Dear all, been missing on the forums for a long while now and thought its time to contribute since I am slowly coming back to the dark side! This one is for you .trailboss99
Watch in Question is an old Cartier Santos Chronograph I had for years. V6F, top of the line then, with a 7753 Movement which you need to press a button on the side to change dates. My Estimates tell me it's around 8-9 years old. So My purpose today is to let you guys know we can achieve a good level of polish and refinish a watch without expensive and specialist tools. You just need some time, effort, and elbow grease.
Cartier Santos with the war marks and battered strap
The First Step is to remove the bezel screws to access the bezel, This watch has a glass/bezel push-down pressure construction, so by design even for the Gen, water-resistant will not be fantastic.
The polishing compounds that I will be using, namely, Autosol Stainless Steel Polish for the initial Polish, Autosol Scratch Removal of Scratches, and lastly Cape Cope for the polished Finish
After the Stainless Steel polish. The main purpose of this step is to remove small dinks and bigger scratches, it will create a multitude of smaller lighter scratches but that will be settled with the other compounds later
After the Scratch Remover. You can see that it's slightly brighter, but still has a lot of small scratches. It looks worse on camera than in real life.
After Cape Cod, We used to call it the magic cloth. Scratches are way less obvious, not capturable on camera, but yes scratches are still there. For disclaimer, this step takes a longer time, and be patient to slowly work the scratches out. For the final step(extremely important), buff to a shine with a microfibre or a cotton cloth.
Reinstallation of the Glass, followed by the Bezel
The next step is to work on the brushed surfaces, for this I recommend 3M buffing pads, from Fine to Microfine. For the buffing, do it in ONE direction, not up and down, but a single chosen direction along the grain. There is no other way around this, do not be lazy!
Fine approx 100-120 Grit (To remove bigger scratches)
SuperFine 200-300 Grit (To create sufficient lines as the canvas for your finishing touches with the UltraFine and MicroFine Pads)
UltraFine 500-600 Grit (You can stop here if you are not anal as Gen brushed surfaces is usually at this grit)
MicroFine. 800 Grit (I am looking for a satin-brushed finish, smooth and buttery so this is usually where I finish off the brushing)
Cleaning of the watch with a watch and jewellery cleaner, to stick to my theme, I am using Cartier's very own in house cleaner
Finally with new shoes on and ready to go out with me to face the world!
There you have it guys and gals, a simple, kind of the pocket way to restore your old watches to make it look relatively new again!
Watch in Question is an old Cartier Santos Chronograph I had for years. V6F, top of the line then, with a 7753 Movement which you need to press a button on the side to change dates. My Estimates tell me it's around 8-9 years old. So My purpose today is to let you guys know we can achieve a good level of polish and refinish a watch without expensive and specialist tools. You just need some time, effort, and elbow grease.
Cartier Santos with the war marks and battered strap
The First Step is to remove the bezel screws to access the bezel, This watch has a glass/bezel push-down pressure construction, so by design even for the Gen, water-resistant will not be fantastic.
The polishing compounds that I will be using, namely, Autosol Stainless Steel Polish for the initial Polish, Autosol Scratch Removal of Scratches, and lastly Cape Cope for the polished Finish
After the Stainless Steel polish. The main purpose of this step is to remove small dinks and bigger scratches, it will create a multitude of smaller lighter scratches but that will be settled with the other compounds later
After the Scratch Remover. You can see that it's slightly brighter, but still has a lot of small scratches. It looks worse on camera than in real life.
After Cape Cod, We used to call it the magic cloth. Scratches are way less obvious, not capturable on camera, but yes scratches are still there. For disclaimer, this step takes a longer time, and be patient to slowly work the scratches out. For the final step(extremely important), buff to a shine with a microfibre or a cotton cloth.
Reinstallation of the Glass, followed by the Bezel
The next step is to work on the brushed surfaces, for this I recommend 3M buffing pads, from Fine to Microfine. For the buffing, do it in ONE direction, not up and down, but a single chosen direction along the grain. There is no other way around this, do not be lazy!
Fine approx 100-120 Grit (To remove bigger scratches)
SuperFine 200-300 Grit (To create sufficient lines as the canvas for your finishing touches with the UltraFine and MicroFine Pads)
UltraFine 500-600 Grit (You can stop here if you are not anal as Gen brushed surfaces is usually at this grit)
MicroFine. 800 Grit (I am looking for a satin-brushed finish, smooth and buttery so this is usually where I finish off the brushing)
Cleaning of the watch with a watch and jewellery cleaner, to stick to my theme, I am using Cartier's very own in house cleaner
Finally with new shoes on and ready to go out with me to face the world!
There you have it guys and gals, a simple, kind of the pocket way to restore your old watches to make it look relatively new again!
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