued that these results are not definitive the results can be seen at the below site,

http://members.iinet.net.au/~fotoplot/rgold/rgold.html

It does state that the plating is between 1 micron and 5 microns thick so not very thick at all so any polishing would have to be done with none abrasive cleaners or you will soon see the yellow brass showing through.

I know that if you put a copper coin into coca cola over night it will turn it bright and shiny and belive me I am not suggesting you do that for one minute but I have some scrap copper plated  movements I may try it in the next few days and see what happens and post the results.

Personally I would just clean them and live with the tarnish and discolourisation.

Edited by wls1971
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wls1971 Distinguished Member

wls1971

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1 hour ago, RyMoeller said:

Interesting read.  Seems pretty definitive to me.  :)

The results state that "This tentative identification would need to be verified by elctron-probe micro analysis" this hasnt been done as far as I know and some have stated that the age of the parts could account for no gold content being found on the movement parts, they all so say why would a watch company plate parts in copper alone when this would tarnish quicker than the brass metal underneath it.

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mikepilk Distinguished Member

mikepilk

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On 3/28/2017 at 7:31 PM, Geo said:

I can highly recommend this stuff http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CLOCK-CLEANING-CONCENTRATE-NO-1-250MLS-/250475705782?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3a5183f5b6dilute as recommended and use it in an ultrasonic bath at 50 centigrade.

Here's a couple of watches cleaned with the above.

 

 

The vinegar and cola didn't do much good, but I bought some of the stuff you recommended and I'm impressed how well it cleaned up the plates.

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