How To Properly Patina Your Bronze Watch
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2024
- This video is in response to many viewers leaving similar comments regarding Bronze watches
Hopefully this can clear some of those questions and concerns..
Two watches featured in video
Wise: wisetimepiece.com
Baltic: baltic-watches.com/en/product...
Thanks for watching.. - Навчання та стиль
Peter, you're not unshaven. You have a nice Patina😂
Hahaha..well said David 😂
Just returned from a Time & Tide pop up event in Sydney and bought the Baltic bronze with brown dial.
Wasn’t planned. Have considered bronze but never pulled the trigger.
Love this piece. Stunning, something different that one doesn’t see everyday and I like the patina which has started to develop.
If considering bronze, I’d recommend an aluminium blend as the patina is very nice. Better in my opinion than one with a tin or other mix.
Excellent review as usual Peter. Thanks
God bless you Dino, enjoy the watch brother
As someone who has a bronze Tudor, also my first really nice watch. I was very taken with when I got, and still am. It's aging beautifully.
Forcing love(patina), is like forcing a fart... It just turns crappy. 🤣
I live in Florida. The humidity alone is making it darker in a matter of under a week. BTW, love the baltic blue bronze watch.
Well, I definitely learned a lot watching this video. Let the watch develop a natural patina before you immerse it in salt water to protect it. I've never heard anyone say that before. It's good to know and makes absolutely perfect sense.
Thank you for creating this video , as it clears up many questions I had about bronze. Im glad to know that the oxidation stops at a point and stays as a protective surface, a point that many other videos DO NOT point out when explaining bronze. Very educational and I will enjoy my bronze watch with a natural patina 😊
Glad it was helpful!
I am saving for a bronze watch, can't wait to watch how it patinas over time and see how it comes up. Growing up near the ocean aged bronze always reminds me of shipwrecks and relics of the past, I am really looking forward to creating my own 'relic'
Bronze and copper are among my favourite materials. Bronze statues, exterior plaques. Bronze and copper DE razors, copper roofs and bronze watches. Simply fantastic! Also they are antimicrobial.
Great show, Peter. Love the new face time/desk mix.
Funny story. The other day I was wearing my Zelos Hammerhead in bronze. My eldest daughter piped-up "The egg watch!!" I thought, "egg watch?" -- is she talking about the shape or crystal or something? So I asked and she said "no, that's the one you put in a jar with an egg, isn't it??" She was absolutely right of course (although it was a year previous!) I agree with the nutty over patina you mention, but a night of egg treatment did yield some cool oil-slick colours that didn't come up with the slower air-only process.
Great show and filming as always!
This is a declaration of love to bronze, beautiful, and well educated advices.
I've been thinking about getting a bronze watch for years now. Always keeping an eye on models that might interest me. I may have a target.
I guess it grows on me like love...and patina 😁
Loved the vid! Actually helped me make some clearer aesthetic choices for myself. And I’m going to go against the grain and say that I LOVE the “bronze disease” aka verdigris.
I've been thinking of adding a bronze watch for awhile and I really like the Baltic Aquascape. Thanks for the informative video!
Another great video Peter, that Baltic looks really good
It is! and it wears well also 👍
As a 'bronze hater' I will add this. Bronze (a beautiful colour to be sure) should be kept within the crystal. That way you keep the sharp colour, as there is limited oxygen to degrade the bronze. I get the point of a protecting surface. I suppose it comes down to whether you are happy with the dulled bronze colour or whether you want to retain the brilliant colour of the original bronze.
I clean mine every couple years. Glycine Combat Sub
I love the color of fresh, untouched bronze but hate the patina. It's like the fake rivets on a bracelet or aged lume. It's fake and it looks fake. You can't replicate the look of real aging with poor materials. All of the bronze watches that make an appearance on UA-cam are only a couple of years old.
It's also a softer material than stainless steel. Ten years down the road, your watch case will have lost all the details, the crown will be destroyed, the bezel action will be poor. It is antithetical to one of the key appeals of watches, their long lifespan. Copper oxide has an extremely limited ability to protect the base material. Patina layers are extremely thin.
Also, bronze disease can be caused by repeated exposure to salt water. That makes it an awful material for dive watches.
There's a reason it was never used as a material in any meaningful way over the previous hundreds of years of watchmaking.
Aren't propellers on large ships made of bronze?
