The Breitling Watch Source Forums

As you may have known, a way gorgeous & beautiful Angel (my beloved wife) gave me a Super Avenger Black-on-black Baton for Christmas, which has not left my wrist since..

Well, some of you might also have know that prior to the SA, I have worn my amazing EM pretty much 24/7 for just about a year...

So, since I have the SA, my poor EM has been sitting quietly, all alone, collecting dust on my bed side table...

OH THE GUILT!! I feel so bad for abandoning my now scuffed & dull & full of scratches EM!! Whenever I looked at my brand-spankin-new & flawless SA, and feel an immense joy at its FULL LING NESS, I would suddenly remember my EM... and OH THE GUILT!!

At night, as I looked at my loyally waiting EM, I kept thinking to myself, "S'okay, s'alright, it will stop soon and fade-away to Breitling heaven for a well-deserved vacation/hibernation"

But WAITAMINUTE!! Isn't the EM a SUPER QUARTZ & not automatic?! It will NEVER EVER STOP! It will just keep tickin' away by its lonesome self!!... OH THE GUILT!!

So there I was, aimlessly wandering in Great World City Mall (in Singapore), feeling utterly miserable -- caught between the absolute joy of my SA & abject guilt for my EM...  when I walked into a Home Fix store, and lo-n-behold! What's that sitting on the counter? -- The infamous CAPE COD POLISHING CLOTH!!

Without a second of hesitation I grabbed my wallet, and rushed home triumphantly clutching the pack of CAPE COD (containing 2 cloths for abt S$10)!

OH GUILT NO MORE!!! Finally I can do something nice for my EM!!

Well... as you all prob realize, the rest of this post will be yet-another how-to use the Cape Cod on your polished Breitling & a bunch of before/after pics...

So, here's what the EM looks like BEFORE:





Here's what you need:




And after about 45 minutes worth of vigorous polishing, 15 minutes of buffing, and 20 minutes of soaping/washing/rinsing later, here's my EM AFTER:





This is what's left (note: supposedly the now black Cape Cod cloth is still good-to-go for the next polishing job):



A couple of observations:

- Wear gloves (I didn't and needed to wash my hands like 10x before it's no longer black)

- I protect the crystal by simply wrapping it w paper towel

- If you know how it's prob much easier to polish the bracelet if it's taken off the watch (I don't, unfortunately)

- The Cape Cod is great, but despite popular belief, it has no actual magical properties. The deep scratches on my EM is still there after (very) vigorous rubbing

- Having said that, the "dullness" seemed to mostly be caused by the fine (but abundant) swirls & light scratches. After these were polished away by the Cape Cod, the full "BLING-BLING" effect is back (YEAH BABY!!) and I'm quite happy with the effort

- Finally, don't sit on the floor the entire time while you're doing this (even if its because you don't want the mineral spirit to drip & mess up the beautiful wooden dining table). Just trust me on this

Now my a-year old EM can proudly sit next to my brand-new SA!!

                

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a few Pams...

That cloth is good for a couple more cleans yet

Mine is way worse

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"It's not how it's written it's how it's read"

As I said. Great enjoyable post - thanks.

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Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

Glad it all worked out for you H2F.
That Black Dial EM is a thing of beauty.

Like I did, you learn to love them all in their unique individual way.

Thanks for a cracking post,

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Best wishes,

Verner

Loved that post!

Cheers

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Currently:
Avenger Skyland(Black)
Super Avenger(White)

Moved on:
Montbrillant Legende(Silver)
Panerai 312
SOHC 125th Ann. LE(Silver)
Navitimer World(Pearl)
Panerai 441

Looks brand new

Beautiful collection and a great story!

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Happines is Good Health and a Bad Memory.
"Ingrid Bergman"

Great post indeed! Really good to see "before and after" shots as it really shows non-users how good Cape Cods are. It's also good that you said that they aren't a miracle product in terms of removing really deep scratches : thats very true, but IMHO that's a good thing as it shows they are quite gentle which means it's much harder to overdo it. Incidentally Cape Cods were originally designed for precious metals which are much softer than SS, so their action on steel is not too abrasive. For larger and deeper scratches you'll need to get them fixed at Breitling (and trust me, they certainly can remove them) or if you feel confident you could try attacking it with a Dremel (not for me I hasten to add!).

