Polished SS center

[gregdolley]

Originally Posted by nylawbiz

Trevor, I appreciate your integrity to the past, but the fact is these watches are RARELY used for the purpose they claim to be made for. For example, unless you are attaching a DSSD to the drill bit on a oil well platform in the middle of the ocean, it will never get as deep as it is rated for. It's impossible. Even 300 meters is more than 99.9999999999999999999999999% of the population will ever see. GMT watches? Isn't it just as easy to have a second tiem zone on your cellphone, if you need to keep track of two time zones? Daytona? How often does the regular person need a stop watch? Milgauss? Who needs to keep track of the time inside a MRI?

The point that I am trying to make is that these watches are toys. For the armchair explorer, who's greatest adventure is reading about the bottom of the ocean in National Geographic, its fun to have a machine on your wrist that is capable of great feats. It's all hype, and thats just fine for me.

PCL's are a cosmetic embellishment to a Rolex. When they are not too scratched up, I think they add a lot to a watch. They are as necessary as the Rolex Crown on the watch's crown, or the mercedes insigna on a hour hand.

Just my opinion of course.

x2! "..keep track of time inside a MRI" - I almost spilled my drink!

You are so right! Most people who have a SD or DS don't even dive. And if they do, most are recreational divers and not the one's who live in a helium bell for two months before diving out at -500ft to fix the bottom of an oil rig. So 99.9% of people never need the helium release mechanism either. Which, btw, for those who don't know - this is what that release valve was made for - divers who lived in those bells would sometimes report that the crystal on their watch would pop off after a certain amount of pressurization. This is because the helium atom is small enough to get past the pressure seals and inside the watch. After so much pressure builds up on the inside, something has to give - and it happens to be the crystal. The helium release valve mechanism prevents this pressure build up.

I can see why some people need a GMT, but most who own one don't travel between multiple time zones; they just like the GMT.

-Greg

[The GMT Master]

The polished links on the latest generation of Rolexes have really upped the stakes in terms of cosmetic appearance, in my opinion, it really adds something to the watch. However, I'm in agreement that "proper" tool watches like the Sub, Explorer and Explorer II should definitely remain brushed. If I was diving, I'd far prefer my watch to be able to take the knocks rather than look flashy at the dinner table :reading:

[ROLEXOFMIAMI]

I love my PCL ON my gmt II c and my daytona

[txbikerdude]

i like them, makes the watch stand out

[gregdolley]

Originally Posted by TheVTCGuy

I agree, bigums and Brian, I love my PCLs... my Daytona just looks... I don't know... good with them. But I have to ask you guys a question. As much as I'd like to polish it up, I've been warned by AD after AD that if you polish a Rolex too much (more then 4 or 5 times during it's 30 year-lifetime), the metal will dull, actually tarnish, cats and dogs will start living together and life as we know it will cease to exist on Earth. Does this concern you at all? Do you ever see any ill effects from polishing it up?

I've mirror polished tons and tons of work-pieces, but with professional tools (see my earlier post about why not to use semi-chrome). So I don't know if what I'm about to tell you is also true when using the amateur stuff:

All the watch bracelets and cases that I've mirror polished (whether it was to just remove scratches, or convert a brushed finish to a mirror) have not shown any signs of tarnishing. There are a couple bracelets and one case that I've done more than five times. One bracelet was all SS and the others were 18k gold and SS. And I've also buffed my wedding ring at least a dozen times (14k gold). That doesn't show any signs of tarnishing either.

HOWEVER - back when I was a newbie polisher, I would practice on scrap work-pieces (well, not exactly scrap) - brass keys, pennies (97.5% copper from pre-1982, and the copper plated one's we have today), SS knives, my iPod, and anything I could get my hands. Some of these work-pieces _did_ show signs of tarnishing eventually (and I had only polished them once). The ones that tarnished were brass keys (not all of them, but specific ones). In fact, one of them tarnished so bad after just one month, that it actually looked worse than before I polished it. Before the polish, it was dull and scratched, and had a brassy color. Right after the polish, it was clean and so reflective, you could use it as a mirror to shave! Although, a month later, it started to turn dark brown and get purple blotches everywhere. It quickly lost all its reflective properties. I don't know why this happens to some work-pieces and not others. It's probably something with the metal (the tarnished keys were probably the exact same metal alloy since they were all made by the same manufacturer).

So, all in all, you don't need to worry about stainless steel or gold. I've never had them tarnish even after many polishings.

-Greg

[gregdolley]

Originally Posted by biggums

I can't answer that with 100% confidence but I would think these links are 100% solid SS with the same hardness throughout. I use caution when continuing my polishing practice with Simichrome. My almost new GMTIIc had a couple of dull lower links that cleaned up as new mirror finish with the stuff. I will use it maybe twice a year and keep a close eye on any unusual appearance changes.

I think the key to this is what you use to polish the metal!

Anyone with a warning or more information please chime in.

Biggums - you don't need to worry about removing too much steel with a hand polishing paste (see my previous post about what I do when polishing and why you might not want to use semi-chrome). There's just no way you could ever remove enough steel with a hand paste to even make the slightest noticable difference in the metal content. You would simply have to sit there for days on end, rubbing constantly, before you even shaved off 50 microns. The compund you'd need to use in order to remove any noticeable amount of metal would have to be _extremely_ abrasive and, if that were the case, they'd probably not call it "polishing" compound (it'd probably be called rust remover, tarnish remover, or something like that).

-Greg

[gregdolley]

Originally Posted by biggums

In any of my polishing posts I never intended anyone trying to polish a brushed finish. "Ain't gunna happen" do not try it.

My posts were for on going minor clean up on the polished surfaces for PCL's.

I know, but I think it was Jen who wanted to remove the brushed finish and have a mirror polish instead?

For ongoing clean up I would just use soap and water. Sure, it's not going to remove scratches, but it looks better to me (just my opinion), to have a few regular scratches on the PCL's as opposed to removing those scratches with semichrome and get stuck with the hazy, micro-scratched look. If you're not a perfectionist (like me), then using semichrome is an OK solution for most people. You won't see the micro-scratches in the shade, but they'll be noticeable when a light bulb is in the reflection, or in the sun.

-Greg