Old Wintex - including 1st time electroplating, learning

[Charette]

Hi all,

Have been away from the forum for a while - it takes me a long time to finish a watch between work and family.

My latest project is this vintage Wintex. This is the 3rd wrist watch I have worked on, excluding a built from internet parts watch. I was not able to find much on Wintex online but it seems possible that it was one of the brands started by Hans Wilsdorf before finally settling on Rolex and Tudor. If anyone has any other history/info I would be happy to hear it.

The dial of this watch is pretty patina'd - I am not into dial restoration now and I don't know that I will ever go there. I do like the patina look. The case was in rough shape so I thought this would be a good watch to try out nickel electroplating on for the first time. I also didn't have a lot invested in this watch in case something went horribly wrong.

So far I have only worked on manual wind watches with no complications. Time only. I am becoming comfortable with those. I have some more to tackle and then will move up to something with a date.

The creation of the nickel electolyte was quite easy, worked like magic. I tried to be very careful when sanding the watch case of its old finish to not affect either lip for the crystal ring or the case back. Sanding went all right. Did not get all of the pits out on the back, but this is the back so I don't mind. I tried to polish the case with my dremel and the dremel red polish that comes in their sets. I have not often used a dremel to polish, I use it more for small cutting and grinding. The felt pads were a bit of a nighmare. Hard to twist them on straight, so when you turned on the machine they were off centre and the top exploded off. Also could not get the polish around the whole of the pad as a result of being off centre. Polishing went not bad as well, everything turned up nice and shiny. It is possible there was some small parts left of the original finish - it became difficult to tell the original finish apart once the brass was shined up as everything was so shiny. Next time I should probably try a polish that has some cutting to it, I don't think the red version does at all. Though I thought this may affect my plating, I pressed on anyway.

 

Onto electroplating. Nothing exciting in terms of servicing the movement, everything went nicely there.

I watched some videos online re: the plating but did not spend too long on the research. Worst case, I figured, I would have to sand down and start over.

Having watched Marshall at wristwatch revival do nickel plating, I started with very low voltage. Less than 1v, to try to avoid bubbles and get a nice finish. Everywhere I looked online, it said the process should take maybe 20 minutes. More than an hour in, I was not seeing much happening. I finished up and, looking at my case, couldn't tell if anything had happened. There was nickel on the copper wire I used to hang the case. My case was warm coloured. I know Nickel has a warmth to it, but still couldn't tell, after staring at it so long, if anything had happened, or if I was still looking at polished brass.

I should note the crystal ring definitely coated. Maybe due to it being such a small part the low voltage was fine. After a few days break or more, I decided I was going to try again. Googling about reactivating nickel for plating I found very confusing - lots of chemicals mentioned. I decided to try to dip my case again in my acid wash, but for longer this time. I was scared the 1st time and did 30 seconds. On my second attempt I left in for 2 minutes.

When plating, despite the bubbles and hearing this would affect the finish, I cranked the voltage to around 2.5 volts. I was likely being inpatient. There were lots of bubbles, but I could definitely see something happening this time.

I still ending up leaving the parts in for about an hour, rather than the 20 minutes others seem to need. I didn't want to raise the voltage further.

Ultimately, I did not get a perfect finish on my case, as you can see. I am still OK with this as I think it matches the patina on the dial overall. It was a good learning process. Next time, I likely need to spend more time on case prep, and it may not have been a good idea to try to replate over my initial attempt. Also, I did not wrap my nickel anode in any kind of material to keep particle size down.

There is nickel on the case. Some of it has flaked off, but what is left seems to be stuck good. Time will tell I guess.

In addition to the case, I also lapped the case back with some sandpaper as it was quite scratched up. I discovered it was not perfectly flat, I was not getting contact in the middle. I used a rubber sanding pad to get into the middle. You can tell if you really look, but again, back of the watch, and it still looks nicer than before.

I am considering this another success for myself and I will enjoy this watch. It also gave good results on my new timegrapher.

Have a good day all.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Charette
typo

[Neverenoughwatches]

19 minutes ago, Charette said:

Hi all,

Have been away from the forum for a while - it takes me a long time to finish a watch between work and family.

