“Wow! My watch looks great!”
Don’t you just love to hear those words from your customer after you deliver their watch repair? A customer’s first impression of the services you’ve rendered often sets the tone for the rest of the season. A great looking polished and refined case and band seems to validate the cost of your customer’s watch repair. After all, the exterior of the watch is all your customer gets to see. So in turn, your customers ultimately determine the acceptability of your work by its final exterior appearance.
Of course, it’s most important that all technical aspects of the watch movement are correct. After all, a great looking case and band will not cover up poor technical workmanship. On the other hand, however, a precisely performed watch repair installed in an unpolished or dirty case makes the entire job appear halfway done.
Here’s how to light your customers’ eyes with these simple watch polishing tips—
Beau Allain’s Top Watch Polishing Tips
Remember, plated cases need to be cleaned in the ultrasonic and not buffed or polished. Here are a few of Beau’s top watch polishing tips—
- Keep in mind that you never want to over polish. It affects the look of the watch, and you can’t undo it.
- Before polishing a two-tone watch, determine if it’s plated otherwise you’ll polish off the gold plating. A high end, two-tone watch will be stainless and gold — either 14K or 18K — eliminating this concern.
- I like to polish with a 11/2” muslin buff (17-6431). It has good tension and the width means I can apply the polish with one side, then remove the polish with the other side without changing buffs.
- When you’re polishing a satin band, I like to start with a lower micron buff, then come back with a Bergeron Satin Wheel (17-8743).
Shawn Albert’s Watch Polishing Tips
- Apply the Watch Masking Tape (47-3231), which comes in 3mm, 6mm, 7mm, and 8mm widths, to protect areas on the watch that you don’t want polished.
- Then, check out our supply of various rouges for finishing specific types of metals. Try using Merard Luxor® Polishing Kit (47-3221) to put that final high luster finish on metal bands and cases.
- For stainless steel, use only the Merard Luxor® White Line Polishing Compound which comes in the kit mentioned above and separately (47-3224). Other polishes will ‘cloud’ the steel.”
Keep it Crystal Clear
As a final thought, we find that people who do the best jobs in their professions do the little extra things better than anyone else. So here is an often-overlooked detail. How about the scratches on the watch crystal? Many times that part of the watch is neglected. And, after all, it is the place we look to actually see the time. Do you polish the crystal? It is the extra touch you can give to make the customer’s first impression one they will remember and tell their friends about. Try the Crystal-Kleer (Re-New-All) Plastic Renewer (47-3100) and the PolyWatch Scratch Remover (64-5100) as good scratch removers for all of those plastic crystals.
Here’s a quick step-by-step for a smooth watch polishing process
Take that extra time that your competitors don’t with these watch polishing tips to make those cases, bands, and crystals pop! Then, you’ll be pleased when you hear your customer say, “Wow! My watch looks great!”
