The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi. I just became a Breitling owner after many years of collecting. I purchased a minty SuperOcean Pro A17345 a couple of weeks ago. Now, being the picky, details-obsessed person that I am, I am having issues with the AR coating. In a nutshell, I don't care for it. Smudges are easily detectable, I'm not a fan of the blue hue, which makes the dial look blue for the better part of the day. So, having already done a fair amount of research on the subject, I was curious if anyone has had the AR coating removed from their sapphire crystal. My AD can remove it from the outside but not the inside because you cannot thoroughly polish it from the concave side of the crystal. That being said, if you have done this, I'd like to hear about it. Did it make a vast improvement? The best option, of course, would be to find a replacement sapphire crystal that fits the watch but does not have the AR coating, but apparently, nothing of the sort exists. THANKS!

Congratulations on your SuperOcean and welcome! I haven't done it and can't recall anyone else doing it. Before going that route, the easiest way to get a feeling for the result would be to have a physical look at a brand a that doesn't do the AR. I'm guessing that most brands in the 50-100 $ range are without the AR. Look at a dial with the same color as you have and compare with your watch - both in dark and bright settings. With AR only on the inside, you should end up pretty much in between what you see. If you still feel that removing the AR is right for you, you can either let your AD remove it or polish it away yourself.

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Collection: http://s540.photobucket.com/albums/gg32 ... mview=grid

Thanks for the reply, Aleister. Useful information. I will do as you suggest!

Only real option is to remove the outer coating and that's obviously fairly easy to achieve. Even if a crystal could be found without AR it would likely cause service issues with Breitling as replacement would compromise the movement (and Breitling wouldn't agree to do it themselves). Personally I also think that the results would be disappointing, a complete lack of AR would make it harder to read.

I suspect that you will not notice much the coating on the inside.
So try removing the outer one first and see how that looks.
Get some Cape Cod polishing cloths and give it a hood rub, it will come off.

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Thanks everyone for the very helpful information. I think I will let it be for the time being, knowing that I can always get it polished out at my AD.

I read that some Omega guys have taken the outer AR coating off their 1st generation Plant Oceans. They said they did it because the AR was scratched, they didn't want to get it scratched, or they didn't like the blue hue. From what I've read, they liked the result.
The non- ceramic Omega SMP only have AR on the inside. Take a look at some photos to see if you like it. They still get reflections.

I personally, love the AR coating on watches and am currently trying to swap an AR coated crystal onto my Sub.

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Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

I'm with Pete. If you look at an Omega 2531.80 and an OG Planet Ocean 2500C+ side by side and you'll wish for AR.

I removed te external coating of my sop, because it was horrible wit all smuges that gives an look extremely bad. The watch looks like new again


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