Crystal polishing

I have a new-old Seiko Bellmatic that needs a good crystal clean up. What's the best method for doing it? I'll change it if need be but would like to try polishing it up first.

Lots of differing opinions out there:

- You can remove the scratches yourself as follows. Follow the steps below to remove the back cover and take the movement out of the case. Pour a little Brasso on the corner of a clean rag and rub the scratches away. It may take a little time, but it works! Brasso is mildly abrasive and works well on plastic crystals. Buff with a dry clean cloth.

- If you have a dremmel you can buy polishing bits and polishing compound which also work extremely well. This takes a little practice and skill as you can sometimes polish too deeply and leave ripples in the crystal, so be careful!

- Actual TOTAL polishing time was about 3 minutes. So what have I actually proved ? I believe both Displex & Brasso do a great job. The Brasso will take a little bit longer, but so what. I have never bought or tried Polywatch, but as I've just shown, I don't think I need to !

-OK, if your watch has an acrylic (plastic) crystal then the answer is yes. People use different compounds to do this but it is possible to use Brasso or specialist polishes such as Polywatch; it has been known to use toothpaste, in this case I would advise the smoker's variety! Anyway, a little of the selected polishing compound on a soft cloth and rub the crystal in circular motions; this should do the trick for minor/medium scratches. Deeper scratches will require more effort and sometimes it is necessary to follow the line of the scratch first as opposed to the circular motion, then the circular motion. Polish dried compound off and hey presto, with a little effort the crystal will be like new.

-A mineral crystal is a pretty big problem if it gets chipped or scratched. You can't polish this yourself unless you have access to optical lens polishing equipment. My suggestion is to get a new crystal fitted - pretty cheap, quick and simple for a decent watchmaker.

-A sapphire crystal is very very difficult to scratch in the first place - a diamond will do it so avoid contact with diamond jewellery for example. A sapphire will chip more easily so beware of metal catches on door frames and the like. Anyway, if the sapphire does get scratches then if it bothers you I'm afraid it is new crystal time. Please don't let anyone fool you into thinking that a sapphire crystal is very expensive - depending on the brand of watch in question then it is possible to have a sapphire bought and fitted for anything from around £30.00 to £90.00 and up.

Thanks Robert! I have some Brasso, tried it, but guess I need to keep working on it. Didn't seem to do much, but i only gave it 2 rubdowns. I'll keep at it.

cski wrote:

Thanks Robert! I have some Brasso, tried it, but guess I need to keep working on it. Didn't seem to do much, but i only gave it 2 rubdowns. I'll keep at it.

If its hardlex it will work eventually from everything I have read, but if its mineral - replace it if its that bad because its not really going to do much. My recollection is that the Bellmatics had acrylic crystals on them so the brasso ought to work just fine but if its been replaced, I'm wrong, or they changed what type of crystal in the '67 to '76 run for the model then it may just be a replacement.

I am not sure what the crystal is made of, the plastic ones are easy to clean. anything else I would replace.

I use Motorcycle windshield polish Novus #2.

Well I've polished a bunch of times; still a few deep scratches. I can see how the rest of it has improved. Probably best to just swap it.