Jump to content

Vintage Alpina Silver Case Treatment: Yes or No?

Hoe

By Hoe
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

 Share

Recommended Posts

Hoe Member

Hoe

Posted
Posted

Dear Watchmakers

I am planning an overhaul of this gorgeous, vintage Alpina wristwatch and I would like to hear your opinions on how to treat the case before I start doing anything.

The front section of the case has some sort of dark colour applied to give contrast to the engravings. I am worried about this colour to come off and therefore damage the appearance of the watch. In fact I am sure it will come off... There are already small sections with colour loss. I don’t think I will be able to recolour.

The case material – at least the case back – seems to be 0.800 Silver.

Options I considered (no. 1 is my favorite so far):

  1. Do nothing and let the case as it is. Clean it gently by hand with a brush.

  2. Ultrasonic cleaner treatment

  3. Silver cleaning treatment to make it shine again

What would you do? Does anybody know what this colour is?

Best wishes

20200803_145906-2.jpg

20200803_145926-2.jpg

20200803_150103-2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
watchweasol Distinguished Member

watchweasol

Posted
Posted

Hello and welcome to the forum Hoe,   I would approach this remembering its age and detail,  Do not polish the bezel but clean the rest of the case so that the colouration of the bezel contrasts with the rest of the case as it did when new,  but be sympathetic its a beautiful little watch so great care must be taken .

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KarlvonKoln Distinguished Member

KarlvonKoln

Posted
Posted

Welcome! That is a pretty Alpina.  I like its style.  I too would be very careful about polishing it up at all.  If you decide to though, there are silver polishing cloths you could use.  I wouldn't use anything stronger than those, if at all, and I'd use a very gentle touch with them.

You could put a polishing cloth on the rounded end of a little paintbrush handle and just sort of "spot polish" the vine patterns and border.  That might work.  But I'm still leaning toward leaving it be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hoe Member

Hoe

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks Marc for bringing up the term Niello, fantastic. I remember seeing pocket watches decorated like this.

There are YouTube videos about this technique. It seems to be quite tough at least when it is new.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Hoe Member

Hoe

Posted
  • Author
Posted

To finish this topic, I used special Silver polishing cloths to clean the case parts, today. It is cheap and the result is fabulous. The contrast between Niello and Silver is stronger. Furthermore I treated the crystal with Polywatch. The watch looks much better, now.

Polishing_Silver.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • ManSkirtBrew
      1972 Bulova President "E" Sea King 11ACACB movement

      By ManSkirtBrew · Posted

      Unfortunately I'm not that lucky. I started on the train side and after I noticed the binding I pulled everything out except the driving wheel to rule everything else out. It still binds. I'm going to double check that the pinion is fully seated on the staff first, then if no joy I'll push the bridge jewel up a fraction of a mm. Fingers crossed!
    • Waggy
      Rado rotor removal

      By Waggy · Posted

      Happy to have helped, great way to start the day with a win! 🥳
    • doober
      Rado rotor removal

      By doober · Posted

      Thank you for the advise!! It worked. The setting screw was a lock/unlock to remove the rotor. 
    • GuyMontag
      1972 Bulova President "E" Sea King 11ACACB movement

      By GuyMontag · Posted

      I have that French tech sheet too, it is a little different than the English one (eg, it doesn't have the auto works diagram). BTW, it looks like you are looking up the case number in the 1979 ABC supplement. The 1974 ABC catalog does have the 3093 case. As you determined it takes the 1222-5 crystal.  When I serviced my President 'A' (which also takes that crystal), I was able to fit a 29.8 crystal from my DPA crystal assortment. Those are, in my opinion, a great deal. The assortment comes with 10 sizes each from 27.8mm to 32.4mm in 0.2 increments. I pretty much use them for any non-armored crystal that takes a high dome crystal. I think they no longer make them but Cousins has still has some in stock but when I bought them they were around $40 for the set and now they are around $100. Still, at 40 cents a crystal it's still a good deal. For the large driving wheel, I remember I once assembled the keyless/motion works first and when I placed the large driving wheel it was interfering with the setting wheel on the dial side as the teeth were not fully meshing and it wouldn't fully seat. If that isn't the issue I got nothing and am looking forward to see how you solve it 🙂
    • Waggy
      Rado rotor removal

      By Waggy · Posted

      Not sure, but just looking at it, it seems like the screw on the right may be a fake? The one on the left may not be a screw in the regular sense at all, rather a 2 position device, I think you need to point the slot towards either of the 2 dots and one will secure and one will open. Like I said this is just my best guess looking at the pictures.
×
×
  • Create New...