I’ve had a bronze Tudor since 2016.
Still beautiful. It’s still shiny. Just a different color than it started.
Wear it at least a few days a week. Taken it all over the world.
I also have a cheap addiesdive (seiko knock-off) made of bronze. Also a super cool watch and has patina’d much sooner than the Tudor.
Thanks for the warning about the bronze disease! 😮
Great video Pete. I totally agree with you about letting the bronze patina naturally. I have a bronze Zelos Hammerhead and it feels more a part of me because of the patina than any of my other watches...
Very interesting and informative Pete, and great to see the outdoor footage too 👌. Nice to see some sunshine, it feels like winter will never end here in the UK.
All I can say is stay warm..👍
If its any consolation, its raining and thunderstorms here today, however the temperature is rising to 37 degrees Celsius
I have a different perspective as someone who does bronze sculpture, patination is a part of the artistic process, and choosing what kind of patina you want is an important part of your self expression. I'm looking at getting a bronze watch, disassembling it, and then putting it through the artistic patination process to get an art watch end result. I haven't decided if I want to push it towards the ancient, near black bronze patina, or to go for something brighter yet though!
There's all sorts of things you can do with patina, and preserving the finish of your watch. A recent innovation in art conservation is to use a certain fungus (Cordyceps Bassiana) to convert Copper Oxides into Copper Oxalates to create an impervious to oxygen layer on the bronze patina, with potentially not much change in surface appearance.
I agree that many attempts to force patina do create substandard finishes, but I also find that a lot of "natural" patina to simply look grubby in the short term, with little guarantee it'll turn in to a nice finish with time. I get the argument that to leave it to naturally patina results in a 1 of 1 watch unique to you, but following the artistic patination process also leads to a 1 of 1 watch, with control over the process, and less "this is my watch, you can tell, because my finger print has been permanently etched in to the bronze" haha
That said, most people don't have access to pickling facilities, or butane torches, chemicals and safe disposal, &c, &c.
Where can I read more about the cordyceps preservation? That process sounds fascinating
May I start with saying, I really enjoy the newer format with the camera flip to you for the intro and then back again to the topic at hand.
And to the topic at hand… this, for me, is really great advice and information. I have always admired bronze watches from afar, for fear that I would ruin the watch in the marine air. Knowing that it just takes time to develop the protective patina in a relatively controlled environment is rather reassuring and puts a bronze watch back in the list of possibilities.
Great job as always, and it really is nice to see your friendly smile from time to time.
Thanks Michael, I appreciate the feedback as alwys brother..🙏
Good to see you Pete so much better format to identify with you :)
Thanks David, and thanks for the feedback, cheers
Thanks for the advise. I am going to buy one of these.
Love these videos, Pete.
cheers
This is a really informative video including the chemistry. I also love the new style. Not just the face behind the voice, but also Australia in the sunshine. Here in the UK it’s raining! Again!
Great tutorial Peter. Thank you!
My pleasure!
Thanks for that insight. Much appreciated.
Also there's a reason why our original deep sea equipment and ships gear was typically made of Bronze not steel or any ferrous metal (and before Sheffield produced stainless!)
I've never heard of bronze disease. My Farer has a bronze bit on the crown. Looking forward to it patina naturally.
All of my watches will outlive me.
Very cool, very informative! Thanks!
Fantastic discussion about bronze Pete. So much to this metal and associated chemical reactions. Well done, mate. Have a wonderful weekend 👍
You too Rafa, cheers
Love the Sinn cap and different intro style ;)
Thanks, Peter! Very helpful. Gotta say, that Baltic looks gorgeous in bronze.
And I know this wasn’t your intent, but I just ordered that watch! I’ve wanted a bronze timepiece for quite a while, and Baltic is one of those micro brands I’ve heard a lot about. Again, not your intent, but thanks!
Wonderful advice Peter 👍
Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
Peter, the video was very informative..thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Coincidentally while I was watching your video, Patina Turner was playing Nutbush City Limits on the radio. Great video as always.