But either way your EM looks absolutely great! Nice job!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

If you get really tired of the emergency I will help you out and take it off your hands and give you say.......$100 bucks. Just kidding and great job on the emergency.

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YOU CAN'T HAVE A GREAT TIME WITHOUT A GREAT WATCH.........MAKE IT A BREITLING

Hey thanks for the kind words guys!

But now that my EM is lookin (almost) brand new, I keep having the urge to wear it again! Did contemplate (for a Iittle while) wearing one on each wrist -- but quickly quelched by my lovely wife who said she ain't neveh walkin' next to me no mo if I did.

But since I truly was feeling so much better about my EM, I thought, "what the heck, let's splurge just a wee bit more...!"

So off I went to Wisma Atria 22nd Fl -- home of THE Breitling central for all of SE Asia -- and got me EM sum new tyres!



Polished buckles of course. Fits very, very nicely. 



Very comfortable on the wrist, and light! The "B R E i/i T L I N G" imo really makes the band: 



Here in Singapore its S$149 (just a bit over US$100).  

I also got the correct 24mm springbars for rubber/leather for my SA for future purchase. It's free, but they needed to see the serial number of the watch (guess to make sure it's authentic).

And perhaps because I did complain/whine how some of my forum buddies in the US received "THE BOOK" for Christmas FREE from BUSA, while us here in Asia got BIG-FAT-NUTTIN! (even though when I got my EM from AD in CA last Christmas, I also did NOT get as much ss a cap...), I got the EM back in this:



With this:



And these... (swear I wasn't even standing that close to the nice lady behind the counter -- and it's not as if I NEEDED it!!):



All placed inside THIS (bit of an overkill imo) :



All in all, a very nice visit to B HQ indeed. Walking around town with it for the rest of the day made me feel like it's Christmas all over again!! (Hey, noone else knows it's only some new rubber bands inside!)

Btw, my who-thus-far-has-been-mighty-patient wife has started to look at me funny, what with the constant picture taking of my wrist, and novella forum posts... so hope u guys would understand that this might be my last for now till, say, next year?

Here's some more iPhone art for all the EM fans meanwhile...


 
    

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a few Pams...

Great post and nice job on the EM polishing. I like the idea of putting a rubber strap on it to make it a bit different than the SA and offer a new look.

Just an aside: I prefer to use Sunshine cloths, they work as well as Cape Cod, but are dry without any of that vanilla smell and liquid mess. Without the liquid, you can safely mask the watch with masking tape and it will stick.

Enjoy the two beauties, and give your wife a huge hug, she's a good one.

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that version of the EM whit revised dial is something lovely...i wish my avenger m1 had that dial detail

simply beautifull

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Breitling Chrono Avenger Black Dial whit Pro II Ti, Diver Pro I
Breitling BlackBird Big Date brushed whit SS Bracelet, brown croco
Breitling BlackBird Blacksteel 528/2000 Whit Dp2 Deployment
Omega Planet Ocean Chrono 9300 Co-axial Ceramic on SS bracelet

Mark, tried asking around for Sunshine cloth here, no luck yet.

Speaking of straps, I thought I should be able to change between the rubber & steel myself. So yesterday I took a (S$18) taxi trip to Rochor Center to a shop called Kathena and bought me the infamous BERGEON TOOL 6767-F (S$20) with additional S tip (S$3)! Now, for the guts to actually try using it on my EM...



Btw, I kept mentioning the locations of these sources so that hopefully the next passionate Breitling owner from Jakarta or Singapore knows "where to buy" these (hard to find otherwise) items when searching these fine forums or using Google

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a few Pams...

This is by far the best post I have read in a long time !!!

I get them on eBay, you can get singles, 3, 6, 12pcs. I get 12 and they last about a year for me. I probably throw them away while they still have some life, but I just prefer to be on the safe side and use a new one, any piece of grit from a scotchbrite that gets into a polishing cloth (sunshine or cape cod) will wreak havoc on your polishing job. You think you are polishing, but when you look closely, you have a millions light swirlies that you just added with a piece of grit. Been there, done that. So always keeps your polishing and your brushing totally seperate with a good clean up inbetween.

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Mark, thanks for that important tip! Thankfully I don't (yet) have any brushed Ling to worry about right now!

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a few Pams...