My latest project is this vintage Wintex. This is the 3rd wrist watch I have worked on, excluding a built from internet parts watch. I was not able to find much on Wintex online but it seems possible that it was one of the brands started by Hans Wilsdorf before finally settling on Rolex and Tudor. If anyone has any other history/info I would be happy to hear it.

The dial of this watch is pretty patina'd - I am not into dial restoration now and I don't know that I will ever go there. I do like the patina look. The case was in rough shape so I thought this would be a good watch to try out nickel electroplating on for the first time. I also didn't have a lot invested in this watch in case something went horribly wrong.

So far I have only worked on manual wind watches with no complications. Time only. I am becoming comfortable with those. I have some more to tackle and then will move up to something with a date.

The creation of the nickel electolyte was quite easy, worked like magic. I tried to be very careful when sanding the watch case of its old finish to not affect either lip for the crystal ring or the case back. Sanding went all right. Did not get all of the pits out on the back, but this is the back so I don't mind. I tried to polish the case with my dremel and the dremel red polish that comes in their sets. I have not often used a dremel to polish, I use it more for small cutting and grinding. The felt pads were a bit of a nighmare. Hard to twist them on straight, so when you turned on the machine they were off centre and the top exploded off. Also could not get the polish around the whole of the pad as a result of being off centre. Polishing went not bad as well, everything turned up nice and shiny. It is possible there was some small parts left of the original finish - it became difficult to tell the original finish apart once the brass was shined up as everything was so shiny. Next time I should probably try a polish that has some cutting to it, I don't think the red version does at all. Though I thought this may affect my plating, I pressed on anyway.

Post in progress.

 

Onto electroplating. Nothing exciting in terms of servicing the movement, everything went nicely there.

I watched some videos online re: the plating but did not spend too long on the research. Worst case, I figured, I would have to sand down and start over.

Having watched Marshall at wristwatch revival do nickel plating, I started with very low voltage. Less than 1v, to try to avoid bubbles and get a nice finish. Everywhere I looked online, it said the process should take maybe 20 minutes. More than an hour in, I was not seeing much happening. I finished up and, looking at my case, couldn't tell if anything had happened. There was nickel on the copper wire I used to hang the case. My case was warm coloured. I know Nickel has a warmth to it, but still couldn't tell, after staring at it so long, if anything had happened, or if I was still looking at polished brass.

I should not the crystal ring definitely coated. Maybe due to it being such a small part the low voltage was fine. After a few days break or more, I decided I was going to try again. Googling about reactivating nickel for plating I found very confusing - lots of chemicals mentioned. I decided to try to dip my case again in my acid wash, but for longer this time. I was scared the 1st time and did 30 seconds. On my second attempt I left in for 2 minutes.

When plating, despite the bubbles and hearing this would affect the finish, I cranked the voltage to around 2.5 volts. I was likely being inpatient. There were lots of bubbles, but I could definitely see something happening this time.

Hi Charette.  Maybe a more concentrated solution would work better. From reading the solution improves the more it is used, needing flltering from time to time to remove particles. A small low rpm dc motor run through a speed controller mounted above the solution to spin the case would help with even plating. I paid less than a tenner, and managed to get down to one revolution per minute. Very curious to see the finished plating.

[Charette]

45 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Hi Charette.  Maybe a more concentrated solution would work better. From reading the solution improves the more it is used, needing flltering from time to time to remove particles. A small low rpm dc motor run through a speed controller mounted above the solution to spin the case would help with even plating. I paid less than a tenner, and managed to get down to one revolution per minute. Very curious to see the finished plating.

You may have caught the post before I finished it - see final photos showing now. If you zoom in on the finish it certainly doesn't look good but it looks nice to me on the wrist.

[Neverenoughwatches]

38 minutes ago, Charette said:

You may have caught the post before I finished it - see final photos showing now. If you zoom in on the finish it certainly doesn't look good but it looks nice to me on the wrist.

Some experimenting with the power supply should improve things. 40 amps per square foot of surface area is considered an appropriate current rate. Calculating a watch  case's area is a bit fiddly though. I'm thinking of taping up the case to cover it and then stripping it  back to measure the tape. Its an approximation but better than any guess i could make. Good case preparation is key to plating adherence. Great first attempt though