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How do you clean your watches?

This is the place to learn all about watches and how they tick. Share your knowledge and how-tos with the rest of the class.
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watchpalooza
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How do you clean your watches?

Post by watchpalooza »

Inspired by this post by [mention]AndroidIsAwesome[/mention], curious how you guys clean your watches. A place to share cleaning and renovation tips and practices. Also feel free to post before and after photos to show off your work.
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by AndroidIsAwesome »

I posted something similar in the summer here:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1062

Basically what I do is disassemble whatever pieces I can on the watch and every bracelet link possible, plus all the springbars and pins. Then using warm water and about 15 drops of dish soap I mix it well in an old shallow container.

Then I submerge all the parts that can get wet in the mixture and leave it for 15 minutes or so. Then I'll take a new soft toothbrush and scrub every part of the bracelet pieces and pins. For harder grime I use a toothpick. After all the dirt is off I'll submerge it all in another container of clean cold water for 15 minutes. Then move it into another container of clean water until I know all the soap is gone. Finally I lay everything into a container with a towel and dry with a hair dryer on cool.

Now for the watch itself. If it's a diving watch and I know the seals inside are in working condition and I've made sure the case and crown are sealed, then I'll do the same process that I did for the bracelet. If it's not waterproof then I will use the toothbrush with the soap warm water mixture and scrub the caseback and lugs really well but making sure I don't get water into the watch. For the crystal and bezel I use cotton swabs dipped into the soap water, and toothpicks around the bezel and in the lug holes. Then I will take a foam paintbrush and cold clean water and go over the watch to remove the soap. Then I'll do that again with a dry brush, followed by a dry cotton swab and hair dryer.

Finally I reassemble and wipe with a clean microfiber cloth.

This method has worked very well on my watches and is super cheap. If your bracelet uses some sort of locking compound in the pins then this way might not work so well as I'd imagine the soap will remove the compound. Furthermore, if you have a UV jewellery cleaner then that's probably the best way to clean stuff.

Other useful tools- I have a waterpik flosser that works great as a mini pressure washer but they're expensive. I also found that using a Dyson hair dryer works especially well on the cool setting with high speed.

You'd be amazed at how much dirt gets stuck in a watch bracelet.
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by Animal Mother »

I keep it really simple for my metal watches.
Running hot water in the sink, nail brush and antibacterial hand cleanser and give it a good old scrub. I'm only careful around non-screwdown crown and acrylic crystals.
Dry with toilet roll and leave on an open surface to air dry.

For my bronze watch I wipe it down with a babywipe and if I want to restore shine I use a drop of lemon juice.
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by cortman »

So far I've just used dish soap under a faucet, and rubbed it on with my hands. I've only needed to clean my steel sport watches so far, so that method has worked out pretty well.
I have an ultrasonic cleaner that I use for cleaning fishing reels, does anyone use those? Can you even put a watch head in one?
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by quincas »

I am not sure if it’s a risk to take. I figure that if i don’t submerge the watch, there should be minimal risk to the seals and gaskets.

I use a concentrated alkali based cleaner in a spray bottle and saturate the watch and bracelet. After about 10-15 seconds, you see black gunk leech out - like powdered black pepper. Yuck!

It’s gross and satisfying at the same time. Gross that your watch has so much dirt and satisfying that your watch becomes squeaky clean. And it does feel really clean.

I live in a hot and humid climate. After wearing a watch on bracelet for awhile, there’s an stubborn odor that’s impossible (comes back after 2 days) to get rid. Unless you use this alkali shower.

It works really, really well.
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by Conchita Turtle »

Usually, eyeglasses lenses microfibre cleaning cloth. If there is more dirt, wet paper tissue.
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by watchpalooza »

Conchita Turtle wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 12:00 pm Usually, eyeglasses lenses microfibre cleaning cloth. If there is more dirt, wet paper tissue.
This is a good practice...I wipe each watch with a microfiber cloth after wearing before putting it away. The only exception is my bronze diver, which I leave with all the hand oils, etc to develop patina.
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by Sporkboy »

I do just about the same as AndroidisAwesome with a couple of changes. If the watch is new to me, then I will take out the movement and all removable crowns/pushers to check the gaskets and replace/lube as needed.

I have also started to use an electric toothbrush and it really helps speed up the cleaning. Even a quick dip of the brush into a mild soapy solution can remove an amazing amount of buildup. I recently upgraded my wife’s toothbrush to a newer model so I got to keep the old one for watch cleaning. After market heads are available on Amazon.

Unrelated, modern electric toothbrushes are amazing, highly recommended piece of dental hygiene kit. I resisted for a long time, but it really is a lot better.
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by AndroidIsAwesome »

I'm back to clean a 556i. This is by far the nastiest watch I've bought. I knew it was bad but not this bad. I spent about 4.5 hours cleaning it and another 2 trying to get a stripped screw off the bracelet to no avail. The watch cleaned up beautifully however. Cleaning a watch yourself really helps you appreciate it more in the end. Sure there are scratches on this watch but it is a tool watch after all right? I'll update tomorrow if I can get the bracelet fixed.

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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by mplsabdullah »

Great work [emoji106]

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%99 of people do not notice or care whats on your wrist. All that matters is that YOU like what you see.
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by Stretch44 »

Wow, great job. That poor watch has had a rough go, but now has a good home. It's like a rescue watch.
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Re: How do you clean your watches?

Post by Sporkboy »

That looks great. It is always nice to get a neglected tool back into fighting shape. I agree that it makes you appreciate it more since you have to dig into all of the grooves, angles and really look at the small design points that you would otherwise miss. Somehow the dirt knows how to find them.
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