how do you make a new case look aged?

[If you see Kay]

Thinking of getting a vintage Rollie, but want it to be authentic looking and going to age it. Having a shiny brand new case for a 40 year old watch just doesn't seem to cut it so in goes the aging.

How do most of you age the case, save for except throwing the case in a bag of rocks? I was just thinking of using some fine polishing papers and sanding the sheen off. Same with the crystal. Maybe put in a few strategic deeper nicks in the case?

what say you vintage experts?

 

[cwazy1]

if you dont want to rock it, you can use a dremel with a polishing bit and use a fairly coarse polishing compound and go at the edges to soften it up a little. then follow up with some 'strategic' deeper gouges, and then finally give it another polish with a finer compound to soften the deep gouges.

 

[If you see Kay]

yeah, that's what I was thinking, but never thought of the dremel.

I assume low speed instead of the 35,000 rpm, right

I was going to do this with the movement in place. Don't want to bother with removing it. yeah. lazy ass way.

 

[cwazy1]

yeah, well you could do it with a high grit sand paper as well, but its just faster with dremel. when I do it, i go in with a sanding bit, around 200grit to the edges to soften, maybe give it a few passes here and there on random surfaces... then I go in with a diamond precision bit to do a bit more damage on some corners (only reason i use a diamond bit is because they're small and precise, otherwise a small file will work) and then i follow up with 'red compound' and a polishing wheel bit. ends up being 15 mins of work, which is why dremel is ftw

 

[Tagfan1]

I used a small set of files and assorted sand papers. You should age and bleach the bezel as well as open up the CGs Once you have completed this you may find you want to remove the movement and age the dial and hands as the will look out of place. The entire process took about 2hrs.

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[Bonesey]

Have a look through the tutorial in my sig mate. Should give you some ideas.