Polishing a watch crystal

[wildoliver]

I've managed to get a fairly hard to get hold of Seiko dive watch for my other halfs birthday that's coming up soon, it's in frankly amazing condition, but looks like it's maybe been stored on it's crystal as it's got a tiny circle of scratching in the centre of the crystal (must be the high spot).

It's a hardlex crystal, is it possible to polish it out with jewellers rouge? Or is it new glass time? I hope not as it will be a sod to get.

[mikeveal]

All you need to know

[wildoliver]

Yes thank you for that very helpful response, I had already googled it and found the usual bunch of posts recommending a variety of unusual remedies including one about chunky peanut butter.

However I put more trust in the very knowledgable guys on here who work with jewellery for a job than some lunatic on the Internet with a peanut butter fetish.

Have a slow clap though and be proud in your retro put down!

[mikeveal]

Its not a put down, you're being over sensitive treacle.
I'd never heard of Hardlex, so I looked it up.

https://rejzor.wordpress.com/tag/hardlex/
Which is the fourth thing that comes up when you google Hardlex.

Website said:

Hardlex can be found on pretty much every single Seiko watch that is not using acrylic or sapphire crystal. Like mineral crystal, every scratch on it, is a permanent one.

The ubiquitous turd excepted, you can polish a scratch out of any material. The link shows that Hardlex has a hardness of >650 vickers, compared to 20 vickers for an acrylic crystal. Which means that you'll be there for ages trying to get the scratch out by hand. The harder the material, the longer to polish.

Here is a link that compares Vickers to Mohs hardness, to give you an idea of how difficult the material may be to polish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_minera...

[Variomatic]

Hardlex is very difficult to polish - it's what makes it relatively scratch resistant in the first place. There are polishes out there that'll do it but, as already said, polishing by hand will be a LONG process. You're also likely to find that appropriate polishes cost more than a new glass in the first place!

Can you give the case / cal number off the back (4 characters, hyphen, 4 characters) and I'll see what the chance of a replacement is.

Edited by Variomatic on Thursday 9th July 12:45

[wildoliver]

Thanks chaps much appreciated. And my response was slightly tongue in cheek.

I'll get the model no when I get home, I'm surprised it's scratched my 007 still looks like new and overall this watch is mint, it's just a tiny circle of scratches in the centre of the (seemingly flat but obviously not) crystal.

Mind you will be a send away to someone job even though I have a crystal press every single time I've tried to fit a glass crystal I've cracked it. Would be nice if I could get a domed ar coated crystal for it!

[mikeveal]

No offence taken, but then again how do you know I'm not some lunatic on the internet with a peanut butter fetish?

[GC8]

Smooth or Crunchy?

[wildoliver]

Crunchy.

The watch is a 4205-0146