Botched AR removal?

[exori]

Got my first pammy from a trusted dealer here.
Its supposedly sapphire, so i tried a scotch brite and elbow grease for 15 mins.. Now the glass is colorless, with lots of tiny scratches.
I tried brasso and toothpaste afterward, but nothing could save my poor crystal!

The purplish hue is due to the brasso and not the AR btw.

Did i scratch the sapphire, or did i get a mineral glass?
Should i suck it up and buy a new crystal?:facepalm:

 

[trailboss99]

A Scotch-Brite should not scratch sapphire, no.
I prefer a very fine grade of steel wool, less chance of damaging the crystal.



Col.

 

[Wiz]

Are we talking green scotchbrite?

 

[COLDI]

Try some acetone that works well with removing AR

 

[exori]

yep, green scotchbrite.
gonna give it another shot with acetone
thanks for your input guys!

 

[hooligan]

There was AR coating on the *outside* of the crystal?

 

[exori]

it was on the inside

 

[Wiz]

yep, green scotchbrite.
gonna give it another shot with acetone
thanks for your input guys!

Let's hope it's just an AR layer that you scratched. If you really strached the crystal itself, maybe you should consider getting a new one. Contact Jackson, it's not that expensive.

 

[Lebron James]

Sort of a noob question, but is AR removal popular because gen pams have no AR, or is the gen AR just colorless?

 

[trailboss99]

Gens have no AR in this case mate.


Col.

 

[pennerei]

i scratched my saphir with a scotch-brite too and was as shocked as you because i thought that its impossible to scratch the saphir glas with a scotch

 

[txcollector]

Gens have no AR in this case mate.


Col.

That's not correct though. Pre-v models don't have AR but the historic models do. That's a 111 H series or later and those have colorless (or very faint blue) single AR.

To answer the why remove AR question, people remove it because it's better to have no AR than the awful strong blue AR that comes with the reps.

To answer the OP, it could either be the AR scratched or mineral crystal (so better check with your dealer). It looks like the crystal was scratched but you can still give another try. Use cape cod.

If that's residual AR scratched lots of elbow grease with cape cod will remove it.

If it's scratched and you were sold a sapphire crystal I'd contact your dealer.

i scratched my saphir with a scotch-brite too and was as shocked as you because i thought that its impossible to scratch the saphir glas with a scotch

it would be very hard to do that kind of damage with scotch on a real sapphire crystal, specially if you are not using power tools.

 

[Wiz]

+1

Green Scotch Brite can't damage a real sapphire crystal without mechanical force.

To figure out if you've scratched an AR coating, try to rub the cape cod cloth against a piece of paper, and then rub the crystal against this permeated paper. It's better than rubbing the cape cod cloth directly against the crystal.

 

[hooligan]

Gen PAMs had AR coating starting with the C series (circa 2000).

However, the AR on gen PAMs is VERY subtle and not horribly effective. So, no AR is closer to being accurate than the awful, overly-blue AR that some reps have.

 

[tommy_boy]

Now's the time to buy a new crystal from Tat or Jackson, a crystal press from Alan and change it. Jump in to the magical world of watch modification!

(Easy for me to say. I destroyed my first mod project watch. Katt has the, um, remains.)

 

[deloreandmc]

or just scratch it more, everywhere, and start a vintage

 

[takashi]

Hmmm, why not try my ready made glasses I am sure you will like it. Or alternatively, drop me a PM. We have complete tools to remove your AR thoroughly, even if your sapphire has scratches, we can repolish it.

 

[pennerei]

@takashi
How much is repolishing a Saphir Glas?

 

[takashi]

Very reasonable price of 30SGD for scratched sapphire. This process involves manual labour and there is no shortcut (unless of course just get a new glass).

For removal of AR on existing sapphire, usually we use chemical. Those stubborn coatings will have to go through diamond polishing.

 

[exori]

dealer said he checked it was sapphire. so ill take his word for it. no point sending it to and fro and incurring more costs and bad blood prolly better to get a new crystal off the shelf.

hope others can learn from my costly lesson! gotta be gentle to your lovely pams