The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I saw a thread on TZ about bead-blasting. There was a guy who had blasted an Airwolf. Looked pretty awesome to me.
Anybody here who has tried it? Anybody know where to get it done? Cost? Is it possible to revert it back to the original finish?

Any intel is welcome.

Regards

Never tried getting one done, but I have owned one bead-blasted watch, and never again! The problem with bead blasting is that you are can't really repair scratches yourself. Unlike brushed or polished finishes where you can fix scratches with a scotchbriet pad or Cape Cods respectively, there's no DIY option for bead-blasting.

Bead-blasting would be reversible, but costly to do well, and if you leave it in the blasted finish if you decided to sell it, you'd get a lot less for it than if it was in the factory finish.

Personally I'd never do it, but I guess it's up to you!

Oh and if you do it, lets see those pictures!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Thnx Driver

So I guess there is more to the down-side to make such a mod.

Here I have the thread on TZ, that I was referring to:

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t= ... v=&reveal=

Regards

That bead blasted Airwolf looks fantastic! Gives it a titanium like finish.

I would like to know if they disassembled it in any way. I would imagine they at least took the bezel off so you could mask up the crystal properly. Bead blasting is quite an agressive process so I'd feel slightly uncomfortable about the crystal even when masked.

Agreed it does look good. Very "tool"............, but I still wouldn't do it myself.

And besides it'd have to be dismantled in order to do it, which would invalidate your Breitling warranty. Breitling may not even service it once it's been messed around (i.e. taken apart) with to that extent.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Agree with Driver8.

My BB+ UTC /bracelet is brushed so a different story.

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Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

I do a lot of bead blasting (industrial type) on a variety of metals. Very cosmetic but not at all durable. And previous posts are correct, you will scratch the finish and not be able to fix it without the bead blaster. Looks cool though but not worth the trouble. It isn't too difficult to restory the polish with the right tools.