Hello:
I am a watch collector that started with Seiko classics such 6309's, 6105's and 6217. I have skills for restoring the watches and I would like to share my experience with crystal polishing.
I polished Omegas and Breitling mineral crystals, Citizen crystals and others. This week I polished the Hardlex crystal of my H558 Arnie (the original part was discontinued).
I have used a Dremel with a buffing tool (felt pad) and some compounds such as diamond paste, cerium oxide and others.
The process is very slow and requires a lot of patience.
I do not recommend to use sand paper to remove the deep scratches, even the finer grid. It only worked with a Citizen watch but with the others the crystal turned worst.
For the Hardlex, I have used cerium oxide paste and polished the surface with the Dremel buffing pad. You must ad small quantities of water for lubrication and prevent crystal overheating. As I said, it requires a lot of patience and an hour or more of your time to achieve very good results.
If you can find a replacement crystal, proceed and do not waste your time. If it is not available or you want to maintain the original parts of your watch, use the technique I described.
I am a watch collector that started with Seiko classics such 6309's, 6105's and 6217. I have skills for restoring the watches and I would like to share my experience with crystal polishing.
I polished Omegas and Breitling mineral crystals, Citizen crystals and others. This week I polished the Hardlex crystal of my H558 Arnie (the original part was discontinued).
I have used a Dremel with a buffing tool (felt pad) and some compounds such as diamond paste, cerium oxide and others.
The process is very slow and requires a lot of patience.
I do not recommend to use sand paper to remove the deep scratches, even the finer grid. It only worked with a Citizen watch but with the others the crystal turned worst.
For the Hardlex, I have used cerium oxide paste and polished the surface with the Dremel buffing pad. You must ad small quantities of water for lubrication and prevent crystal overheating. As I said, it requires a lot of patience and an hour or more of your time to achieve very good results.
If you can find a replacement crystal, proceed and do not waste your time. If it is not available or you want to maintain the original parts of your watch, use the technique I described.