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Retro digital Watches


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Do we have a resident expert on retro digital watches.

I'm interested i knowing whether the glass/plastic can be polished with a glass fibre pen and then polywatch to take out minor scratches, without disturburbing any of the text on the glass (is the test imprinted on the inside of the glass/plastic)

I know there is a bit of a cult following for retro digitals and have found a doer upper to work on whilst i'm struggling to find mechanical watches to work on.

I shall post some before and after pics of the project once ive finished it.

cheers,

Stretch

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thanks watchweasol, that also saves my buying some polywatch, as i have some Autosol.

 

Probably hard to tell if it's on the outside or inside without taking a bit of a gamble i guess

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    • Thank you @Jon and @nickelsilver again. I took the plunge and opened it. It came off with no problems at all. However, upon close inspection, I could see the "lip"/burnishing. So I followed @nickelsilver's advice and tried to gently bend the metal back out. I used a bracelet tool for it... and quite frankly, I'm very happy with the result. I tested my success by reinstalling the lid. Went back in smoothly. And off again. I guess when I install the new mainspring and the lid, I'll try to burnish the edge of the barrel back towards the lid.   Pictures below: 1. Before (took of barlow lens for even better magnification) 2. Opening the usual way was no problem. Not crazy dirty, but for sure wouldn't have been a good idea to just re-use. The breaking grease was had turned into more of a powder. 3. This is what I used. The pointy end of a bracelet tool. 4. Here you can see the flattened-out lip up until the notch (included). Then the still burnished inwards lip below that. 5. After two-three rounds, I'm satisfied. 6. After closing the barrel again, you can see more space between lip and barrel edge (if you compare to picture 1). The lid installed with no problems. Not perfectly pretty, I'll admit. But hopefully it'll look ok and be fully functional (secured/closed) when I burnish it back after installing the mainspring.    
    • What is the problem you are having?
    • I have done ultrasonic with naphtha and IPA and they cleaned well enough, but I worry too much about shaking the hairspring apart to keep doing it (for my own Timex watches, or for ebay sales, not professionally for clients). For a super dirty one, I doubt the pivot holes would get clean enough with the pivots in them though. Maybe with a better ultrasonic cleaning fluid. Since I'm not under any time pressure, I keep disassembling them instead.
    • But the radium wasn’t pure when put on the watch, so it’s already a mixture. We certainly can see counts from watches that penetrate materials that would stop alpha radiation. Again, I’m not paranoid about it, but it shouldn’t be completely discounted when people ask about it.
    • Shhh.... don't ask such questions.  It'll only open another can of worms.
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