Rock on! 😂
I bought the same Baltic bronze around 6 months ago Peter. I haven’t forced the patina on it. However, when I bought a San Martin flieger style several years ago, I did the forced patina. Yep the old boiled googy in the sandwich bag! Yeah it worked a treat & wasn’t too forced. Subsequently since then to keep that attained patina, I sometimes hang it in the shower over a week. The steam maintains the soft patina nicely.👌🏼 Also I’m wearing the same “patina” myself today! 🪒❌🤣
This is definitely your best video
Glad you think so!..haha 😂
Cheers brother
Hello. My experience with bronze is to make a quick patina by exposing the case to ammonia vapors (no contact, only vapors) in a covered glass, with only 1 cm of liquid in it. Something like 1 hour, then a quick clean under water, and let it get a natural patina over it during the next weeks. This is a soft process, you won't have any hard oxydation like with eggs or so. The bronze only get a darker skin and you have process like many weeks of patina in only an hour of exposition to the ammonia vapors.
But I like the "bad" patina look. It's why I want a bronze watch.
Nice topic. Waiting for a good thing takes patience, which is lacking in these stressful times.
I’m in the midst of reviewing One-Handed watches from Botta Design and they remind me to stop, slow down and look at time differently.
Same thing applies here. Slowing down is a good thing.
Thanks for sharing my friend. I’m happy to see it’s nice weather in your neck of the woods.
Looking forward to your Botta review brother 👍
Great video. Let it be...let it be. There will be patina...let it be!
It sounds like a periodic table. Great review Pete❤
Getting back to my Chemistry days at school 😊
Speaking words of wisdom Let It Be 🎵
I've had a bronze watch for 2 years. Can't bring myself to "let" it patina. I use a product called Flitz to give it a light hand polish every 3 to 4 months. Easy to keep up if you like the fresh bronze look...like me😊
Great video, unfortunately can't share the enthusiasm of patina watch
Yeah, not for everyone thats for sure 👍
I owned the Baltic Aquascaphe blue dial, and it changed my mind on bronze watches. Absolutely watch. It could be an almost perfect watch if Baltic used AR coating on their crystals.
I love my bronze Yema Superman. Over the last couple of years, it has taken on just the slightest of patinas and it is beautiful. i also have another bronze watch in my collection that has been in the same environment but the patina is more severe and less uniform. I think that the makeup of the bronze is important but I don't know what the differences are.
Agree. I don’t understand “forced patina”. Looks like corrosion to me. I only have one bronze watch and I just wear it. It looks fine.
Great content and advice. It's easy to forget that not everyone who collects watches really understand the engineering aspects of a piece. Inside or out. UA-cam wins again.
I have the Hamilton khaki bronze and a Oris big crown pointer date. two different compositions of bronze, the Oris is polished and more orange than the Khaki that is bead blasted which is more yellow in colour, love them both but the Oris looks nicer without patina because of the polished case
I found the best way to remove patina is to remove the strap and wrap it in a kitchen towel socked in lemon juice for ten minutes and then rinse in soapy water
love bronzos but after a couple weeks hate em haha once they start xhanging
I’ve had a San Martin bronze pilot just over a year and it’s just about perfect now. A nice overall even patina but with highlighted areas where it gets polished by clothing and a hairy wrist.
I agree with you. With a bronze watch you’re in it for the long haul so don’t try and accelerate the process and risk wreaking it.
All is good as long as you can maintain the sealing surfaces corrosion free. Hopefully at least a stainless replaceable insert at the crown. I've corroded a brassed cased watch over time. It had a stainless caseback
🤯🤯🤯 very informative
So if I understand your recommendation correctly, I should not scuba dive with my watch until a solid patina has begun? But after that, it should be okay in salt water.
Bingo..👍
Thanks for the great video on bronze watches. Would you advise that we avoid swimming in salt water until after the natural patina has developed, or would it be ok as long as you rinse it off with fresh water after the swim?
As long as you clean the NEW bronze after the swim, you should be fine. When the proper patina finally sets in, no issues 👍
As always, a good video with information based on real facts to create a personal opinion, and I have a question:
I have a bronze dive watch that already had a natural patina, but when I took it swimming with me, the patina disappeared and my watch took on its original color and started to have patina again. Can this cause bronze disease? Since the water removed the protective layer.
Thats strange, what brand watch and model is it?
Hello@@PeterKotsa, mine it's a San Martin diver, I have no doubt is bronze, but maybe because of extra components on the mixture you talked about it react diferent on water, it got green "dust" the next week but nothing else later.
Nice video
5:19 man that is my kind of patina... i've been rejecting bronze altogether ...until now that is.
