# How hard is it to clean up a dial of an old watch?



## watch22

Many of the watches I see on eBay - the movement looks good; the case looks good. But the dial is a mess - mold? black spots. Water stains.

Is it possible to de-case these watches and just swab the dial clean?


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## Ray916MN

No, it is pretty much impossible to clean up dials with any kind of significant staining.

Of course there are exceptions, but they are rare and basically impossible to predict.


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## AID

I second that: most of the time it's either no success, or even worse - damage to a dial. However, there are some exceptions. One of them is sitting in front of me right now: Gruen Curvex from 30's. I thought the dial is damaged, but ended up cleaning it up with Rodico.

Rodico oftencleans dials by removing old dirt and fingerprints. Warm water gently rubbed can clean some dirt. But most of the time if it's bad, it's bad...


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## VEV 1138

This isn't a "do it yourself" solution to this, but there are folks out there who offer dial restoration... (and, of course, complete watch restorations, but some will do dials alone). And these can be "friendly" restorations where the dial remains as close to original as possible. I have no clue about the cost, but I've seen restored dials before and, if it is the right place, it can be pretty striking the "before and after"... 

Just a thought...


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## Chuck Linderman

VEV 138 is right the difference between "before" and "after" can be amazing!!
I've checked in to having a couple of dials restored, and to date the cost for the dial restoration would far exceed the value of the watch(s).
So what you invest is your call, if its a heirloom, thats another whole ballgame.I just replace the dial, its easy and cost effective.


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## watch22

Thanks for the info.

Maybe the Ukrainian franken hack shops should get in the restoration business. I'd buy a well-restored classic Soviet watch with all original parts. If you can restore a '70 'Cuda you should be able to restore a '70 Poljot.


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## AID

The thing is that with more "serious" vintage watches restored dials actually decrease the value. Almost any seasoned vintage collector would much rather have an original dial with faded colors and spots all over, than a shiny new redial, even if redial is an exact copy of the original. So, redialing business is kind of tricky, although often it's the only way to make watch usable.


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## Vaurien

AID_admin said:


> The thing is that with more "serious" vintage watches restored dials actually decrease the value. Almost any seasoned vintage collector would much rather have an original dial with faded colors and spots all over, than a shiny new redial, even if redial is an exact copy of the original. So, redialing business is kind of tricky, although often it's the only way to make watch usable.


But are speaking of cleaning, restoring, o redoing a dial? 
These are three different things!


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## AID

Vaurien said:


> But are speaking of cleaning, restoring, o redoing a dial?
> These are three different things!


You are correct. Perhaps I mixed these three topics  
Frankly speaking there are only two topics: cleaning and redialing. I don't know of any restoration of dials. If it cleans off, then it's clean. If it does not, then redial is the only option. Although some times it's mixed results, here is a story -

I was working on dial "cleaning" today, what a coincidence! I just got a Rolex Date from early 70's. Silver dial was in good condition with exception of two dark brown spots about 3mm each - by the edges of 3 o'clock and 12. Upon closer examination I saw that in these spots caused by moisture penetrated the clear coating dial is covered with. I carefully scratched these spots with a sharpened peg wood stick and broke through clear coat. Then I was able to remove brown spots. 
Because clear coating is broken on the dial in these spots, one still can see the spots, but instead of being dark brown on silver they are silver on silver and just a bit shinier than the rest of the dial. 
Is it improvement? Definitely! I'd say if before they were 100% noticeable, now they are only 20% or 25%. But is it a dial restoration? Hardly.
:roll:


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## watch22

Some dials are more durable than you may think.

As part of a different experiment, I tortured a low value Poljot (wasn't running well, anyway). I soaked the movement in light oil for a few days, then in WD40 for a few days and finally rinsed it in alcohol. After a short drying period, the movement started to run!

As a side effect - the dial cleaned up real nice with no ill effects.


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## JMS

Agree with last post. Some dials are more durable. Myself always found the Cyma to be the most durable, the Omega least durable.

Here is one I cleaned up myself, secret household cleaning agent. Now while it looked good with the aging, I was determined to try another. Don't try this yourself folks unless you are willing to toss the watch into the deep abyss if all goes wrong. I don't accept redials


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## watch22

That's an amazing improvement. In most cases, paint will stick to the underlying surface better than dirt will stick to paint.

What did you use - Simple Green?

Often mineral oil (baby oil) is an effective and gentle solvent.


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## JMS

watch22 said:


> That's an amazing improvement. In most cases, paint will stick to the underlying surface better than dirt will stick to paint.
> 
> What did you use - Simple Green?
> 
> Often mineral oil (baby oil) is an effective and gentle solvent.


Windex! A jewelery cloth, other microscopic tools and a couple hours and few beers. Once I realized it was really 2 tone and the text and paint was on their like no tomorrow I was safe to proceed........ah those beer times. don't make em now like those 40's pieces. Crystal still showed scratches at the point of pics


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## tintasuja

JMS said:


> Agree with last post. Some dials are more durable. Myself always found the Cyma to be the most durable, the Omega least durable.
> 
> Here is one I cleaned up myself, secret household cleaning agent. Now while it looked good with the aging, I was determined to try another. Don't try this yourself folks unless you are willing to toss the watch into the deep abyss if all goes wrong. I don't accept redials


Wow! That Cyma looks as good as new. Even better, with a little patina...


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## phd

Wow! I'm impressed by the Cyma cleanup!

My own limited attempts at dial-cleaning have been discouraging. Rodico or a gentle soap are fine, but they won't remove more than superficial dirt. I usually find that the lettering and "ticks" on the dial come off long before the dirt does. And, often, the whole dial has a layer of clear varnish (?) - stains and spots seem to develop underneath this layer, and can't be removed without destroying the varnish. 

All too often, I start cleaning, and peering through a magnifier, and it's all going fine.....fine....fine....and then I put down the magnifier and realize that the dial is ruined - it's sometimes easy to clean one spot, but very difficult to get the whole dial looking uniform.


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## tanwill

Hehe........u let the secret out ......... yes, its mineral oil (baby oil) !


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