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[Rolex] Before and after - Yuki aged 1675 Blueberry insert

LuminorReptar

RepTime BST Mod
27/3/17
1,917
970
113
Beyond the Pines.
Hey guys,

This was something of a 'first attempt' for me and I wanted to share the results!

My friend recently ordered a gorgeous Rolex 1675 "Blueberry" with Big Red GMT hand from our own Kilo (my friend is not on the forums, I helped him coordinate the build)

Cartel base, VN dial, Raffles GMT hand (IIRC) and Yuki insert.

On receiving back the build, his only request was to further age the insert.. The existing look was good, but he wanted more patina. Having read up on how to do it, I decided to give it a shot (after all - worst case scenario we could order another one from Yuki...)

I strapped on some finger cots, prepped a small ceramic bowl, filled it with 70% bleach and 30% water and got to work. It took about 5-10 minutes for the fading to start taking place, as I needed to remove the top lacquer first. Once the color started fading the change was quite rapid and only took about another 5 minutes. I periodically removed the insert from the bleach to ensure the color change was gradual.

I had my fingers covered with latex so I felt I had more control on the fade, since no oil from my hands was playing any role in the fading (speculative). I tried to focus my efforts on the outer area of the insert as I wanted the fade to appear gradual from outside inwards (the outside being lighter than the inside)..

Anyway without blabbing on and on - here is the end result! I'm happy with how it turned out, and comparing it with some of our references of gen I think it looks pretty convincing:


[Before]






[After]









[Gen.. Reference]


 

lee714

Active Member
15/8/12
217
4
18
Nice! how much did this cost to get modded? Would love to commission someone/buy one premade.