Patina is like love.... oh, brother!!!!👌🤌
You got that right!
Thnx Pete for giving us Bronze disease.
anytime bro 😂
Anything that's worth it in life, is worth waiting for - wise words :). You mentioned about the bronze disease due to chlorides come into contact with bronze. Pardon my ignorance, but does it mean that it's not wise to wear a bronze watch in a swimming pool as it has fair amount of chlorine!
After the watch has patina'd naturally, wear it anywhere as it hnow has a protective coating 👍
Thanks for clarifying. @@PeterKotsa
Love the video and look great in that beard :)
Hahaha
Luv my bronze watches…!!! 👍😊💥
[00:23] It's a sin, to call Sinn like sin, it's like a (soft...) Zeen. But then again, it's a sin to force bronze to age, like you're young and want to get old, too fast. Little do they know, history (age...) is a sin we have, but not everyone around the world!😜
Hahaha😂
I have a Glycine Combat Sub-Bronze. I keep it in a Ziplock bag, with a tab from 3M Company that prevents tarnishing of jewelry. After I wear it I wipe it down with "CapeCod'. I say no to Patina!
rustic bronze pvd coating for the win
Is caseback a problem?
I read something about galvanic corrosion that when wet, stainless steel makes bronze corrode in places where two metals contact.
I haven't seen any issues over the years with SS and bronze personally
Nice one .. lovely watches .. is there a way to cure Bronze disease? I have a small idol that has furry light green stuff on it .. I thought it was patina but not sure now! Cheers.
Here is a more concise pdf that will show you if it is or isnt Bronze disease. Also whats the best method to cure it 👍
www.crescentcitycoinclub.org/seminars_and_programs/Bronze%20Disease.pdf
Be it as it may, I don't like any kind of patina on my watch cases. Therefore bronze watches aren't for me.
Fair call Alex..not for everyone 👍
As confessed, after seeing your review I fell for that bronze AD8. It just makes sense on so many levels that personal boundaries had to be broken. I must admit though, that I was helped by thinking I could regilarly clean it. Different from the palish Aquascaphe, the tine of the wise is really warm golden and with the case finishing looks so good. Assuming the hardness is similar to stainless steel, one could argue no additional protection needed. Except that, as you set out, certain gasses and elements may cause actually corrosive effects on the bronze, so that is what one wants protection from. Now, you didn't go into cleaning beyond warning us off. Do you know if there is any cleaning method that isn't harmful to the bronze but only removes the copper carbonate? I understand this would expose the bronze again to the risk of proper corrosion rather than oxidation, so one should be more careful in use. I am actually still a bit on the fence about cleaning vs natural patina. I may well grow to love the natural patina version of the watch, and only if I allow it to happen will I know this. (Also, to clarify, the blue and bright green patina on bronze is always a sign of bronze disease? In sculpture different tones of oxidation are used to great effect, but seem to get fixed as either a warm or almost black metal or blue to green shrouds over the artwork. This is still quite durable, one assumes, but of course I don't wear a sculpture on my wrist every day!)
People use different methods to clean bronze watches from cape cod polishing cloths to any decent metal cleaner.
I wouldn't personally as you know....but thats me 😊
@@PeterKotsa yes, I know. Most of these I wouldn't use, as they are ultimately abrasive too. I gentle soak in lemon juice and a soft cloth to rub seemed my most logical option.
@@benjaminvis white vinegar with a touch of salt for a light abrasive works well too.
Bright colours aren't always indicative of bronze disease, as you can get those same colour with different chemical effects, not just salt water exposure.
artistic patination is a pretty controlled process these days, where in the past the finishes were usually just left to time to create, often by people oiling their bronze statues to protect them from corrosion, or just leaving them to the air and the acids in rain to effect them (for better or worse). The Ancient Greeks actually preferred to keep their bronze statues in a bright shine I hear, and would often polish them clean, and it's only been with the passing of millennia, often buried and left to soil chemical make ups and microbial action to patina them.
The secret to artistic patination colours is that usually when a desired effect has been reached, either through time or intervention, a transparent protective layer is put on to the statue; in ye olden times a wax, these days often acrylic or enamel finishes.
