Hello! New guy with a small project and a small watch obsession

[Jonwright86]

Hello all, I’m Jon Wright. I’m a Flight Test engineer from California working at Scaled Composites. Lots of hobbies, flying, road racing vintage formula cars, photography (film and digital) sailing, about a million other things, and of course watches…

I have few interesting watches in the collection ranging from a Casio Royal to a JB Blancpain Model 2000 with Arabic Script. 
Being a flight test engineer and nerd, I have always kept my eyes peeled for an original Douglas Skindiver Worldtimer in decent condition. (Supposedly Niel Armstrongs Daily watch of choice if you believe the stories) Today I pulled the trigger on one, it seems to have good bones, runs, and the white script on the bezel isn’t all worn off like many examples I’ve seen but I could use some advice on cleaning it up. My primary question is what would be a safe way to brighten up the white markings on the plastic bezel without removing the paint or damaging anything? I’d also like to clean up the acrylic crystal, but I haven’t done that before. I’ve modded some sekios and orients in the past, but this is kinda a different level of watch repair. Any advice is welcome! And thanks for your time! (Watch joke) 

[RichardHarris123]

Hello and welcome from Leeds, England.  No idea about cleaning the bezel without further damage.  The crystal looks in decent condition, so a quick polish might suffice, if not you need various grits of sand paper, followed by a  polish.  Plenty of videos on doing so. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

13 hours ago, Jonwright86 said:

Hello all, I’m Jon Wright. I’m a Flight Test engineer from California working at Scaled Composites. Lots of hobbies, flying, road racing vintage formula cars, photography (film and digital) sailing, about a million other things, and of course watches…

I have few interesting watches in the collection ranging from a Casio Royal to a JB Blancpain Model 2000 with Arabic Script. 
Being a flight test engineer and nerd, I have always kept my eyes peeled for an original Douglas Skindiver Worldtimer in decent condition. (Supposedly Niel Armstrongs Daily watch of choice if you believe the stories) Today I pulled the trigger on one, it seems to have good bones, runs, and the white script on the bezel isn’t all worn off like many examples I’ve seen but I could use some advice on cleaning it up. My primary question is what would be a safe way to brighten up the white markings on the plastic bezel without removing the paint or damaging anything? I’d also like to clean up the acrylic crystal, but I haven’t done that before. I’ve modded some sekios and orients in the past, but this is kinda a different level of watch repair. Any advice is welcome! And thanks for your time! (Watch joke) 

I'm really curious about the Armstrong story, nothing against your watch but it does look like a basic diver of which there are many many brand names out there. Love to see the movement Jon.  Now you have me researching his watch

[Nucejoe]

Welcome to the WRT forum.

[Jonwright86]

12 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I'm really curious about the Armstrong story, nothing against your watch but it does look like a basic diver of which there are many many brand names out there. Love to see the movement Jon.  Now you have me researching his watch

https://timeandtidewatches.com/neil-armstrongs-watch-but-not-the-one-you-think/
 

Armstrong for sure owned one, and according to his family, he wore it a lot, his Douglass showed lots of signs of wear when it was auctioned off after his passing, but there are no real photos of him wearing it. Still fun bit of watch history not a lot of people know about and cost effective way to buy the same kind of watch that may have accompanied him on his trips I. The X-15, or testing the lunar lander at Edwards AFB,

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, Jonwright86 said:

https://timeandtidewatches.com/neil-armstrongs-watch-but-not-the-one-you-think/
 

Armstrong for sure owned one, and according to his family, he wore it a lot, his Douglass showed lots of signs of wear when it was auctioned off after his passing, but there are no real photos of him wearing it. Still fun bit of watch history not a lot of people know about and cost effective way to buy the same kind of watch that may have accompanied him on his trips I. The X-15, or testing the lunar lander at Edwards AFB,

No vintage ones available here in the UK at the moment only modern revived versions . But a few Douglas and the same style Wolbrook divers in the US.  This is yet another iconic watch to keep my eyes peeled for. You've future impacted my bank balance Jon but i forgive you

[JohnR725]

7 hours ago, RichardHarris123 said:

No idea about cleaning the bezel without further damage

you might build a wash the bezel but typically anything with paint old paint as a habit of washing away if you watch it. The same with dials often times you've want to clean up their dials and that's basically impossible you might get away with a little bit but everything involving visual stuff cleaning can become an issue and usually just want to not as it will probably end up worse.