And therein lies the real challenge, it seems. I have a '71 blue dial in marginally better shape than your 'before' shot, but with a bunch of small, sharp and visually irritating dings in that otherwise nice, crisp shoulder. Problem is, I have yet to see a refinish that managed to keep that edge as sharp as it was in the original, and that crisp line is one of the real virtues of this case design in my opinion.
Your refinish looks outstanding, and this is a great post -- ZERO critique implied. Just musing on inherent dilemma. I wonder if this is one of those things where you can't quite go home to the original line again. (Jonathan is going to have a chance to weigh in on the question firsthand very soon.)
To true, no matter how skilled you are the lines may be softened but i hope to achieve the same result but with crisper lines on Big Blue. These cases are stamped and then machined to very close tolerances, Im not entirely sure on the polishing process but believe the equipment they use is high end and very accurate, quite hard to replicate in the home workshop.
For big blue I'll be making angled blocks to sand with and trying to remove as little of the original finish as posable and not over restore the case. The big dent in the top right will still remain (but reduced) and it will be part of the watches history (wabi) as will the hands etc.
I have mused with the idea of mounting the case on a post and using the lathe to do the re-finishing, this is the next step and one i will practice on an old "Seiko 5".
Big Blue may well be the ideal candidate to do a, now to or
how not to 
Rod
