How to make your crystals and ceramics Olephobic/Hydrophobic

[All_Heart]

I noticed the Gen Crystal on my GMT II is not quite as hydrophobic as the one on my 41mm VSF Sub so I often wear the Sub.

When I wash my hands, the water does not glide over it like it does on my VSF and when I wipe smudges, I tend to need to wipe it briskly a few times to clear out and even so it still has that greasy haze sometimes while 2-3 wipes over
my VSF makes it already crystal clear.

After watching a video of Jerry-Rigs-Everything removing scratches from iPhones screens, I noticed a liquid that he used to restore the screen it so I decided to coat my watches with the same Oleophobic Nano coat liquid he used to make iPhone screens silky smooth even for greasy fingers

What I used:

1. 9H Nano Oleophobic Coating
2. Plastic stem Q-tips (cotton tips sliced off cleanly)
3. Latex gloves to spread it around
4. UV Lamp or Cool White lamp

I did not remove the bezel when I did this and I applied it to the bezel too, but for this illustration I removed it -just in case some of you might want to do one of those brilliant paint mods here by [mention]KJ2020 [/mention]

This Olephobic coating will ruin your chances of a paint mod as the bezel will repel oil and water so your paint will just bead and not have the glorious capillary effect you need to coat them evenly.

Using the q-tip stems as dropper, I dip it and then cover the other end with my finger to create a vacuum to pick up the liquid then I place the wet tip on the cyclops and lightly move
my finger to slowly bleed that liquid on the crystal.

Note:
I press it lightly on the cyclops for control -so it doesn’t all just dump the liquid and then I press my finger firmly when I’ve had enough and return any excess back in the bottle.

I used latex gloves to spread thin coats and did 3-4 coats with amazing results.

If you’re like me who likes looking at shiny things, you’ll probably like this. Otherwise, thanks for your time.

 

[mech500]

Interesting read, that’s for the write up.

It’s great how we’re now modding gens to be more like rep. Haha.

Couple of questions:

Doesn’t the coating add a micro swirl texture ? Might be is invisible 99% of the time but on that 1% occasion, in the right light and angle, you might see it?

Suppose it’s hard to tell on a black dial watch but if it were a white dial, it would be interesting to see if the coating impacted on the dial hue when viewed through the coating.

Also out of interest did you notice any impact on the AR?

Thank again for sharing. Always interesting to read.

 

[All_Heart]

No impact at all on the hue and there are no noticeable differences even with high magnification loop.

Clarity wise, I would say its clearer after the coating and has anti finger print qualities.

You can really feel the difference when wiping with a soft cloth or micro fiber vs with an untreated glass. It just glides smoothly over the surface as you wipe it and with just 2-3 wipes all smudges are gone.

I’ve used the same product on Pallets and pallet forks and amazingly even if you dip a treated pallet fork in oil, it comes out oil free. That’s how strong its anti-finger print quality is.

 

[KJ2020]

Looks interesting bro, I'd like to try it sometime on a paint modded insert. It could give the markers a permanent coat if it doesn't change the look much. I've tried several different clear coat methods but so far only gotten worse appearances as the coating material has eaten into or mixed with the paint.

Need something that won't disturb the texture in the marker wells. I also wonder about putting it on the flat upper insert surface. I don't know if it's needed there so I might try just filling the wells. How is it removed if it gets where you don't want it?

Thanks for the share!

 

[All_Heart]

[mention]KJ2020 [/mention]
The nano coat is invisible. It changes the ionic properties of the surface to make it repel oil and water.

They say its rated 9H hardness which makes it pretty tough to get off.

If you notice areas of your phone screen that looks smudgy its where the 9H Nano coat has worn off and re-coating it makes it look like brand new again.

Here’s the video where I got the idea, you can skip to minute mark 00’05’02 if you want to see the Oleophobic application:

https://youtu.be/q90BY07oO4U

I went crazy with it and applied it on anything that I dont like to fog or smudge so all my eye loops, glasses, watches, gen rolex dials, gen rolex watch hands, Canon camera lenses, rifle scopes, red dots, you name it.

My rep watches now won’t bond with any of the paint mods you shared here. ????

I’ve ordered Cerium Oxide and planning to remove it by hand. Its the only thing fine enough to probably bond with it and take the coat off the Ceramic bezel surface just so I can try yoyr paint mod

 

[jjw1610]

Interesting mod. I imagine that it is the same principle as anti-fingerprint coatings on glasses and the like. As mentioned above, I'm curious about how this would affect the anti-reflective properties of the crystal since the thickness/index of refraction of the anti-reflective coating has to be so specific to in order for it to work fully. I suppose if the anti-smudge coating is thin enough it wouldn't harm the AR properties too much.

 

[All_Heart]

Interesting mod. I imagine that it is the same principle as anti-fingerprint coatings on glasses and the like. As mentioned above, I'm curious about how this would affect the anti-reflective properties of the crystal since the thickness/index of refraction of the anti-reflective coating has to be so specific to in order for it to work fully. I suppose if the anti-smudge coating is thin enough it wouldn't harm the AR properties too much.

Although I don’t notice any changes on the AR of the Gen Crystal cyclops, I decided not to use it on my Full 2xAR Prof crystals. They are already fairly oleophobic albeit not at slick as the 9H Nano. The potential benefit just does not outweigh the risk of weakening the AR.

I figured if the AR coat wears off, Steve’s oleophobic coat would be gone too. I don’t expect him to apply the blue AR over it, if anything, the 9h coat would be on top of the AR layer

 

[mech500]

Have you tried it on stainless?

Wondering if it could help brushed stainless bezels looks less fingerprinty.

The cases on royal oaks get a bit foggy looking, around the perimeter of the bezel - again, it would be interesting to see if this could help keep them shiny for longer in between cleaning.


Sent from my iPhone using RWI

 

[All_Heart]

Have you tried it on stainless?

Wondering if it could help brushed stainless bezels looks less fingerprinty.

The cases on royal oaks get a bit foggy looking, around the perimeter of the bezel - again, it would be interesting to see if this could help keep them shiny for longer in between cleaning.


Sent from my iPhone using RWI

Paint mods wont bond to the bezel’s platinum DLC wells after zI treated my VSF bezel so I think It should help with 904L if it indeed bonds to metals… you’ll have to do a few coats, but even so it might not last long.

I’m also concerned about lubrication between the bracelet links, the oil will wick away and your bracelet might start to squeak. Remember this is Oleophobic and it repels oil substances..

Goodluck though, please share your finings here if you decide to try it

 

[Watchmero]

how is the coating holding up? Still working well?

 

[All_Heart]

how is the coating holding up? Still working well?

Wow how time flies. It lasted a little over a year despite my frequent wiping. So far so good! I’m applying it now to everything I don’t want smudged.

From sunglasses to helmet visors, laptop screens, rear view mirrors, you name it! Man I realized just now I went nuts with it since posting this.

 

[Watchmero]

Any chance you could post up a picture of the bottle your using? Or if easier a like to the coating that you bought?

Thanks!

 

[Seadwellermike]

Just stumbled in this thread, and any automotive ceramic coat will be thin enough to work (I’ve used GlideCoat and Crystal Serum lite with EXO14 all with great results ESPECIALLY on the gold plated stuff!)

 

[Watchmero]

I ended up using crystal serum on mine and it’s still working well. Great tip from the OP.