The Case Of The Green Case

[Chris Mabbott]

Well boyz & grrlz, things are starting to look pretty good as I plow through one project after another, like one a them thar watch fixin MACHINES

I received this really nice green case, no, really, I love the color and I was disputing with self, who else, whether or not to leave it green, because I love it like this, so unusual and kewl

But, as always, Mr Clean won the fight because, well, I wear my watches, daily, and this one I couldn't wear, except with my green jacket

Anyway, this is a quickie, have to be up early tomorrow so....
This is how it came to me, it was a flower, wilting in another persons garden, all alone, and did I mention it was green This watch is that huge that it's almost a wall clock, says a lot for the cut of the men that used to carry these beasts back in the day. In today's world, carrying this would be considered hard work

[Chris Mabbott]

The front and sides bore the brunt of the attack but the back also had considerable corrosion damage in the form of pitting. The front bezel was the worse for wear, very pitted

But after a few hours in a mild chemical bath, the green was gone from the case proper, but alas, the damage was more noticeable..

Here we see the bezel having a private time while the green nasties float away

[Chris Mabbott]

I've tried to capture the pitting and natural devastation of this lovely, heavy, HUUGE old case.. Reflective materials are a sod to photograph though..

[Chris Mabbott]

This stuff is like enamel, it's baked into the metal, tough as nails to remove.. Here I've tried a heavy, semi coarse buffing wheel with some 3k grit diamond paste, but man, this little section on the side took me 10 mins to buff away. Plus the black crap coming off forced me to keep washing my buffing wheels..

No matter, the circle of clear in the following shot is the result of an hours struggle and loads of black gunk

[Chris Mabbott]

This is the best I got after about 6 hours of buffing and polishing, I'm not too satisfied with this result.. So I decide to do the full strip job..

I start with a 1500 grit emery cloth and go for it... Unfortunately during my sanding, my hands and everything else were so dirty that I didn't take any photos, except when I was done

But I went the cycle from 1500, up to 6k grit, then I used various grades of diamond polish to remove the sanding marks... All in all it took me about 20 plus hours to restore this case, not consecutively, but almost

[Chris Mabbott]

THIS IS THE RESULT I WAS AFTER, yes my friends, this makes the time worth the effort, or is that the other way around

I was so happy with how this turned out that I sat and stared at it for hours, almost smoked a pack of cigs AND ENJOYED IT

So now when the movement is ready, it will have a nice clean home. This case is original to the movement and the main reason why I wanted to restore it. I could have used a spare 18s case, but that's cheating

I think this case was in the worst shape of all the ones I've done previously... I didn't go totally mad on it, there are still some small pit marks, but it is a 120 yr old case that has seen heavy use, so, character marks.

[Chris Mabbott]

Before & after front

[Chris Mabbott]

Reverse B4 & After

[tmac1956]

Chris:

Did you really use Mr. Clean?

Thanks!
Tom

[Chris Mabbott]

Tom, I'm Mr Clean, so in a way, yes

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great job Chris. Looks really nice. I had one that wasn't pitted as much as yours but I used buffing wheels with brown tripoli, white diamond and a black rouge. It really brought out the lustre. Well done.

[Bob Tascione]

Nice work Chris!
That was one ugly case! From the first pic I thought it was a steel case. I don't think I've ever seen one that green before. Looks like it came from a hundred year old ship wreck.
Bob

[Chris Mabbott]

Thanks guys.

It looks like it Bob, good comparison. I haven't seen one like this before either, but I had to have it I was heavily debating whether or not to leave it green because it did look kewl, ugly, but unusual. Anyway, I have lots of photos to remind me and at least now it has been saved from oblivion and I'll be using it again..