@@Horizontalvertigo that is an unusually helpful and detailed reply for YT. I appreciate it greatly. I strongly suspected that last point about bronze sculpture but didn't know for a fact how exactly that is done. Still, in order for the polished and brushed surfaces to maintain well, I think on the AD8 it would not be advisable to apply any kind of abrasive. I don't know how we know this about the ancient Greeks. Perhaps the polishing also left (micro)wear on the surfaces. I guess, if I want to try, a gentle one time clean can't hurt that much! I did notice that very few watches claimed to have a natural patina also show signs of brighter colouration, which is why I assumed that perhaps these are always signs of the process going too far. Can colourations also form part of the copper carbonate layer that Peter talked about?
@@benjaminvis I don't believe they can no, I think at that point what you've got is what you've got, unless you use a chemical/mechanical process to strip back the carbonate first.
How do bronze watches fit into your collection? Seems like a weekend choice or maybe an option for a tweed-y kind of day…
I agree with you. I own two bronze watches and I'm always afraid of the patina turning out ugly 😅 But if aged nicely, it looks very good and warm on the wrist
I like them..I have at least one in rotation in my microbrand watchbox at all times
So how long does a natural patina take in Germany for example? I don’t live anywhere near the sea. In my apartment I usually have around 70% humidity because I have a lot of plants.
At 70% thats what we experience here in Melbourne Autumn and Spring. Give it time and it will gradually take on the correct patina (dont force it) 👍
@@PeterKotsa alright then...
What do I do to avoid bronze disease? I live near the ocean, very salty. Any steps I should take? Thanks.
Tuff one...maybe take the watch out of its sealed protective plastic when first purchased and thenslowly introduce it to the ocean environment over a period of several months
I bought a second hand bronze watch, and it came with a nice patina However, I am debating cleaning it to its new look, and letting it patina with its time spent with me. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Personally I'd let it go..age naturally
Love you form Viet Nam 🇻🇳
Nem lesz zöld az órától a kezed?
Not hypoallergenic unfortunately for allergic guys like me
How to come along with brinze desease ?
Wouldnt it turn your skin green though?
After prolonged exposure to skin, yes it will. The stainless steel caseback helps avoid the majority of that though 👍
Except the Baltic you are wearing is acopper and aluminum with no tin, it will not turn green like the non aluminum bronze mixtures.
Sweat has the same salt content as ocean water.
There are many ways to patina bronze and have it look natural and beautiful. However, they are applied hot and thus are unsuitable for a watch unless it’s disassembled.
All the great bronze masters who make busts, statues, ornaments, etc apply chemical patinas to hot bronze. It’s an art in itself and not suitable for just any guy and his watches.
Thus if one isn’t prepared to wait for a natural patina then don’t buy bronze watches.
the Navy training in me will NOT allow for patina to exist. my brain just screams “it must be buffed and polished! it MUST be BUFFED and POLISHED!”
22yrs will make you #Institutionalized 😂
😂😂😂
mi piacciono gli orologi, ne ho diversi tutti russi,, amo gli orologi russi, gli unici due che non sono russi li ho in bronzo e ne sono davvero contento, nulla si deve forzare nella vita, nemmeno la patina del bronzo che desse essere "la tua" patina, che rispecchia il tuo essere, al tua vita, la tua zona di vita, l'umidità, l'aria, ciò che tocchi con l'orologio, questo crea una patina nel tempo ben definita, che è la tua, nessuna è uguale, forzare qualunque cosa non va bene, a chi scrive che il bronzo tra dieci anni è distrutto si può rispondere che per secoli il bronzo è stato utilizzato ed è ancora utilizzato per gli strumenti nautici e sono perfetti, le statue dei Bronzi di Riace sono di bronzo appunto, immersi per un migliaio di anni nell'acqua salata del mare e sono perfetti, tra dieci anni l'orologio in bronzo sarà ancora qui, noi chissà...complimenti per il video .
Just my opinion: it’s ALL bad patina. I like the look of brand new bronze but the patina (corrosion, disease, whatever) looks like an old trumpet. 🤢
A bronze watch??? The colour of.......... something unmentionable................yuk!!!
Poor man's gold 😂
Watch enthusiasts who live near the ocean are more likely to appreciate a bronze watch.. IMO🥸.. coincidentally I just purchased a Hamilton pro pilot bronze myself!🥳.. now, the waiting and wearing begins.. it is difficult not to help the petina along, but I’ll stick to my guns.. thanks for the encouragement!